Pray as if it all depends on God, Work as if it all depends on Me!

Matthew 6:5-7 CEV
When you pray, don’t be like those show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners. They do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their reward. When you pray, go into a room alone and close the door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private, and he will reward you. When you pray, don’t talk on and on as people do who don’t know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. 8 Don’t be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask.

Matthew 7:7-11 CEV
Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.

Pray as if it all depends on God,
Work as if it all depends on Me!

Asking Is Intentionally Inserting God Into Your Situation, Decision, or Problem

James 4:3 NIV
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Searching Is Choosing To Actively Find Solutions Or Wisdom

Matthew 6:33 NIV
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Knocking Is Exploring Each Opportunity That Comes Your Way

Luke 11:8-9 NLT
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

People make prayer something that is mystical, mysterious, and awkward. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked with people or asked someone to pray and they look at me like I just asked them sacrifice their first child. They are terrified that they are going to somehow do it wrong. Let me tell you something the only prayer that is done wrong is the prayer that is never prayed!

Prayer is not a static process, it is not something that we do and then forget. Jesus is calling us to engage in our prayers, to put action to our requests. Prayer is not just about God doing something…

Asking is a humble acknowledgment that we need help. It’s petitioning God to step in, to give direction, to do the miraculous.

Ask for your heart to be in line with God.

The number 1 reason our prayers are not answered are because our hearts, lives, actions, and thoughts are not lined up with Gods. We live however we want and then we expect God to still bless us, rescue us, deliver us…that’s not how it works. If your heart is not lined up with God’s heart, your prayers will not be answered.

So really, the most important thing you should pray for is that God shows you what needs to change in your own heart first.

But it shouldn’t just stop with praying, we should never pray without afterwards opening up our Bible and searching for the answers we just prayed for! Prayer is you telling God something, the Bible is a book filled with everything God wants to tell you!

Jesus tells us to knock, but we are often to fearful to even walk up to the door, much less knock on it. It begins to shake us into the fear of the unknown, we don’t know what’s behind that door, we don’t know how it’s going to turn out, we don’t know who or what is ultimately going to answer that door. So, instead we stare at it, and hope that it opens up all on it’s own…that good things will just fall into our lap, that God will be like an enabling parent that gives in to their toddlers every demand…but that’s not the God we serve!

God says I will restrict myself based upon the prayers and the actions of my people. He says “You want me to act on your behalf? You better start knocking on or maybe even knocking down some doors. Get off your deeply spiritual butt and start doing what is necessary so that I can work through you!”

But, the world is filled with unrealized dreams and unfulfilled potential because most Christians simply refuse to KNOCK!

God will never do what you can do, but God is always ready to do what you can’t!

We need to change our expectations, we need to start believing that God actually wants great things for us and from us.

Expect great things from God as you attempt great things for God! – William Carey

We need to have the mentality that we believe that God actually has all that we need and that he actually does want to give it to us, but we need to have the absolute shameless persistence to continue asking until it actually shows up!

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