My confession today: I have been a wimpy prayer. I have asked for too little. I have hedged my bets with tiny petitions. Fear has grabbed my tongue and commanded me to be realistic. The impossible was never anticipated and certainly not expected. Intercession was never a verb to be practiced, but a last minute ditch effort to make sure heaven and I were on the same page. In short, I have allowed God to not be fully God.
This no small confession comes with it a wave of grief. I have darkened the life of possibilities because of two things: Respectability & What-If’s.
Respectability is a killer of anyone that wants to be a world changer. It’s a grenade tossed into the bunker of men and women who have stepped out to take a hill. Respectability says, “What will people think if I pray for something this big? Even worse, what if I act on it?” This pansy, weakling and faithless attitude is on the alter, my friends. I killed it, soaked it with gasoline, lit it on fire and danced around it like a crazy man. I am free to go big with God. Respectability is a joke designed, created and sustained by the god of this world.
What-If questions are killers too. But if Respectability is a grenade then What-If’s are the snipers that can kill a dream with one faith-less inquiry concerning sensibility. There have been hundreds of What-If’s posed by my pansy inside voice. Questions like, “I really would love to share the gospel with my friend, but what if they laugh at me?” I think I’m supposed to plant a church, but what if it fails?” “I want to ask for healing, but what if God doesn’t show up?” “I want to change the world, but what if God doesn’t use me?” We’ve got to stop listening to our voices and started listening to His voice.
Today, I will begin to pray Big Hairy Audacious Prayers. Anything less than a steroid filled, Big Foot lookin’, expectant, nation sized prayer is faithless and fruitless. I am expecting God for the improbable and excited for the impossible.
If you are a follower of Jesus, make this your confession. Lay down small living and trade up for a life filled with risk and a joy rooted in the glory of God.
