Hi Friends, I hope you’ve all had a great week! Today I’ve got a part two of the Impossible Prayers post I did a few weeks back. If you haven’t read that yet, I would suggest starting there and coming back over here after. Today, I want to expand on some of the ideas I talked about in that post and I want to share a freebie as well!
In the last post I asked you to think about what impossible situations you are facing. Consider what is happening in your life that feels out of your control, but is also unbelievably important to you. Keep your thing in mind again today as we discuss praying for what feels impossible.
I’ve been considering a couple impossible situations in my own life in the weeks since my last post and I wanted to share a few more ideas I’ve had about praying for them. I have four more tips for praying for the impossible today. Let’s look at this passage for more ideas on how to approach God with our impossible prayers:
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight. (NIV)
Let’s read it in some other translations:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (KJV)
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track. (MSG)
Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart
And do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him,
And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way]. (AMP)
With all your heart
you must trust the Lord
and not your own judgment.
Always let him lead you,
and he will clear the road
for you to follow. (CEV)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take. (NLT)
#1 Trust Him
A while back I read a book called “Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically” by John Snyder, he shares that sometimes as Christians we fall into some counterfeit ways of knowing God. One of these ways is the idea he calls “True Truths.” This idea, he explains, is that we consider something to be so true of God that we become numb to the actual truth of it. Snyder describes it this way: “having a mind crammed full of right words that lie dormant, not affecting your life any more than the things you know to be lies.” (Snyder, p. 18)
I have to admit, that the idea of God’s trustworthiness has at times been a “true truth” for me. God is trustworthy. We can give him our struggles, and we can trust Him with everything. All too often I know this truth and don’t live as if it is true. I want to be in control and solve the problem. Can you identify with that too? A change in that habit is a good start to our impossible prayers. What can you do to live in a way that shows you trust God completely, with all your heart?
#2 Use the right Logic
We live in a culture that loves logic and reason. Education is valued at a very high price and science seems to be the law of the land. In our Christian faith however, there are times God asks us to defy worldly logic or even *dun dun dun* our own logic! It’s hard to comprehend how God works, using horrible situations for His ultimate good, making us wait when we think we need something right away. But He knows what is best, and when it will be best. How can we give up our own logic and lean on the logic of God?
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
#3 Surrender to His Will
As hard as it seems, surrender is a key part of these impossible prayers. Last time we discussed admitting our weakness and inability to handle the situation, but it goes beyond that. We have to be willing to surrender these dear things to the one who has ultimate control. The one who can take our pain and struggles and turn them into beautiful things. We have to have a heart ready to embrace God’s will, which may look different than our own. Jesus gives us the perfect example of this type of prayer as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” … He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Matt. 26:39 & 42
#4 Straight Paths will Come
The encouraging part of this passage in Proverbs is that we have a promise that follows these three expectations. If we are to do the first three things, we are promised that God will make our paths clear. I think it’s important that we take this in the right way though. I don’t think it means that our path will be an easy one, rather we will know which path to take and when we come across obstacles, God will show us how to overcome them. When God is leading us through the path, He’s with us to handle the challenges. He helps us trust in his provision in all circumstances.
So with that, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
To help us all in our efforts to not give up in praying for impossible things, I’ve created some free printable prayer cards. You can find them in our freebie library. Write your prayers out and put them wherever you like, in your Bible Journal, on your mirror, or in your car. Let these be reminders to continually pray for what you know God can do. Share where you keep them on social media and tag us @faithheirlooms and use the hashtag #FH_impossibleprayer
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