Audacious Prayer

Audacious Prayer

Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. Hebrews 4:16

PERHAPS YOU HAVE HEARD the following quotes: “Attempt something so great for God that unless he intervenes, it is destined for failure.” “If your vision isn’t keeping you awake at night, it isn’t big enough.” These quotes express a common thought in the life of faith: There’s no need for faith in anything that we can accomplish on our own. The object of our faith must be beyond us for us to see God at work in it.

The other side of that equation is that God usually requires something of us as evidence of our faith—some action or response that puts feet to what we believe. Somewhere in between those two extremes—whatever is attainable entirely by human effort and whatever is so beyond us that we can do nothing to help—is a middle ground of partnership, an intersection between our need and God’s provision, a small investment on our part multiplied by God’s enormous increase. Like the fishes and loaves Jesus expanded into a meal for thousands, we offer what we have. But what we need is vastly more. We are virtually helpless at the throne of grace.

That’s actually a good place to be. Helplessness is a prerequisite for the greatest miracles of God. In fact, we are invited to come into that place with empty hands and bold hearts. It makes little sense to approach an infinite God with tiny requests. Impossibilities do a much better job of honoring him. We are to ask big, believe big, and expect big. That’s his will for our lives of faith and prayer.

Don’t be afraid of asking too much from God. Don’t ask presumptuously or selfishly, of course; that’s the wrong spirit. But there’s a difference between the wrong spirit and the wrong size, and we never need to worry about the latter. God welcomes extravagant, audacious visions. He is more than happy to adjust them to his purposes. But he will never downsize them to be more manageable. He is able to answer our biggest, boldest prayers.

Large asking and large expectation on our part honor God.