Tag Archives: make it count

One word to change your prayers

 

Do you find your prayer list filled with specific requests to make things better? Lord, fix this cancer. Help my friend get a good job. Sell my house. Ease this pain. Of course, there’s nothing  wrong with praying for specific needs. Jesus commends us to let our requests be known to God and promises that whatever we ask in his name (i.e. according to his will) will be granted. Jesus himself healed a number of people, not just to make their pain go away but “that the work of God might be displayed” in their lives. More often, Jesus prayed for eternal things: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, may they (his disciples – and us) be one just as he is one with the Father. Additionally, we often see the work of God displayed through the suffering of his saints, not the release from it,

 

The apostle Paul who experienced no shortage of serious physical and emotional sufferings prayed three times to have a “thorn in his side” removed. Other than that, he sets the same example of praying for eternal things, not the “temporary and light afflictions,” The secret of his prayers was in counting everything as loss except knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings. That’s not the stuff we find on our normal prayer lists.

 

So why do we focus our prayer on our “light and momentary afflictions” when we know that we should set our vision higher and pray for God’s mission to advance the gospel across the globe? And why are we so quick to pray away hardships when it’s the trials of life that cause us to mature and grow closer to Jesus?

 

God doesn’t waste pain. He uses our suffering to mold us to who we are meant to be. In John Piper’s little book, Don’t Waste Your Life, we’re commended to use all of our life for God’s purpose and glory. (Colossians 3:17) Not just the good times, but the painful ones too…the times when we feel least productive for the kingdom and perhaps least satisfied with life – and maybe with him. It seems none of us have the complete answer to all our questions about this. But I like Piper’s approach. Don’t waste the opportunities that God has allowed in our lives, as difficult and challenging as they may be.

 

Bronwyn Lea says it this way in her blog post “One little word that radically changed my prayers.”  Here it is:

“Instead of praying “God, make it better”, I need to pray “God, make it count.”

God, my friend is dying. Don’t just make it better, make it COUNT. If she can be better, let it be so, but don’t let this suffering have been wasted. Work it for good. Please show up and show your grace. Make it count.

God, I’m so busy and so tired. I so badly want to pray “make it better! Make it stop!”, but I’m going to pray “make it count, please,” instead. Let me learn grace under fire. Let me learn to say no to the bad and even the good so that there is time enough to say yes to the best. Show your strength in my weakness. Make it count.

God, thanks for a lovely, sweet season in my marriage. Rather than saying “thanks, keep it up, make it better”, please Father, make it count. Help us to be thankful and still work hard at our marriage, not leaving prayer for the tough times alone. Let this good season count.”

God, now that I think about it, please don’t just make it better. Not if it doesn’t count.

Please make it count, so that these light and momentary afflictions do the work of preparing us for a weight of glory that outweighs then all.

God, this is my life: in all it’s gritty, knotted and messy glory.

These are my loved ones.

These are my tears.

Please, please, please… Make it count.”

 

(Thanks Bronwyn. Powerful words for a powerful prayer life.)

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.” Galatians 5:6