Craig Groeschel - Dangerous Prayers

This book is dedicated to my mom.

Thank you for praying faithfully all those years.

Your prayers made all the difference.

I love you and honor you.

Thank you for purchasing Dangerous Prayers! All of the authors proceeds from this book will support Bible access and translation efforts through the YouVersion Bible App.

Hey, Craig, do you believe God still does miracles?

Of course, I said.

Goodbecause your prayers are so lame.

I tried to laugh with him, but my friends joke stungmostly because he was right. We had just left a prayer service together, back when I started working in ministry. My buddy knew me well enough to tease me, but I suspect he was also making a point. Left speechless, I offered no defense as I processed the truth of his observation. I couldnt deny that he voiced a secret I already knew but didnt want to admit: my prayers were pathetic.

As a young pastor at the time, I should have had a handle on prayer. Its one of those job responsibilities, like preaching and greeting people after the service, I shouldve mastered. But praying long, focused, eloquent, and powerful prayers to the God-I-couldnt-see had always been challenging for me. I wasnt comfortable praying in a King James dialect of thees and thouslike trying to perform Shakespeare. But I wasnt satisfied just rambling in a shoot-the-breeze, best-buddy tone with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe either.

And even when I did pray, I had a difficult time focusing for long. Which meant Id try even harder the next time. But no matter how hard Id try, I always seemed to fall back into the same old prayer rut. Id pray about the same things. In the same ways. Usually around the same time.

Looking back, I wonder if sometimes God got bored with my prayers. When Id pray, Lord, show us traveling mercies and keep us safe, I could imagine him saying, What are you worried about? Just drive the speed limit and wear your seatbelt. Youll be fine. Or when I prayed, God, bless our food, I just knew he was probably thinking, Really? You want me to bless boxed macaroni and cheese and some potato chips?

As I studied the Bible more, I marveled at the variety of prayers spoken by Gods people. Not only did they pray about things that were incredibly personalto conceive a child, for instance (1 Sam. 1:27)but also their prayers were often so practical, for food and provision (Matt. 6:11) and escape from their enemies (Ps. 59:12). Sometimes they seemed to gently whisper to a loving God. Other times they yelled at him in agony and frustration.

They often pleaded with God sincerely. Then later theyd cry out from the depths of their anguish and rail at God like a tired toddler thrashing in the arms of a parent. They prayed for boldness to share their faith. They prayed for walls, both internally and externally, to fall. Daniel prayed for the mouths of hungry lions to be shut, and Jonah prayed for the belly of a hungry whale to be opened. Gideon prayed for his fleece to be wet one day and dry another. Gods people prayed whether they were giddy with joy or crushed by sorrow.

Their prayers were honest. Desperate. Fiery. Gutsy. Real.

And there I was praying that God would keep me safe and bless my burger and fries.

My friend was right.

My prayers were lame.

Maybe you can relate. Its not that you dont believe in prayer. You do. But youre stuck in a rut. You pray about the same struggles and the same requests. In the same way. At the same time. If you even try to pray at all. Like me, you probably know you should pray more. And with more passion. More faith. You want to talk to God and to listen to him, to share an intimate conversation like you would with your spouse or best friend. You really want to but arent sure how. So your prayers remain safe.

Flat. Dull. Predictable. Stale.

Boring.

My friends wake-up call convinced me that it was time for a change in my prayer life. For too long, I had tolerated lackluster, faithless, and mostly empty prayers. I knew God wanted more for me, and I wanted to know him more intimately, despite my hesitation about what it would require of me.

To get there, I began by unpacking some of my spiritual baggage. For years, Id felt deep shame about my half-hearted prayer lifeme, a pastor. If youve ever felt insecure about your prayer life, think about what its like to be a pastor. Im supposed be a prayer warriorfull of fierce, unrelenting faith and unbridled, Spirit-led power. And yet I found myself drifting while trying to pray.

In the middle of a prayer, whether praying silently or aloud, my mind would bounce from one thing to the next. Dear God in heaven, I pray that you heal my friend who has cancer. Work in her life now in the nameof ... I really need to go to the hospital to see her again. Oh wait, I havent changed the oil in the car. And were out of cereal. The kids aregonnakill me. And Amy has a doctors appointment todaydid we pay that last insurance bill? I cant believe how much its going up this year! Oh, yeah, this weeks sermonstill need to find a strongillustration ... Oh, Im sorry, Lord, what were we talking about?

To make matters even worse, I always dreaded prayer meetings. (Talk about feeling guilty.) They seem to last forever with people who not only know how to pray but also love to pray. Not to mention that whenever you have to hold hands with others in a prayer time, it seems to get weird really quick. On one side is always the Vise. The louder she prays, the harder she squeezes. God, we bind up the work of the devil, IN JESUS NAME! Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze. Your knuckles turn white as you lose feeling up to your elbow. But then on the other side, you often have the Fish, a cold, pulseless hand barely grasping yours. The Vise cuts off your circulation while the Fish makes you eager to shrug off that clammy appendage passing as a hand.

And theres always the Power Pray-er, the person who loves to pray loud and proud. You know, the one who quotes tons of Bible verses and makes you feel even more inadequate. God, you said in your Word in Deuteronomy 28 that we would be the head and not the tail. We know from John 3:16, Lord, that you so loved the world. With so many numbers thrown around, by the end you feel like youve been listening to a lecture on accounting.

Then theres always the Competitor. When I was a new Christian in college, I frequently experienced this kind of prayer one-upmanship with my roommate. Hed pray loud and long, sounding so sure of himself, and display his vast knowledge of God and the Bible. Feeling pressure not to be outdone, Id up my game but usually found myself taking it too far. Since I didnt know much about the Bible then, Id just roll out things that sounded powerful and Bible-like. God, you said in your Word that you are not only Jehovah Jireh but that you are also Jehovah, um, lets see, um, Jehovah Ni... um, Nissan. Yesyou are Jehovah NISSAN! And, Lord, you are good. You are good to, um, to the... God, you are good to the last drop. And your Word is so sweet, like honey on our lips, and it tastes so good... it, um, it melts... in our mouths... and not in our hands. Oh, God, like a good neighbor... youre always there!

These werent my only prayer problems. Too often, praying just didnt make any sense. It seemed like God would often respond quickly to my meaningless requests, like the time I almost jokingly asked God to heal our broken air-conditioning unit, and he did. Then Id fast for days and pray my guts out for months that God would heal a friend from a disease, and he didnt. Sometimes I believed in the power of prayer, and other times I wondered whether it was all a big waste of time.