Power of words

God doesn't answer vague prayers. Wow. What a powerful truth. We've been talking about how to turn our prayers in to power-packed conversations with God and I have to believe that the statement...God doesn't answer vague prayers...is true.

I've been reading the Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and it is convicting. I look back over the many conversations I have had with God and I think, "My prayers were so vague and generic. Christie, how would you ever know God actually answered this prayer? Where is the faith behind what you were praying for?"

Ultimately, I pray generic prayers because I lack faith that God can and will come through for me. The problem is that not every prayer will be answered the way we script it. When things don't come out the way we planned...or when things don't shape up the way we imagined, we think God failed us. In our human hearts we feel cheated. Therefore, the next time we pray, we don't come so boldly to the throne. We aren't as specific. We've lost a little faith.

I remember taking several workshops and courses on goal setting. Although I received great instruction and fantastic tips and tricks to reach personal and business goals, no other nugget hit me as hard as this:

You must have high intentions and low attachments.

That statement is a truth I try to apply in all areas of my life. However, it is never more true than my spiritual walk with God. Let me explain.  High intentions -- that means I have set a plan, charted a course and put the necessary steps in place to achieve something. I have every intention of doing what it takes to get my end result. I am going to work hard, be disciplined and go after this with all my might.  Low attachments -- that means although I have put everything in place, it might not go according to plan. I might still get what I set out to conquer, but the journey to get there may look different than I had planned. Or...it could mean that when I got to the finish line, the reward I was chasing turned out to look a little different. Low attachments mean that I am not going to freak out, give up or abandon ship at the first sight of things not following my high intentions. I have faith that in the end I will be where I want to be with exactly what I need.

Do you see how that philosophy might impact your prayer life?  I think it is a great way to exercise faith. We pray asking God to do something and we pray earnestly, faithfully and do all the other things that cultivate our relationship -- high intentions.  But the faith aspect means when I can't see how God is going to work it out, or when it starts to go left when I thought we would go right... I am going to hang on and trust that God's plan is best and He won't let me down -- low attachments.

The more faith you have, the more specific your prayers will be. And the more specific your prayers are, the more glory God receives. If our prayers aren't specific, God gets robbed of the glory that He deserves because we second-guess whether or not He actually answered them. We never know if the answers were the result of specific prayer or general coincidences that would have happened anyway.