Prayer. It’s the one spiritual practice that I get asked most about. And what I’ve observed is that folks make two huge mistakes where prayer is concerned.

What are the mistakes? Making it more complicated than what it really is, and praying only safe prayers.

More Complicated
Jesus’ words in Matthew 6 get right to the point. Call Him Daddy. Keep it simple. Get to the point. Don’t use big words. Brennan Manning in The Ragamuffin Gospel puts it this way:

A little child cannot do a bad coloring; nor can a child of God do bad prayer. A father is delighted when his little one, leaving off her toys and friends, runs to him and climbs into his arms. As he holds his little one close to him, he cares little whether the child is looking around, her attention flitting from one thing to another, or just settling down to sleep. Essentially the child is choosing to be with her father, confident of the love, the care, the security that is hers in those arms. Our prayer is very much like that.

It may be hard for some of us to understand the picture that Brennan is painting – that of a good father with a lap we can climb up into and just sit for a while. Growing up, I didn’t have the greatest of relationships with either my biological dad or my stepdad. Praise God both of those relationships were redeemed and are healthy today, but growing up, my grandfather was that relationship for me. His rough exterior was never too rough for a hug or an opportunity to go to the flea market or Krispy Kreme or the river with him. I just loved being around him, and it didn’t matter what we were doing. I think he felt the same way about me.

How much more so is it with our Heavenly Father. At its core, prayer is simply seeking out the Father, and it delights Him when we do this.

Safe Prayers
Here’s the second mistake – safe prayers. I remember climbing up in my grandfather’s lap and asking for fishing poles, knives, BB guns, if he’d let me drive his truck, can I drive the boat…

Do you see where I’m going with this? I didn’t make safe requests of my grandfather. He let me do stuff my mom and my grandmother would NEVER let me do, and I loved him for that. I trusted him. Even when he let me do things that didn’t work out like I thought they would – he was there. He let me do dangerous things because he believed that’s what growing up to be a man should be about. Plus I think it was just as much as a thrill for him as it was for me when I experienced new (semi-)dangerous things.

Guess what? We were created to do dangerous things for and with God. But often times we miss them, because our prayers are too safe. We pray predictable prayers for safety, the food, sickness, travel mercies, easy things, and the list grows. In the process, we miss out on miracles and God-sized things because…well, we were too scared to pray.

This next series is about dangerous prayers we NEED to start praying. We need a cultural revolution. We need bolder Christ-followers. We need advocates for Christ in our world. We need bold kids, bold dads, bold moms that are living out the Gospel, AND that is only going to happen AFTER prayer. Not safe, predictable prayers – but dangerous ones.

We are going to be challenged in the coming weeks by 4 dangerous prayers. Each one is going to bring a punch to our prayer life. The good news? They aren’t difficult, complicated prayers. In fact, they are pretty simple in their construction and very easy to understand. More than that – each prayer is only two words long.

You read that right – 2 words.

Search Me.
Break Me.
Mold Me.
Send Me.

Come be challenged this series and take your prayer life to a completely different place.