Good to Great in God's Eyes - Pray Great Prayers, Part 2

What kind of faith does it take to ask the improbable, expect the impossible, and receive the unthinkable?

If you think that's for great saints of another time, another era, back in the old Bible times, you might be wrong. God wants to do great things to ordinary people like you, but He wants you to ask. Today, we'll learn how.

Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. I'm Dave Drury, and in just a minute, Chip continues his popular series, Good to Great in God's Eyes. For the past several programs, Chip's highlighted the critical practices God values that can mature and strengthen our faith.

So if you missed any part of the series along the way, catch up anytime at livingontheedge.org or by listening on the Chip Ingram app. Okay, here's Chip with the second half of his message, Pray Great Prayers, from John chapter 16. The third characteristic of great prayers is that they champion God's agenda. God is greatly delighted when our focus shifts from our own world and our own needs to His world and His agenda for His world.

Now, don't get me wrong. You know, we pray for our daily bread. We pray for the specifics of life. And He knows our needs even before we ask, and He's delighted when we come and come in conversation, and He's thrilled when we carry and practice His presence throughout the day, and as we say a prayer before we say something here, or we ask even for down to the smallest of things, it delights the heart of God because He's your Father. Those are good prayers. Those are important prayers.

But great prayers champion God's agenda, prayers that are prayed by people who understand what God's will is for His world, and they passionately desire to see His rule and His kingdom become a reality in their sphere of influence. Let me go through my Old Testament example here of Moses. If you will, could you open your Bible to Exodus chapter 32 for just a minute?

This is one that you just don't want to hear someone talk about. The setting is God's great grace to people. He's delivered them. The Red Sea's been parted.

Fire by night, cloud by day. He's spoken. Moses is up getting the law, and what God has already done is there's been smoke come out of the mountain. They have heard His voice. He has given the Ten Commandments to all of Israel, and Moses is up now to get them, and while Moses is up doing his job, the golden calf experience occurs. The very first thing, he said, now whatever you do, no idols, no other God before me.

They all take an earring off, throw it in the pot. Aaron is a weak, feeble leader who wants to please people rather than honor God, and then he's a liar afterwards. Reminds me a lot of me.

Probably a little bit of you when you're honest at times. Under great pressure with people. Remember what he did? He puts it in, and he fashions this calf. A picture of strength, and he tries a little synergy like, well, this is sort of a picture of the Lord your God. He has delivered you. Now come and worship, and they end up in debauchery, and then when he's confronted, remember what he says? I don't know what happened.

I just threw the gold in the pot, and then the calf popped out. And God doesn't even think it's funny, and God says to Moses basically in Exodus 32, I got a plan B. Step aside, and I'm going to eliminate this stiff-necked people once and for all. Listen to what Moses says in Exodus 32.

Picking it up in verse 9, it says, I've seen these people. The Lord said to Moses, and they're stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so my anger may burn against them that I might destroy them.

Now this is a pretty sweet offer. Then I will make you a great nation. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God, and he said, Why should your anger burn against your people whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that you brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?

Here's his plead. Turn from your fierce anger. Relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Now notice his basis of his prayer. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel to whom you swore by your own self, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all the land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever. Then the Lord relented and did not bring his people the disaster that he had threatened. See, great prayers champion God's agenda.

If there was ever a time in the world where you could say, You know, this works. You know, these people bother me too, Lord. You know, I think this is a good decision. Me, a new great nation, my world, me as the focus.

I mean, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, that was a good, but now it's Moses and the Moses team, and we'll have jerseys made, and I'll be the new hero, and maybe I'll get my own TV show, and we can talk about me and my descendants. You know what? He doesn't go there. He says to God, You made promises. You have agenda. And did you see where he went? Don't you understand? Of course God did.

It's your reputation. What will the Egyptians think? What will the world think? What about your promises? See, he championed what he knew was God's best, God's will, God's kingdom, God's agenda. Great prayers are deeply personal, and great prayers are birthed out of brokenness, but then they are people who champion God's agenda.

You know, we looked at Nehemiah. He does the same thing in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 1. After he has those verses of praying and exalting God and owning his stuff, then he steps up and he says, These are your people and your great hand that you promised, whom you delivered. And he said, Lord, you promised that if we sin that you would scatter us all over the world, but if you would repent, if we would come clean, from all four corners of the earth, you would bring us, and in your great name, you would rebuild the city, and you would do what you said you would do with these people.

Have you prayed any prayers where you've gotten in a reverent way and said, God, wait a second. There's some promises here. This word says something about your agenda.

I'm going to stand before you and hold you reverently to your agenda, and I want to champion your cause. It's not about my family working out all the time. It's not about my job working out all the time. It's not about my financial security all the time.

It's not about my personal fulfillment, my relationships all the time. Life is about you. And so when I pray, I'm coming to a father I know is good. I'm coming out of a position of brokenness because you're high and I'm low, and that makes me very much appreciate the work of the Lord Jesus. And then when I come before you, I want to champion your agenda. I want to be someone that when you motivate and the Spirit of God prompts me to pray, I want to be someone blazing a trail for what you want done in the world instead of trying to get you to do what I want done in my world.

It's so subtle, isn't it? How often our prayers are, Dear God, make my life work my way for me so that I can be upwardly mobile, very comfortable, highly spiritual, lots of blessing and no suffering. It's the American version of the Lord's Prayer. Remember what Solomon prayed? He said, Lord, I can't handle the job. This is when he's young and broken.

He loses perspective later. But in 1 Kings 3, 7 to 14, he says, What I need is wisdom because the weight of guiding and leading such a great nation and thinking of all the promises that you have given to your people and now the stewardship of being a king over these people, will you please give me understanding and wisdom and knowledge so that I could be the man you want me to be to lead them in a way that would fulfill your agenda? And do you remember what God said? Solomon, I'm so pleased that you didn't ask for wealth and a long life and all this personal stuff for you.

I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you wisdom like no man has ever had on the face of the earth and in the bonus round, I'm just going to throw in wealth, long life and all the things you didn't ask because when you championed my agenda, it brought great delight to my heart. Do your prayers champion God's agenda? When Jesus was teaching those disciples to pray, he said, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The fourth characteristic of great prayers are great prayers take God seriously. People who pray great prayers actually think that when God says something, he means it. People who pray great prayers think when God makes a promise, since he's God and he can't lie and he's all knowing and he's good and has all power and he's really sovereign, when he makes a promise, people who pray great prayers, they think God will actually keep his promises.

They think God will so much keep his promises that they will make what looks to be ridiculous steps with their time and their energy and their money and their future based on just what God has said because they take him seriously. People who pray great prayers take God so seriously, they take his person seriously and who he is and his holiness, they take his program seriously and what he's going to do through his church until the fulfillment of time and they also take his promises seriously. People who pray great prayers, they have promise-centered prayers, not problem-centered prayers. And I don't know about you, but it is easy to fall into the problem-centered prayer approach, isn't it? Boy, you got a wayward kid and you find yourself, boy, you pray about that, you pray that, you got financial pressure, you pray about that, you pray about that, you got some struggles in your marriage, you pray about that, you pray about that. After a while, I'm not sure we're praying.

I think it might be just sort of worrying sessions before the Father. Dear God, I'm really upset about this and this is really upset and when are you going to fix this and you're not fixing it on time and well, what about this and if this happens, this could happen, so I want you to kind of fix this in case this happens and will you take care of this and do you understand how discouraging this is and what about that and think of all the time I've given you. I've been faithful to the church and I've been given financially and I'm reading my Bible on a regular basis and we have this deal. It says in the Bible if I do everything that I'm supposed to do that my life's going to work out, it's going to be wonderful and it'll be on my terms and you'll fulfill my agenda and you'll make me happy and I'll be desperately fulfilled. It's what all the books say in the bookstores. See, the difference is you start focusing on your problems, you look at God through your problems, you look at life through your problems or you can pull back and you can look at life through God's promises.

Is it hard? Sure. I am with you always. I didn't say that life would be without suffering.

In fact, why don't you read a little more carefully. What I promised was in the world you'll have tribulation but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. In fact, what I really promised was all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Do you feel like you're at the edge and you can't break out and you don't know what to do? I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. That's a promise. Do you feel like you don't have the emotional resources, the financial resources to fulfill my agenda? But my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Is that real? Is that a promise? Do you take it seriously or not? Do you bank your life on it? Well, God, it's overwhelming and this happened and this happened and this happened and this happened and I'm overwhelmed.

I can't live one more day. My grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. Therefore, I will rejoice and be most glad in my weakness and difficulty and hurt and adversity for when I am weak, you're strong. See, people who pray great prayers are promise-centered. They take God seriously, they take his word seriously, and they take his promises seriously.

The fifth, oh, I forgot the teaching here because this is a great one. I think this is one that we lose sight of as Jesus teaching, talk about a promise. He says, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Boy, that's a promise, isn't it?

With the condition. Lord, thank you that you, you know what the word forgive means literally? Lutrao, to loose or to release. He says, forgive, release, don't give account of, don't make it charged to my account of those things that I've done wrong. A trespass is just crossing a line. It's knowing what's right to do but not doing it. It's then knowing something you ought to do and choosing not to. It's breaking a barrier that you know this is what God wanted you to do and you do it anyway. And God, will you please release me from that and Jesus says there's a promise.

Of course the prayer is as we release others. You know one of the fundamental things that is a roadblock for answers to prayer is an unforgiving spirit in your relational world. You got anybody that if you heard something, is there a face or a name that would come to mind? If something a little negative, let's not be too drastic, just a little negative you heard about this person would bring a secret little level of joy and delight to you.

Anybody like that? Someone that if they kind of just lost a lot of money or you know you wouldn't want them in a real bad car wreck but maybe a little car wreck. You know like an ex-mate that walked out on you. Maybe like you know a kid that you gave just time and energy to and man they have done things and said things. Maybe a boss that ruined your entire career, a business partner that robbed you.

Anybody have someone in your background that down deep you know you have a few anger fantasies over? See those people who have great prayers, they take God seriously and they take his word seriously and they take his promises seriously and that means if there's bitterness in my heart, if there's an issue with a person, I've got to deal with the horizontal issues or the vertical issues are never right. If I say I love God and hate my brother, what's 1 John say? I'm a liar and the truth isn't in me. Let me give you some examples of people who have done this. Great prayers take God seriously and they are promise centered not problem centered and let me give you just three or four examples. Number one, Moses.

Do you see the pattern in these people? Over and over and over and over as you read through Moses life, he keeps going back to what? Lord you promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob this. You've got to fulfill your promises. Nehemiah, what's he do?

Exactly the same thing. You made these promises. He reaches back into Deuteronomy, reaches back into Exodus and said, you said if we did bad, you would do this. You said if we repent, you would do that.

Promise centered. David in Psalm 103, classic passage. He takes that passage that when the Lord passed by Moses, it goes over and over and over and over. The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He will not hold your sins against you. David in Psalm 103 repeats those words and says, as far as the east is from the west then, so God will take our sin from us.

He banks on it. Do you know that David's life, when he ends his life, the commentary isn't bad guy, murderer, adulterer. What's the commentary in Acts 13 about David's life? He was a man after God's own heart. Being a person after God's own heart is not a historical issue. It's an issue of the direction of your heart and how you deal with life and how you deal with your failure.

And those who take God seriously are people who say, you know something, I'm not going to buy the line. I just can't forgive myself. If the God of the universe has accounted my sin, has blotted out and it makes it as far as the east is from the west because the price of his son Jesus paid for it. I believe that and I accept it. I am not a second class Christian.

There is not a cloud over my head. I am clean, I am pure, I am forgiven, I'm a new creator and God has a great plan and purpose for my life. And I don't know about you but man that is encouraging. And people who pray great prayers, they're not living with the baggage of the past. They believe that what God has said is true. And they know with confidence that when we say forgive us our sins, even as we forgive those who trespass against us, it's true. And you think about Paul, you know whether it's Philippians 1 or Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, those are Paul's prayers, what's he do?

He's got this reality and he says what? You know I'm praying that you might what? Know God's will, Colossians 1, in order that you might walk in a way that is blameless.

I'm confident of this in you, Paul prays in Philippians 1, that I know that he who began a good work in you is going to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus and you've been having filled with all this fruit of righteousness and he takes this truth and these promises and these realities of what God has done and he prays it into their life. He just prays prayers because he takes God and his word very, very seriously. Second to final, great prayers demand great courage.

Why? Because they're dangerous. Great prayers take us to places with God and with ourselves that are frightening. Praying goes far beyond words and talking. They're prayers that God delights in, are ones that call us to exercise every fiber of moral courage that we can muster before a holy God.

And you say what do you mean? I mean how do you say great prayers demand courage? Great prayers demand courage because they boldly demand of God that he live up to his character. This is a level of praying that I think is rare and one that brings great delight and that you don't go into unless you're in the right place in your relationship with God.

But there are prayers that are dangerous and they take great courage because they boldly demand in reverence that God live up to his character. Genesis 18, remember the picture? Abraham, the angel of the Lord. The Trinity shows up and I don't know how all that works. Should we reveal to Abraham what we're about to do?

And you know the story and they decide okay. And the second person of the Trinity, manifestation, speaks to Abraham and tells him what he's about to do. And there's perversion and there's sin and we're going to destroy it. And Abraham says very interestingly, would the judge of all the earth slay the righteous with the wicked? In other words, that's out of character. Wait, time out, wait, time out.

That can't happen. You're just, you're righteous. You would never give anyone a raw deal. You're the God of the universe.

You're always fair. What if there were 50 righteous? Would you still, would you still destroy it? Can you imagine really talking with the God of the universe like this? And what's it based on?

It's based on his character. What's Abraham saying? Live up to your character, God.

I'm an intercessor. God's looking for men and women that have the chest and the boldness to call God and say live up to your character. Would the judge of all the earth slay the righteous with the wicked? What if there's 50 righteous?

Would you still, no. 45, no. Forgive me, Lord, but you know the story.

40, 35, 25. Had any prayers like that lately? See, that's dangerous. Because, you know, you can even hear, as Abraham, you know, about the third, fourth, fifth time, forgive me, Lord, please don't be impatient with me. May I just ask this one more time? He realizes that he is right up to the edge of where you would never want to go with the holy God, but he is going on the basis of God's character saying, a righteous judge will be righteous, and I'm standing in the gap before you for those who aren't righteous and demanding reverently based on your character that you do what you said you would do, that you would act consistent with who you are. It's a powerful place of praying, and it's a dangerous place of praying. Because not only do they boldly demand God live up to his character, but they dare to stand in the gap and become the very answer to the prayer. See, what if you start praying? And I mean, I don't mean the little prayers and the, you know, God fix this and take care of that, but what if you start praying? And by the way, the test of real praying is when you don't see any results, you stick with it. You know that God is in it and he wants you to pray, so you persevere and you persevere and you persevere, but what if you persevere if God says, you know something, the answer to this prayer is you. You know, you've been praying for this new ministry at the church. You've been praying about the conflict in this relationship. You've been praying about this financial need that these people have. You know what the answer is? You go talk to the people.

You go empty so much out of your bank account and you take care of that financial need. You start the ministry. Keeps coming to your mind, doesn't it? Yeah. You're concerned about it, aren't you? Yeah, well, you start.

Well, I can't. No, no, you start it. See, when you pray, it takes great courage because it's dangerous. Esther, you know, we've got a situation. The whole Jewish nation is going to be wiped out. Mordecai, her uncle, comes to her and says, this is a loose translation of the actual Hebrew, of course, honey, you may think you're safe, but all of us Jewish people are gonna die. Could it be that God placed you as the queen for such a time as this? And she asked all the people to fast and they fast and drink or eat nothing for three days and she risked her life. She goes before the king and remember what her words are?

If I perish, I perish. Great prayers demand courage because there's times where you don't just go and say, God, you need to live up to your character. You go and you pray and you pray and God says, guess what, you're the answer to the prayer. You're the missionary that I want to go. You're the one who starts the ministry.

You're the one who's supposed to fund it. And so Esther says, okay, I'll be the answer to the prayer. Nehemiah, what's he ask? He prays, Lord, please grant me success. You study chapter one and chapter two of Nehemiah, what do you realize? He's prayed for about four months, started alone. He ends up, we find he's praying with a small group and he realizes God says, Nehemiah, you're the man. Four months of prayer and guess what the answer is?

It's you. I want you to go talk to the king. I want you to ask for a sabbatical. I want you to go rebuild Jerusalem and he does it at the risk of his life. Final example there and the greatest example is Jesus. He's in the garden. He prayed an actual prayer. He's fully God but he's fully man without confusion and in the garden he says, Lord, may this cup pass for me.

Translation, you know, I know from the foundations of the earth, we decided this is it but you know, maybe there's a plan B we could reconsider. That's really what he's praying. If there's any other way, as a human, as a man, in the dependence of the Holy Spirit and saying, knowing it was gonna mean separation from the Father, knowing what was gonna occur, he said, if there's any way for this to bypass me, may it be. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. He's the answer to the prayer and we're glad he is and that is exactly what Jesus taught his disciples to pray. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. This is one of my favorite topics of these on dream great dreams and think great thoughts and pray great prayers but is this not exponentially up a level from everything we've talked about?

This is heavy, heavy, heavy and that's why E.M. Bounds, I think, is right. You know, we can talk, we can do Bible studies, we can send out videos, we can be active but what the church and the world needs are people who pray. Not people who talk about prayer, not people who can explain prayer but people who really pray. People who pray out of a heart that is deeply personal. People who pray out a sense of deeply brokenness and not self-sufficiency. People who pray and would take God seriously and his promises seriously and his word seriously. People who would understand, God, we desperately need you.

People who would stand in the gap. People who would be courageous and say, I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna seek you and if I'm the answer to the prayer, although it frightens me to death, I'm gonna remember that you're Abba and that you're a good father and that your will is great and that the safest place in all the world is the center of your will and that's why the sixth characteristic is really a summary is that great prayers ask the improbable, expect the impossible and receive the unthinkable because of Jesus. See, great prayers always go back to Jesus. It was in Hebrews 4, we have a great high priest we know about but literally it talks about he blazes a trail so that we can come boldly before the throne of God. He says he commands us go boldly before the throne of God.

Before the throne of what? To find mercy in our time of need. My standing, my basis, my power, my effectiveness for the answers of moving God's heart for him to do dynamic, supernatural, over the top things for his glory is solely based on Jesus and what he's done and so we can ask the improbable. By improbable it's like is it improbable to say that God could do a great work in a relationship in your family that you think it's been broken for 35 years?

It's improbable to say that God could do something in your church and use you to begin to see something happen like never before. We can ask the improbable but we can expect the impossible because nothing is impossible for God and then we will see this book is filled with God doing the unthinkable, the exceedingly abundantly beyond what you could ask or think and it's because of Jesus. Jesus' command, we boldly ask the improbable.

Seek, right, and you'll find knock and it'll be opened. Ask and you'll receive, that's what he's saying. Ask, seek, knock, he commands us. It's because of Jesus' promise we can expect the impossible. The promise is ask my father for anything. Until now you haven't asked.

Ask that you can receive, why? So your joy can be made full as you become a part of what the father wants to accomplish in the world and finally because Jesus' power and we are people of great, great power. Exceedingly, abundantly beyond what you could ask or think. I wanna confess that I don't think I pray very great prayers. I'm on a journey but when I look at this, when I look at the people we've looked at, when I see what it takes to pray great prayers, I think this is a direction that you say, I wanna be on the journey where I pray the way Jesus wanted me to pray and understand it at a level like never before. Abba, father, holy is your name. I want your kingdom, your agenda to come and your will be done.

I want it to be done with the efficiency and the smoothness on earth as it is in heaven. I want you to provide for me what I need, my daily needs but I'm not gonna just stop there. I want you to forgive me. I want you to do a work in my heart in me in the same way that I begin to learn to give and forgive and to lose the people that have wounded and hurt me. And God, I want you to know I want your kingdom and your rule and your power and your glory to be paramount and I want you to know I want it so badly in spite of how fallen I am and how broken that I am is that I will courageously pray prayers that if you tap me on the shoulder and say, Ingram, guess what?

The answer to this one is you. Then I will step up to the plate, my weakness and I will believe that you will give me what I need, not tomorrow or next week or what I think it's gonna take. You'll give me what I need today and when I wake up tomorrow, you'll give me what I need tomorrow and when I wake up the next day, you'll give me what I need so that your life and your word and your agenda and your glory gets fulfilled. That's the journey I'm on.

I'm not sure you ever graduate. I've met some people like Walt Baker who are way, way, way down the field from me but I think what we got in this passage is a picture of what great prayers look like and I think what I'd invite you to do with me is to say to God, Lord, I would like to learn to pray great prayers. I'd like to be a man. I'd like to be a woman that prays great prayers and I'd like you to look at those six things and ask yourself rather than being, I don't know about you, when I hear about Moses and David and all these things, it just goes, oh my lands, it's so overwhelming. But he's just a regular guy and he started somewhere someday learning what he learned just like we're doing. Chip will be right back with his application for this message, Pray Great Prayers, from his series Good to Great in God's Eyes. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus said, whoever wants to become great among you must what? Through this series, Chip explores what greatness means to God by highlighting 10 crucial practices he says are vital. Now, if you're looking to dive deeper into the subject, let me encourage you to check out Chip's book or our small group study. These are perfect tools to help jumpstart your faith.

To learn more about these resources, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org, the Chip Engram app, or call 888-333-6003. Well, Chip's with me in studio now, and Chip, today you wrapped up your message on how we can pray great prayers. And there's some listening right now who are prayerfully considering partnering with us financially, but they're hesitant because they think their gift is maybe too small or won't make that big a difference.

What would you like to say to them? Dave, you know, a lot of people think that, but the fact of the matter, it's not just a person giving, say, $10 or $25 or $30 or $50 or whatever they think seems to be insignificant with the huge needs that there are to help people here and around the world. It's the combined efforts. I mean, think, right at this moment, I mean, over a million people are going to list on a radio broadcast, a podcast, or on the app. I mean, a million people, if just a few thousand, say if 10,000 gave $10 a month, can you imagine what we could do here and around the world? So I just want to encourage some of you who just don't feel like you have enough to give or it wouldn't make much of a difference, would you pray and say, Lord, I will just give whatever you would lead me to give, and could you know when you do that, it's a lot like the widow's mite. God will honor it, and we'd be very grateful.

Thanks, Chip. If joining the Living on the Edge team is an idea that makes sense to you, we'd love to have you partner with us. Your support multiplies our efforts and resources in ways that only God can do.

So let me encourage you to become a monthly partner. Just go to livingontheedge.org or the Chip Ingram app and tap the donate button. With a few clicks, you can set up a recurring donation and help others benefit from this ministry. Or if it's easier, text the word donate to 7-4141.

That's donate to 7-4141. Thanks in advance for supporting us any way you can. Well, Chip, before we wrap up this program, I think it'd be helpful for our listeners if you reviewed those six characteristics of great prayers.

Would you take a minute and do that for us? I'd be glad to, Dave. I'm married to someone that really epitomizes for me someone who prays great prayers.

So I have the benefit of living with someone who constantly reminds me, not with her words, but by her behavior. And so let me go through these six and just ask you to lean back right now and listen. And rather than be overwhelmed with guilt, which I think what happens when people start talking to one another about praying and praying deeply and great prayers, and maybe just ask yourself as I give these, Lord, would you whisper in my heart where you want me to focus?

He's not down on you. He doesn't have a little measuring stick going, oh, that's only a 2.5 prayer. I'm looking for 10.0 prayers. What he's looking for is, number one, they're deeply personal. You're praying from the heart.

You're not praying so you don't feel guilty. It's really from the heart. Second, they're birthed in brokenness. Sometimes the greatest prayers don't have to be long, but they're this sense of desperation that you realize you can't do it.

You're at the end of your rope. They're birthed in brokenness. Third, they champion God's agenda. You know, so often, we're people, right?

We're human. God, do this, do this, do this. Please work this out, et cetera. Great prayers, champion. God, what do you want to do in my life? What do you want to do in my family? What do you want to do in my singleness? What do you want to do in my community? What do you want to do in your world?

What do you want to do where I work? Fourth is they take God seriously. They really believe, you said this. I may not feel it, but you said it.

I'm going to take you at your word. Number five, they demand courage. You know, I gave the example of Esther and Nehemiah, and sometimes you start really praying about stuff, and he'll tap you on the shoulder and say, guess what, you are the answer to this one. And finally, they expect the impossible.

There's a point in time where it's actually easier when it's impossible than it's hard to say, God, I can't change my mate. God, I can't solve this problem, but I'm expecting because you're the God of the impossible for you to intervene. Tozer said, if you pray to an omnipotent God who's all-powerful, then everything God can do, prayer can do. Let me encourage you to choose one of those today and pray a great prayer. Just before we close, would you pray for those who are feeling challenged to respond to Chip's encouragement right now?

There's always a spiritual battle when we feel prompted to draw near to God. Thanks for taking a minute to do that. And if there's a way we can pray for you, let us know. Call us at 888-333-6003 or email chip at livingontheedge.org. We'd love to hear from you. Well, for everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. .