If I was to tell you, “Only pray for things that you think you have the resources to accomplish without the help of the triune God,” you would know I was not giving you godly, biblical advice. The problem is, I do not have to tell you this; most people already tell themselves this over and over. This still, small, fell, voice can be so constant that you do not realize its ongoing presence and power in your life. I am not pointing my finger at you and pretending I am immune. I share the common human habit of drifting into a prayer life where I censor my prayers and pray for things I could probably do myself if I ever got around to it. When this happens, the Triune God becomes small and my quiet cynicism grows big.
Here then are four things to consider when it comes to prayer.
First, you cannot do any damage by praying too big.
The Lord is the Lord and He knows how to say “No.” Prayer is not like a superpower that you need to control lest you do damage. Prayer is talking to the true and living triune God. He wants you to ask him to do things. He wants you to ask for yourself and for others. So ask. Ask for big and impossible things. The God you are praying to is the same God who delivered Israel from Egypt in the exodus; who delivered Israel from the Midianites at the time of Gideon; who delivered the Jewish people from Haman and the power of the Persian Empire through Esther; who raised Jesus from the dead. So pray big.
Second, the Lord will change what you pray for, but not all change is from him.
As you walk with Jesus, he will teach you not to pray for what is evil or unjust. He will begin to challenge you when you pray out of rivalry, prejudice, racism, selfishness, hatred, greed or unforgiveness. However, it is not God who teaches you to censor your prayers so that He is small and your problems are big. He wants you to learn that he is big and that you and your problems are small, and that is alright. Always remember the cross of Christ. Your flesh whispers to you that if God is big, and you are small, then God will crush you. But the cross shows who the triune God really is and what he is really like.
In the world, the big crush the small. If you become big, you might easily crush the small. But Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5 ESV). The Lord is big. You are small. All creation is small to him. This is good.
Third, pray for big things and small things and everything in between.
I think it was Luther who compared human beings to a drunk man trying to get on a horse. First, he falls off one side. Then he falls off the other. So pray for small things like a parking spot. Pray for big things like the end of abortion in Canada. Pray for everything in between. Pray that the Lord will so grip you with the truth of the Gospel that you will grow into a person of prayer.
Fourth, learn what the Bible wants you to pray for, and then pray for this.
In Luke 10:2, Jesus said, “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest” (ESV). This is the only place where Jesus tells you to pray earnestly. Be honest. If you are at all like me, when you think of your city, you do not usually think of a plentiful harvest; you do not think that the problem is a lack of labourers; you do think the problem is that the harvest is small and shrinking. You pray small if you pray at all.
So, please note that Jesus tells you to pray this way for these things! He does not ask, he tells you to pray this today for your city, for Canada, and for the world. So, please pray that the Lord will help you to know that he is big and sovereign. He is bigger than your problems, fears, strengths and resources. He is big and he longs to do what only he can do. Pray that the triune God will help you to pray big, impossible prayers––for his glory, not your own.
In closing, one way to help focus this prayer is to pray for God to use your church in planting prayerful, Bible-teaching, evangelical churches with a heart for the city and a heart for the world. Consider praying for such churches to be planted near every University campus in Canada, and/or for every city with 100,000+ in Canada. I know I am asking you to pray for the sociologically impossible––but it is biblically, theologically and spiritually humble and wise to do what Jesus tells you to do.
