Self-help only works when you know why you are after the change. When it comes to our prayer life we have lived in a world that is filled with resources on how to pray and what prayer is. Why do we pray? We pray to accept the invitation of participation in God’s plan into our life. But all too often we end up having full access to the creator of the universe and if every one of our prayers were answered nothing would change except our personal, financial, or immediate situation if everything we prayed for was answered the way we wanted it. Yet, what’s more, is this often doesn’t disturb us.


Colossians 4:2-6
“An Encouragement for Prayer
2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. 3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. 4 Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. 5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive* so that you will have the right response for everyone.”


Here are 3 ways that we can self assess why we are praying.

Are we praying for God to:
SEARCH us?
BREAK us?
SEND us?

Each of these things allows our relationship with God to flourish because they put our situation into perspective in God’s greater plan. Life is not supposed to be easy and if we treat our prayer life as a self-help book we will miss out on the sweetest things God has for us.

A Prayer Attributed to Sir Francis Drake - an English sea captain

“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes; and to push back the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

Amen!*”

**Dangerous Prayers by Craig Groeschel