Praying For More Than Healing

Church, we need to pray for things that matter once we get to heaven. When we are in heaven, we won't have pain, sorrow, or tears, but so much of our prayer time is focused on physical ailments that will be healed by the time we get to heaven. 

While it is good to pray for physical healing, I notice that these requests DOMINATE church meetings and prayer lists. Asking for healing IS a valid part of prayer, but if our prayers stop there, we are missing out on a fuller interaction with God. We seem to spend most of our time with this one small aspect of what it means to pray. Dare I say, we are "majoring in the minors" of praying for healing, when we could be studying the full range of prayer methods.

I challenge us to pray for things that have an eternal significance, like SALVATION. Let us spend time praying for the lost, atheists, animists, agnostics, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, skeptics, unbelievers, doubters, seekers, prodigals. For those who don't know who Christ is. For those who left the faith. For those who think they are Christians, but they are wrong.

Prayer is more than presenting God with a list of our demands. Prayer is a conversation. Instead of spending most of our prayer telling God what we think He should be doing, let us spend as much time or the majority of our time simply listening to God. 

Let us move beyond asking God for things. Let us balance our frustrations and complaints with gratitude and praise. 

Let us ask God how we can serve Him and how we can join in the work He is already doing around us. 

Let us pray for things God cares about. 

*What is God concerned about in the world? 

*What things can we pray that will bring God glory? 

*What things are breaking His heart? 

*What is on His heart, agenda, & mind? 

Those are the things we are supposed to pray for.

When 95% of our prayers are asking God to heal and heal and heal, we are missing out on the opportunities to pray in all of the diverse ways that God has created for us to communicate with Him. 

What else, besides physical healing, can we be praying for?