Are You Praying Bold Enough?

That was the collective question for those gathered in our house last Saturday, “What has been the boldest prayer you have ever prayed.”

I scan the room for answers, then stop silent as I mine my own heart for responses.

“Boldness.”

We had been studying Acts 4. It was the account of Peter and John (Jesus’ closest disciples) jailed, questioned, then released.

The rulers, elders and leaders of the law in Jeruselem at the time, had Peter and John brought to them, asking, “By what power or name do you do this?” Aka…Preach of the resurrection of Jesus. (Acts 4:7)

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit flew off on an account, testifying that it was “them” who killed Jesus and that it was in the name of his Jesus of Nazareth, he had been given authority.

I don’t know about you, but if I were Peter, right then and there, just released from jail, wondering if I would ever see sunlight again, talk to my family, or experience the joy of a freed life…

I am sure the last thing I would do is attack my accusers.

I mean, we are a society that has mistakenly learned well the art of tippy-toeing around strong personalities. Bowing as “yes, men and women” and then slandering people privately.

But Peter? He was the same in private and in public.

His views didn’t change. His authority didn’t waver.

His understanding of Jesus as the center of His message…His one and only priority….didn’t quench his words, or water-down his theology.

To strain things further, Peter went head-on, railing a culture that mixed old testament doctrine with their own wants and desires. He spoke boldly to his captures, saying….

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Imagined if we announced that on our Facebook? Boasted that there is only a single way in a culture of relativism and duelistic theology?

Yet, ONE WAY. That was Peter’s message.

Peter was bold, unapologentic. Strong. Confident. Empowered by the Holy Spirit. Yet, there once lived a Peter who was selfish and fearful.

He was the disciple that boasted proudly, yet denied Jesus. He walked in selfishness and betrayed the one He commited to be most faithful to. (John 18:15-27)

Peter’s boldness and our boldness doesn’t come from us, but by the power of the Spirit of the Living God which solely empowers us.

I sat in our group, wracking my mind for what had been my boldest prayer. Oh yes, there was those healing prayers all those years, while I ministered weekly on the prayer team. But, they seemed easy, and almost something effortless to pray.

There was those praryers for my enemies. Oh, yes, so much harder. Now we were getting somewhere. Was that THE boldest prayer though? Hmmm…I doubted it.

I kept on asking. Kept pressing God for the times I had dug deep and expected God to do great things…even things even I couldn’t ask, think, or imgine.

Our study last night?
It alsmost mocked the “American Prayers” as Andy Stanley put it. “Protect this person. Protect that person….” 

Shallow prayers. Is that all we pray here in America?

Oh how many times have we asked for protection instead of expecting God’s faithfulness to guard us in our coming and goings, like He has already promised us?

I looked to my heart. “Help…” “Save…”, “Protect..” Yes, those has been my “recommendations” for God in a large majority of my prayers.

But then I look through Scripture.

• There are mountains moved.
• Healings of the lepers.
• Water poured from a rock.
• Deliverance for an entire group of Israelites.
• Fire from heaven.
• The sun moved backward, changing time.
• The rising from the dead, not just one time but over and over again.

Yes, my prayers were nothing compared to the God I saw in the Bible.

Yet, I desperately want to pray bold prayers, don’t you?

I want to return to that place that I expect revival to burn in my heart because I am so tired of empty religion, stail people, hearts uncrucified.

And then it rests. I hear it. THE boldest prayer I could think of….He whispers to me….

But do I dare to pray that? Aren’t I too old? Don’t we have too many children? Can I possibly walk that road from the journey I have been given?

Yet, it whispers upon my heart….rests still where nobody sees.

And OBEDIENCE isn’t about feeling something first and then riding on passion or emotion. Obedience is about following in submission, then trusting your whole soul to a God who has been repeatedly faithful.

I pray silently. Then, am reminded of His faithfulness…

• There was a dead end and He literally made a way.
• We lived a story untold, that He penned amidst the pain.
• He has taken disapointment and turned it into a dance of vitory.
• God has redeemed what was stollen and somehow formed a mighty testimony.

Yes, God isn’t limited to us; our prayers, our cry, our call for more faith….

It is His Spirit that leads us. And perhaps it is us that must just let go and surrender to what He is already doing.

Won’t you stop and contemplate? Won’t you let me ask you the same question I have been simmering over….

“What has been your boldest prayers?”

Isn’t it time we stop coddling weak prayers and stand bold in His Spirit, asking Him for the wildest, most radical, cry of our hearts?

More of your Spirit, Lord. Give us BOLD prayers. Because we are so desperate, desperate for more of you!