How do I know what God is prompting me to pray?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. We’re continuing our series, This is my story, where we’re having various of our ministry leaders share how God has worked in their lives in similar ways to how he worked in the lives of the people that we find in scripture. This last week we heard from Casper who related his story to Isaiah’s when God asked, whom, whom shall we send, who will go for us?

And Isaiah answered the call. Similarly, uh, Casper has answered the call numerous times. Um, even in the time that I’ve known him, um, he’s always ready for whatever might be next, um, and willing to be sent. In the course of his story, he shared that occasionally he has a sense that God, um, wants him to pray for a certain outcome. Um, examples of sitting on a flight and wanting the flight to be delayed, which ended up helping because the plane was going to run out of hydraulic fluid if they weren’t delayed longer. Um, and other instances in his life. And so the question is, how, how do I know what God wants me to pray for? How how can I be certain that it’s God prompting me to pray and, you know, not just kind of my own, um, desires perhaps. Um, or my own interpretation of the world. Um, and so my counsel is just when you feel some kind of, um, prompting, just lean into it. Um, if it crosses your mind, maybe this plane should be delayed longer. And just start talking to God about it.

I can’t tell you how many times, um, in my life, I for whatever reason, you know, an old friend has just come to my mind, right? Somebody I haven’t thought about in a year, maybe, and they pop into my head. Um, and I think, maybe I should reach out to them. And and I do. Um, and it’s surprising how often, you know, just a simple text, Hey, thinking about you today.

Don’t know why, but you’re on my mind. Um, said a prayer for you. Hope you’re doing well. Right? Something simple like that, just a text. And how many times when I have somebody’s just popped into my mind like that and I’ve sent the text, how many times they respond, Oh my goodness, this is what I have going on today.

I can’t believe that you’re praying for me. Um, similarly, I’ve had many times when somebody’s popped into my mind like that and I don’t reach out. Like, ah, it’s probably nothing. And then, you know, a week or two later, I find out, you know, maybe, maybe they lost their job, maybe they had a loved one pass away, whatever.

And I’m like, I didn’t reach out. I should have, right? Um, and then occasionally, because you might be thinking, well, what if I’m wrong? People pop into my head all the time. I don’t want to text if there’s nothing actually happening. Well, this is what I would say. What’s the worst case scenario?

You reach out to a friend and say you’re praying for them, even if there’s nothing going on in their lives. That’s a nice thing to hear. Um, so worst case scenario, you encourage somebody even if it wasn’t actually God prompting you. So I would just say whenever something like that happens, just lean into it.

Spirit does guide us on what to pray. Um, and then even when we get it wrong, he fixes it for us. As Romans 8:26, when we do not know what to pray, the spirit, you know, intercedes for us, kind of prays on our behalf with groanings that we don’t really understand. Um, so, so even if we’re praying wrong, uh, the spirit will step in and correct whatever it is that we are praying. Um, and if it’s for a certain outcome in the world, for a flight, for whatever, again, if it wasn’t God prompting you,

but you as a result of whatever it was, if you begin praying, then that’s still a win. Like you you still are connecting with your heavenly Father and praise God for that, right? So there’s there’s no way it can be negative when we feel any kind of leaning. But I will, I will imagine that if you start leaning into those little just inflections on your spirit, that more of them than you might assume turn out to be God’s leading in your life.

And then that is something that really can boost your faith. So thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.