5/13/21 – Pray the Word!

God’s Word will not return to Him void.  According to Isaiah 55:11, the Word of God accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it.

Over the years, I have talked with many people who, with desperation or hopelessness in their voices, have said, ‘I just don’t know how to pray for him/her anymore!’  Haven’t we all been frustrated at some point, not seeing results and not even sure how to pray according to God’s will?  Or, worse yet, perhaps we have stopped praying for someone out of hopelessness.

From my arsenal of experience, I seize any opportunity to explain a very simple, but effective, method of prayer the Lord gave me in 1989.  At that time, Tom & I were separated, and I was desperately seeking God’s wisdom and guidance for my/our future which seemed utterly hopeless from my vantage point.  One day, early in our separation, I was reading Scripture and found myself saying, ‘I want to be like that, AND I want Tom to be like that!’  What happened next transformed my prayer life and gave me a practical tool to use and share with others.

I felt impressed to draw a very simple stick-figure on a piece of paper, like what a small child might draw, and I labeled it ‘Tom’.  Whenever I found a Bible verse that described the man of my dreams, I wrote the verse on my stickman beside the most appropriate body part.  For example, I wrote, “He who walks in integrity walks securely” Proverbs 10:9 beside a foot and so on. I then laid my hands on that piece of paper and prayed God’s living and active Word (Hebrews 4:12) into Tom every night. 

What resulted was two-fold:

• I developed an increased desire to mine the treasures of God’s Word, looking for the Godly attributes that both I and God wanted, and needed, to see in Tom.  I finally knew that I was praying according to God’s will because I was praying His Word!
• God used this exercise to build my faith in Him, to step back and let Him do the work that only He could do, although He called me to active duty in prayer, trusting Him for the outcome.

In this process, the Lord showed me that as I was praying for Tom to become the man of God our children and I needed him to be, I needed the Lord to do His transforming work in me, too.  So, I drew another stick figure, labeled it ‘Me’, and began finding scripture that was meant to design me to be the woman of Tom’s dreams.

Since that time, so many years ago, I know of several books that have been written on the topic of praying God’s Word into a person or relationship.  It is powerful because God’s Word is Truth, and you can’t go wrong praying that!

Neither of us has ‘arrived’ at being perfect, and we continue to encourage and lift up each other in prayer.  If you have been desiring change in yourself or someone close to you, or perhaps you are still waiting for Mr or Miss Perfect to enter the scene, consider the stick figure tool, and don’t put a time limit on God.  Write, wait, watch and welcome the opportunity to trust our Faithful Creator with His master-designing power.  I always say, Good things are worth waiting for (and praying for!)  Pray the Word!