I've been reading a book for a while (into my second read-through) that I'll be reviewing in full tomorrow. Six Prayers God Always Answers is a very interesting read—at times both obvious and profound. One chapter has had quite an impact on my thinking, a chapter about audacious prayers.

Audacious prayers could be categorized as selfish prayers, and at first glance this seems to be a bad thing. Actually, when you think about it, unless you pray only a prayer like "Your will be done," nearly every other prayer is a selfish one. Think about your own prayers, and how much time you spend in intercessory or petitionary prayers. Any request made to God is selfish, yet we are instructed by Scripture to make our requests known to God (Phil. 4:6). Even confessional prayers are selfish at the root, yet I doubt anyone would dare suggest we never confess our sins and ask for forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

One of the things we do when we ask for stuff from God is add the caveat of "if it's Your will." Why did we start adding that line? Is it an effort to sound more spiritual in the middle of praying selfishly? I'm growing more and more convinced we should never pray that way. There's no example in Scripture I can find where someone prays "if it's Your will" as an excuse to expect less from God. Sure, we are instructed by the Lord Himself to pray "Your will be done" (Matt. 6:10), but there is an obvious distinction in ideology between the two statements.

Look at the prayers throughout Scripture and you will find some pretty huge, in God's face prayers. Look too at the result of so many of those prayers. No only did God not strike the prayer down with a bolt of lightning for their lack of respect, many times God gave them exactly what they asked for and sometimes even more than was asked for.

So I'm done with praying small. I'm done with praying in a cringing manner or in a way that makes me self-limit my prayer in an effort to take some imaginary spiritual high road.

I started yesterday praying audacious prayers. Prayers that I fully expect God to answer.

• I'm praying prayers that, WHEN answered, will produce radical change in my church, the member's and attendee's lives, and our community.
• I'm praying that our church will become THE BIGGEST influence in our community, not just another influence.
• I'm praying for an UNASHAMEDLY PASSIONATE group of worshipers and servants to appear in our church.
• I'm praying for a radical change to the status quo in our church and community—that God will turn our culture upside down.
• I'm praying our church will take MAJOR risks to reach our community for Christ.
• I'm praying other HUGE prayers, but those are between the Lord and me.

What are are some of your audacious prayers?

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