The "Answer to Prayer Story" Challenge

Last Sunday I preached about prayer.
To recap- we've all made too big prayer mistakes:
Praying like a hypocrite (Matthew 6:5).
Praying like a pagan (Matthew 6:7).
The first mistake is putting on a show.
The second mistake is trying to manipulate God.
Both result in the same thing:
Dumb, unanswered prayers.

Dumb prayers lead to a sense of defeat, and a sense of guilt.
We don't sense any growing connection with God, so we're defeated. Then we don't engaging in prayer, so we feel guilty. It's one of those viscous downward spirals.
We break the cycle when we get real with God, and get humble with God.

SO here's the challenge-
you need an "Answer to Prayer Story" to invigorate your prayer life and relationship with your Heavenly Father (Matthew 5:9).

The trajectory of our prayer life is to pray "all the time everywhere about everything." (1 Thessalonians 5:17) To get there we need to pray sometime, somewhere about something.
When will you pray? First thing? Mid-morning coffee break? Lunch? Bedtime? Just pick the time. Then get into it.
If you've never been a prayer before just give yourself 5-10 minutes, and start talking to God, believing He's is right there with you. If you're a disciplined, gifted prayer, then go ahead and do your thing!

Where will you pray? It helps to pick a place. We go to the kitchen to eat. We have a desk to work. We have a bed to sleep. So pick a place for prayer- it has an AMAZING effect on your resolve and focus.
I recommend a chair and table so you can have a bible and journal right there.
If that doesn't work for you, pick a "Prayer Path." This is really simple. Pick a walk that you know will take your prescribed amount of time. Take that same path each day. You'll find this becomes an amazing discipline. You know you'll meet God on that path each day.

What will you pray? This is the point of the prayer challenge. If you are going to get an answer to prayer, you need to do one very important thing:

GET SPECIFIC!
If you are not specific, you will not know when God answers, or how He answers. God is active and at work and answering prayers, the only question is, are you a part of it?
If you want to be a part of it, get specific!

Please be clear on this- the challenge does not put God to the test.
The challenge is putting us to the test.
Will we move beyond hypocritical and pagan prayers?
Will we move into such a communion with God that we know he hears and responds to our prayers, as we hear and respond to His will?

You might start with a very specific prayer, and a week into it, you have a growing sense that you are just praying for the wrong thing.
God isn't going to save your job, because he has a better job in store for you.
He's not going to save you from the pain of a situation, because that pain is going to stimulate some incredible growing in your faith.
This could be the first HUGE step in your answer to prayer.
Actually getting past your own plan, and getting closer to God's.

Or made it's just going to play out like you hoped.
God will restore a relationship.
God will bring a healing or health.
God will provide just what you asked for.

The key is- you'll know it when it happens!
And when we get that "Answer to Prayer Story," dag, that can change us forever!

So here is my plea to you:

1. Take the challenge;
2. Tell us about your challenge.

Please write, blog, share what's happening so we, as a community, can join with you in prayer. Together we will share our stories and give God the glory!

I'll post stories, I'll preach stories, and I'll invite you to share your stories! It's gonna be awesome!