Joel Osteen — Praying God-Sized Prayers
I want to talk to you today about praying God-sized prayers. How you pray will determine what kind of life you live. Ordinary, get-by prayers, most likely you will live a small, ordinary, get-by life. But when you have the boldness to ask God for big things, you ask him to open doors that would normally not open. You ask him to take you further than anyone in your family. When you pray God-sized prayers, you will see the greatness of God’s power.
Now, all through the scripture, we see this principle. Elisha prayed that it wouldn’t rain. For 3 1/2 years there was no rain. Joshua prayed for more daylight. God stopped the sun. One prophet prayed for protection. The enemy standing right in front of him didn’t recognize him. God made him invisible. The common denominator is they asked for the unthinkable.
When was the last time you asked God to do something impossible, something out of the ordinary? One reason we don’t see God do great things is we only most people pray over their food, pray for protection, pray for wisdom. That’s all good, but it’s limiting what God can do. There should be something you’re praying about, something that you’re asking for that seems far out. You can’t accomplish it in your own strength. The phrase I hear in my your dreams may look impossible. You don’t have the funding, the connections. God is saying, “I dare you to ask me to bring it to pass. I dare you to ask me to show you a flood of my favor”.
A lot of times, we pray, “God, my child’s off course. If you’ll just turn him around,” and that’s good, but that’s an ordinary prayer. Ordinary prayers get ordinary results. God meets us at the level of our faith. If you ask small, you’re going to receive small. A God-sized prayer is, “God, I’m asking you to not only turn my child around, but use him in a great way. Let him make a difference in his life”.
An ordinary prayer is, “God, help me to get by this month. God, help me to pay my rent”. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a God-sized prayer is, “God, I’m asking you to increase me in such a way that I cannot only pay my house off, but help pay somebody else’s house off”. An ordinary prayer is, “God, just take me as far as my parents. God, help me at least not to lose any ground”. But a God-sized prayer is, “God, help me to take our family to a new level. Let me set a new standard. When people look back 100 years from now, God, let them say, ‘it was that man, that woman, that made a real difference”.
But I wonder, how many of your prayers are not being answered simply because “Well, Joel, God’s God. If he wants to bless me, he’ll bless me”. It says in James 4:2, “You have not because you ask not”. If you’re not asking big, you are shortchanging yourself. You will never reach the destiny, if you only pray small prayers. Now I’m not talking about just making a wish list and praying every whim. I’m talking about asking God for what he’s already promised you.
