Praying Outlandish Prayers

Exodus 4: Job 21; Luke 7; 1 Corinthians 8

Over the years, I’ve prayed some outlandish prayers. One time I asked God for something I could not afford “just because He loved me.” I was shocked when the person who sold that object offered to trade it to me for one of my wildlife paintings. While God wasn’t into spoiling me, He certainly knows how to surprise me.

Lately, my outlandish prayers are less selfish. I labored in prayer that God would be glorified and someone would be saved at my sister’s funeral. He answered that prayer too. This time not shock but extreme joy filled my heart. Not only that, this answer to prayer went beyond what I’d asked. One of the blessings was the attitude God has given me about the loss of my sister and dearest friend. Thoughts of her standing complete before Him gives me great joy.

This week while praying with others, we decided to pray “impossible” prayers, possible for God, but requests that seem impossible to us. They were outlandish in some ways and yet we were blessed because just saying those prayers was faith-building as well.

In Luke 7, Jesus heard a request from a Roman official and recognized faith in this man who was not a Jew.

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Luke 7:1–10)

This prayer might seem outlandish too. However, yesterday our little prayer group used several verses about the power of God related to praying for what seems impossible. Here are two of them:

‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17).

He said to them, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20).

God spoke and His Word created the universe. He didn’t use any tools or a list of materials. He merely said, “Let there be . . . .” and it happened. No wonder the world wants to replace creation with evolution; who wants to be accountable to a God who is that powerful!

Not only does our sinfulness cause us to desire power and control of our own lives, we don’t want anyone gifting us with anything we cannot take credit for, so sin could keep me from faith that moves mountains because faith requires that I trust God and not myself.

Yet the Centurion was willing to yield his authority and power. He knew it was insufficient. His servant would die if he rejected Jesus. To have what he wanted meant trusting this God-man and going to Him with an outlandish request: “just say the Word and my servant will be healed.”

Just say it. Outlandish or not. Seemingly impossible or not. Just say it. Jesus can do that. My challenge is believing that He can, that He even listens to such outlandish requests. Yet all I need is faith like a mustard seed, the tiniest seed known to them at that time, about 1 millimeter or 0.039 inches. The issue is not about the seed but about the object of faith. This is God that I am asking to do things.

Believing that God can do the impossible is an either/or issue. Either I believe it or I don’t. and that makes the difference in how I pray and what I pray for. It also suggests why the devil schemes to keep God’s people from believing in His incredible power and from praying outlandish prayers.