Are We Praying or Complaining?

 

By Andrea Merrell

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power

and produces wonderful results.

James 5:16 NLT

 

Things didn’t turn out as I expected, and I realized my prayer of desperation had turned into whining and complaining.

Chris Tiegreen says:

Sometimes desperate prayer turns into depressing prayer and may not even be prayer at all. When we talk to God without faith, without hope, and without expectation, we’re just talking. We’re merely itemizing our problems. God doesn’t need your description of the problem. He already knows it in far more detail than you do. He is looking for you to see his solution and then agree with it in prayer.

Unfortunately, my faith-filled prayer turned into nothing more than a laundry list of all my problems—which God was already well aware of. He patiently waited while I flapped my jaws and aired my complaints, then reminded me of His goodness and faithfulness. Just because I didn’t get the results I wanted didn’t mean He turned a deaf ear. When I asked forgiveness for my attitude and began to praise Him, faith rose. Hope returned.

Nothing catches God by surprise. He knows the details of every situation even better than we do. His timing is always perfect and His way best. When we give our problems to Him and let Him work them out, we can rest assured He will do just that and always with our best interest at heart.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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Nothing catches God by surprise. He knows the details of every situation even better than we do. His timing is always perfect and His way best. via @AndreaMerrell (Click to tweet.)

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