Prayer promptings

The following content is an excerpt from The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (pp. 113, 117-118).

God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is too small for Him. A sparrow doesn't fall without His noticing and caring, so it shouldn't surprise us that he cares about [us]. God loves showing His all-encompassing compassion in little ways, and if we would learn to obey His promptings, we would find ourselves in the middle of miracles a lot more often. 

The reason many of us miss miracles is that we aren't looking and listening. The easy part of prayer is talking. Its much harder listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. It's much harder looking for the answers. But two-thirds of praying hard is listening and looking. 

Peter is the patron saint of wet feet. He may have failed the persistence test by falling asleep in Gethsemane, but he passed the wet-feet test by getting out of the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus uttered one of the craziest commands in Scripture: "Come." Peter risked far more than wet feet. The Sea of Galilee was a 91-square-mile dunk tank, and he was in the middle of it in the middle of the night. The key to getting out of the boat is hearing the voice of God. If you're going to get out of the boat in the middle of the night, you better make sure that Jesus said, "Come." But if Jesus says "Come," you better not stay in the boat.

Have you ever had a moment when the Holy Spirit prompted you during prayer to do something that seemed border-line crazy? Have you ever had a moment, as Peter did, when God called you to do something unsafe? Your response to those promptings will make you or break you. It may seem unsafe or insane, but if you stay in the boat, you'll never walk on water.

Praying hard starts with listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. And if you are faithful in the small things and obey those little promptings, then God can use you to do big things. 

By taking the Draw Near initiative, we encourage you to read further material on listening in prayer, waiting and persisting in prayer, and praising in prayer by referring to Mark Batterson's The Circle Maker. You can buy his book at a local bookstore or online.