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  • Writer's pictureBible Brian

When you don't know what to pray


One thing you'll notice in life is that Christians will often pray for opposite things. As an example, take Brexit. Many Christians prayed that Britain would remain in the EU, whereas many others prayed that Britain would leave. Clearly, only one side could have been right. Which side was it?


Without telling you which way I voted, I can tell you that when I first heard about the referendum, I had no clue. I could not pray to stay or leave the EU, because I did not know which option was better. But God did. Obviously, I prayed for wisdom and did some research, but at that time, all I could pray for regarding the political climate is that God's will would be done.


In politics, there are always two clear opposites. In our personal lives, not so. We often know what we want, but we don't always see what we should want. "Hey God, I want to ask this girl to date me. Please let her say yes." "Hey God, I've applied for this job. Please give it to me." "Hey God, I'm drowning in debt, please throw some money my way." All too often, we only see that we were praying the wrong prayer in hindsight.


But the Holy Spirit has a greater foresight than even our hindsight. When we pray, He translates it into a better prayer. Where we are foolish, He is wise. Where we are selfish, He seeks the better outcome. The alternatives we miss, He has in mind before He speaks on our behalf.


In our prayer life, we should never be slack. We need to tell God exactly what's on our mind (submissively, of course), and actually sound like we're making an effort. But that doesn't mean when we don't know what to pray, we stop praying. That means we simply acknowledge our insufficiency and ask God to take over. I like the short prayer I've written in the header image, and I release it to you in the hope that it will improve your prayer lives.

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