Sometimes, I don’t know what to pray for. James 1:5 tells us wisdom is always a good idea. But what does that mean, exactly, in practical, everyday life?
Probably a lot of things, but here are three prayers I
prayed during college and what happened because of them. They’re kind of
terrifying, but I highly recommend them.
1. Pray that God will reveal your sin to you.
This took me until sophomore year to get up the courage to
try. Because, you see, I like to think I’m perfect sometimes. So really, there’s
nothing in my life I need to work on, right?
Wrong. So wrong. Once I prayed this prayer, I started
noticing my hidden attitude problems, from my desire to always be right to the
fact that I didn’t really listen to others—I just waited to talk. Suddenly, I
had a very long list of things to work on.
But I also have a God who specializes in helping out with
those long lists, and shows grace when I mess up. That’s a pretty important
thing to note when praying this particular prayer to avoid either despairing
because of your pathetic, miserable status, or of shifting into legalism
overdrive to fix all the problems yourself.
It’s not fun to realize there are parts of you that are
disgusting and terrible, kind of like cleaning out the back corners of the
fridge and discovering a year’s worth of mold growing in a cottage cheese
container. But to get rid of the messes, you have to be aware of them first.
