Specific Prayer

One day I will write all about our families journey to home ownership and living debt free but today I just want to touch on a small portion of it with hopes of encouraging you in your prayer life.

Be Specific When You Pray.

What exactly do I mean by that? 

If you read in Genesis 24 about Abraham's servant - he prayed a very specific prayer. Abraham sent him to find a wife for his son Isaac.  The servant prayed  for God to make him successful and he prayed that when a women came to the spring to draw water and he asked for a drink that the woman who is to be the wife of Isaac would give him a drink and also offer to water his camels.  The Bible says that before he had even finished praying Rebekah came to the spring to draw water.  He asked for a drink and guess what she did?  That is right she not only gave him a drink but offered to water his camels as well.

That is pretty specific.

How about Gideon?   In the book of Judges Chapter 6 God tells Gideon that He is going to use him to save Israel.  Gideon being a bit skeptic told God that if he was truly the one to save Israel to give him a sign.  He would put down a blanket on the ground and in the morning if the blanket was wet but all the ground around it was dry then he would believe.  And the next morning that is exactly what happened.  Gideon still not convinced asked God to allow him one more request.  This time he said in the morning let the blanket be dry and the ground all around be wet.  God did exactly that.  The rest of the story is pretty awesome so I encourage you to read it all on your own as well as the above story. 

Gideon was very specific with God. 

We should be too.

Philippians 4:6 says Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Before my husband and I bought our home and property we were told that the owner was wanting to sell it and we were also told a few prices that he was thinking of asking for it.  We were unsure of our future living situation and didn't really know where we were going to end up and the amounts of money that were rumored to us were more than what we could pay and more than what we wanted to pay.  Here is where specific prayer came in.  My husband and I had been praying for "Our Home" for many years.  We had been saving for it, paying off other debts and felt like we were following God's plan for our lives so we prayed once more.  Our Prayer went a little something like this - "Lord, if this is where you want us to be and where you would have us to live and raise our kids we ask you to work it out for us.  If this is where we are supposed to be we pray that the owner will not ask one penny over (and we named the dollar amount).  If he asks even one penny over this amount we will know that this place is not for us."

We are now living in our house - the same one we prayed a very specific prayer about.  The same one that God showed up and showed off big time over and blessed us with and answered our prayer to the EXACT dollar amount.

God is no respecter of persons the Bible Says - If He will answer specific prayers for Abraham, Gideon and Me - You can be sure that He will do it for you.

Acts 10:34  Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism.

How about you?  Do you pray specific prayers? 
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Note:  In time I will write "our story" of home ownership and the journey we have been through achieving this but it is a rather long story so until then.....