Doubtful Prayers

Have you ever prayed with doubt for the very thing you were believing God for?

We will be the first to admit we’ve prayed doubtful prayers more times than we can count.

Intentions

Prioritizing God, our marriage and our family was always important to us. However, we doubted if we were capable of living a balanced life.

Our to-do list never seemed to go away; as the list kept growing every day.

As much as we wanted to put God first, we were too tired to wake up early, or we always had somewhere to be first thing in the morning. Our thought was, we’ll just pray in the car.

We desired to spend time together, but it became habit to say we’ll connect later.

Then the inevitable happened.  Evening rolled around and we were tied up with; the kids, homework, dinner, cleaning the kitchen, and night time showers.

Before we knew it, it was time for bed; to only start all over again the next day!

Then those infamous words came spewing out of our mouth… “God knows our heart.”

Our intentions were to do the right thing. But let’s be real, intentions will only get us get us so far without taking any action!

Prayers of Doubt

When we have good intentions but don’t act upon them, we are actually demonstrating the same behavior in our faith when we pray with doubt.

You see, when there’s doubt in our faith for the very thing we believe God for, our actions will reflect that hesitation.

And the consequence of having such doubt, often results in unanswered prayers.

We didn’t understand this fully until we read James 1.

 “If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord…” ~ James 1: 5-7 (AMPC)

Ouch, did you catch that? The scripture says, “Don’t let such a person imagine he will receive anything from the Lord if he asks in doubt.”

That means, if we doubt that God would be true to His Word, then we shouldn’t imagine receiving anything from Him.

Doubts Hinder Fruit

When we read that verse, we could sense God in our face saying, hey wake up, get it together!

You want time with Me, seek Me. Find peace in knowing that when you seek Me, there I will be to meet you.

You need financial breakthrough, seek My wisdom, then do it. And TRUST that I will provide.

You want time with your spouse, make it happen. Recognize that your marriage is your first priority after Me.

It didn’t take us long for us to realize that our doubt was interfering with us bearing fruit in the areas that mattered most.

Faith & Action Behind Our Prayers

Once we recognized what needed to change, we committed ourselves to doing what needed to be done.

We began to starve our doubts with God’s Word. And as we meditated on God’s Word, we began to put action behind our faith.

The Bible tells us that faith without works is dead. So if we we’re going to ask prayers in faith, we needed our actions to display what we believe.

“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?”
~ James 2:14 (NLT)

We wanted so desperately to see change in our marriage, our finances and our relationship with God, we wrote a list of what we desired.

Then we searched scriptures to back up our desires and wrote what we affectionately call our family confession.

That step was important to us because Jesus promises us in John 14 that if we ask anything in His name, He will do it.

“Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” ~ John 14:14 (NLT)

We began making small changes in our lifestyle to reflect what we were believing God for by putting faith and actions behind our prayers.

Before we knew it, God was opening up our schedule, and freeing up our morning to have designated devoted time with Him.

We implemented couch time to catch up with each other about our day and with our children.

God even gave us wisdom concerning our finances; things we could cut out, cut back, and ways to increase our income without pulling time away from what matters most.

In The End

We have witnessed first-hand when we prioritize God and live what we believe, God will reward us for honoring Him.

If you have been praying doubtful prayers, we encourage you to stop thinking about what can’t happen.

Instead, start thinking about what God is capable of doing and live like you believe it. Then watch God grant you the desires of your heart.

PIN FOR LATER

~ André and Timberley Gray