Always hope

I have discovered a new found love of intercessory prayer! For a while now, I’ve put off spending time with God, bored by the routine and selfish with my time. But now I enjoy praying for other people and trying to listen to what God might be saying. What’s strange is that I don’t enjoy praying for myself much. Maybe because I ‘pray’/think/talk to God so much about my life throughout the day, that there is no need to have a specific time for it.

Is it right to pray for specific things? When an alarming situation arises, I will always choose life and wholeness and healing rather than whatever God wants! Should I always pray for that? Should I always expect it to happen? I know that God loves those things; doesn’t mean they’ll happen. Is it wrong to pray that my friend gets the job she’s going for? Is it selfish to pray that my friend’s unborn child won’t have anything wrong with it? I don’t know what God wants. We pray for His will to be done. But the disciples knew His will; they were sent out and then did stuff. They didn’t pray over people, “O Lord, only if YOU desire it, then shall it be.” They said, “Be HEALED!”

At the moment, I’ve been praying a lot for hope. That hope will be obvious in the situations; that hope will rise out of the moment, and that it will calm and protect. Hope is good. It reminds us that although things aren’t as we might want them to be right now, anything is possible. I like that.