Hey everyone! My name is Sam and I am very excited to have the opportunity to contribute to this blog! With BASICcon and BASICcon Jersey this month I’m stepping in to help out with a couple guest posts this month. I thought a lot about what I wanted to share, and I just couldn’t resist talking about a passion of mine, prayer.
Prayer was certainly not always a passion of mine. In fact, I was terrified of prayer for quite some time. With my on and off Roman Catholic upbringing, I learned that prayer was silent and private. You can imagine my shock coming to college sitting in my first small group and being asked not only to pray, but out loud in front of everybody! I still remember being flustered, my cheeks turning red, and my throat closing up. I was intimidated, insecure, and scared out of my mind. I was a new believer and decided very quickly prayer just wasn’t for me.
Thankfully the Lord had other plans. As it turned out, I was voted into BASIC leadership that semester as Prayer Coordinator. My job was to not only be praying faithfully for the group, but to be planning and leading prayer at our weekly Saturday night prayer meeting. Though my initial thoughts were anything but enthusiastic, the Lord started creating in me a hunger to understand His heart for prayer.
That summer I dug through the Scriptures to find anything I could and my eyes were opened to the amazing privilege and power that we have in prayer. Here are just a few:
– Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. // John 14:13-14
– Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. // Mark 11:24
– Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. // 1 John 5:14-15
– And whatever you ask in prayer you will receive if you have faith. // Matthew 21:22
– Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. // Matthew 7:7-8
– You do not have, because you do not ask. // James 4:2
I don’t know about all of you, but that just gets me amped up! When we look at the Word a very clear and beautiful truth emerges. God delights in our asking! Not only do we have the supreme privilege of getting 24/7 access to the God of the Universe, but He desires to partner with us to accomplish His purposes on this earth! My desire for all of us is to contemplate the weight of this truth. It seems pretty clear to me, asking = receiving.
What would we dare pray for if we truly believed this? Would you believe for your group to multiply? For the most radical atheist student you know to experience the love of Christ? Would you believe for the salvation of 10 students this year? 100? 1,000? Unity of the body on our campuses? An awakening to sweep across this generation and ripple to the world? Let me remind you friends, this is GOD we are talking about here, NOTHING is impossible for Him.
Historically it is recorded that revivals are ignited by the powerful prayers of a few children of God who believed for more and would not give up until He showed up. So let us as advisors lead our groups boldly believing for impossible things. Let us be unafraid to ask God to work miracles among us. Let us be examples to our students of what it looks like to come humbly before His throne and ask Him anything in faith believing that He will do it.