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Partnering through prayer...

Writer's picture: Kristan Dooley Kristan Dooley

The reality is, God is already working in your life. He's already present and busy doing something. All the time. Our job then, when brokenness hits, is to realign our posture to be where He is. Sitting helps shift our posture because it calms us down and changes what we look at. Prayer isn't our opportunity to get God on board with our plans. It's actually our opportunity to get on board with His.

When our weeping moves to praying our brokenness moves to bigger. If we will resist the urge to give up and go back, God will open our eyes and invites our hands into His rebuilding plans.

Brokenness is hard, sitting down in it is even harder, trusting God in the midst of your pain can be darn near impossible some days. When He's not doing what you think He should be doing. When it doesn't make sense. When He feels distant and your hope wanes. It's not easy to surrender our plans and accept His. What you do on your hard days will make all the difference in the world.

I was out running the other day and it was hard. Harder than normal. When you are almost finished training for a half marathon a three mile run should not be a difficult task. But, here I was struggling to make it. I had to stop. My body made me. “Holley, I have to walk,” I breathed out, “I just don’t have it today.”

So we did, we stopped and we walked. For the last mile. It stunk. It wasn’t what I wanted and not how I’d planned, but it was how the run played out. What I didn’t do was throw away four months of training because of one hard day. Three steps forward and one step back, still equals two steps forward. Our progress isn't always perfect but it's forward movement.

We pray because we need Jesus. We partner with our prayers because He has chosen us as participants. God is not looking for mindless robots, He is looking for active sons and daughters.

I have a good friend who always says, “lets pray like it depends on God and work ike it depends on us.” We can pray and pray and pray, but if we never partner with our prayers some things just won’t get done. God is not a genie, waiting to grant us our wish. He is a Father, wanting to partner us with His supernatural power and move mountains. Kneeling on the floor begging God to change our current situation, but never getting up and doing anything about our current situation only, always leaves us still sitting on the floor. Don’t get me wrong, God can and sometimes will, miraculously change your current situation, but more times than not He is waiting for you to join Him in your transformation.

A few years ago I sat with a team of women, planning and organizing our upcoming women's conference. As a team we asked God to give us each a picture of what freedom in Christ really looked like and then we got quiet and waiting to see how He moved. I saw it quickly, it was David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant with all his strength. Not caring what the world thought of him, but worshiping with all he had before the Lord. In my heart during that moment, I felt like God showed me I would know I was free when I could dance joyously without a care of what's happening around me. At the time, the idea of letting loose of all of my inhabitions in worship made me nervous.

I never told a soul. Sometimes we don’t say things out loud because, if we have the right people in our lives, we are forced to follow through. As long as no one knew, no one would push me to follow Jesus to freedom. Almost two years later I found myself back at that dancing picture. Only this time it was brought to my attention by my youngest. Mid-way through a night of worship, Addilyn, my youngest, came up to me, “Mom, will you please dance with me?” You might think that’s just a simple question all kids ask, but I promise in that moment it was Jesus inviting me to partner with my prayers once again. Addy is my soccer player. She has never, not once, asked me to dance with her.

In the few moments following Addilyn’s question, I felt the Lord was speaking to me about the freedom of my girls. My willingness to partner with my prayers wasn't just for me. It was also for my girls. If I overcame this, then some day they wouldn’t have to. There comes a point in time when you simply have to go and do. No amount of prayer or repentance was going to snap me into a dancer. I simply had to dance. I had to go and do what He was inviting me into and on the other side I would receive my breakthrough.

Hearing and doing, believing and repenting, giving and receiving, praying and partnering. Our prayers change things because they change us. How we pray needs to also become how we live. What are you asking Him for in your brokenness? What is He inviting you into through your pain? Sitting is important because it makes room for Him, but eventually our crying must turning to praying and our sitting to stepping. He has something to rebuild, but He wants your help.

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