Pray.

Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed. Prior to recovery, I'd made a habit of placing my faith in things or in people that let me down. My best thinking, combined with misplaced faith, resulted in a crisis of identity and belief... which led me to doubt God's ability and authority, and my prayers reflected my unbelief.  

There's a saying: Only God can make a tree. The Lord is the Author and Creator of the universe, of time and space and the laws of physics. God created the world simply by speaking. He is the only one who can right wrongs, forgive sin, redeem the lost, heal the hurting, repair brokenness and restore faith and "the years that the locusts have eaten." Only God can bend the rules of time and space and physics; He can do beyond what we can ask or think; He can work miracles and do the impossible. The Lord's ability and authority are omniscient and absolute, yet I prayed as if this were not so. 

My recovery journey led me to ask myself some questions. Some easy, some not so easy—to ask or have answered. But ask them I did, and God literally blew my mind sometimes, especially when I was at my most desperate and too weak to do anything else BUT pray.

I still make a habit of asking myself, and asking God, the hard questions, and it has revolutionized my prayer life—the daily habit of it, how I do it and what I expect to come of it. If you "feel stupid" praying, or don't know how to pray or where to start, ask yourself: What things or people have you given up on? What seems completely impossible to you? What things do you keep coming back to in your life over and over and over again? Pray about THAT! For example:  

• What negative things have you been told about yourself? To what extent do you accept those things as true?
• How do you rebel against those things?
• What do you need from life and relationships that you aren't getting? What do you need from GOD that you aren't getting?
• How is giving your life up to Jesus different from giving your life away to others?
• How is being selfish different from simply being yourself?
• If you never doubted that God's ability and authority are LIMITLESS, and you KNEW that He could do ANYTHING, how would you pray? 
• What would you ask God to do if you KNEW He wouldn't fail? What impossible things and miracles would you ask Him to do for you?

The majority of prayers that we send up are ineffective because we come AT God with pretty phrases and religious platitudes. God wants your most honest, truest soul. Recovery taught me how to TALK WITH God. My "prayers" turned into conversations. Lay it all at His feet with brutal honesty. Don't hold anything back! Keep it REAL. Empty yourself of every single thought and emotion... He's big enough to take it, and what's more, you can't really hide it, yeah? After all, He already knows everything you are thinking and feeling. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? 

So just TALK to Him, get it all out and when you've got nothing left... Sit back, keep your mouth shut, and LISTEN. Then watch Him work miracles and do the impossible.

Prayer has TEETH. And prayer is never more powerful than when JESUS does most of the talking.  

You can learn to pray like this! And if you do, I promise, it will re-energize your faith and light a fire under your rear like nothing else can. When you see God start to move your mountains—the ones you thought would be there for the rest of your life—well, that kind of power will fundamentally change a person. Then you will be introduced to a God you only THOUGHT you knew!

Peace be with you.