Do you ever have to speak to your soul in the same way we can see the psalmists speak to their souls in the Bible?
Katie and Bryan Torwalt do this beautifully in the song Remember through the lyrics, “Oh my soul, remember who you’re talking to, the only one who death bows to, that’s the God who walks with you.”
Sometimes, we have to speak to our own souls and strengthen them with the truth of who God is.
In this example, the Torwalts are reminding their souls, and ours, who it is who they are praying to. This same concept has come up a couple times in my life lately, and I felt like someone else might need this reminder as well.
My husband decided to get a book full of sermons by the great revivalist Smith Wigglesworth. (I know his name totally sounds like it’s made up, but you can look him up it’s legit.) One of the sermons he read to me, and it pointed out the problem Wigglesworth saw in some prayers he had heard.
The prayers were too focused on the person who was being prayed for instead of being focused on the God who they were praying to.
If I’m honest, I’ve done this myself. Wigglesworth used the example of praying for someone who is sick, and how seeing someone who is near death and ill might lead us to want to pray for comfort for their family, for peace in a difficult time, etc. Those aren’t wrong things to pray for. But they are focused more on the circumstance instead of on God.
When we focus our prayers on God, that’s where the prayer of faith comes from. Because instead of looking to the circumstance or the problem, we are looking to an all powerful God. Or, as Katie and Bryan Torwalt might say, we are telling our souls to remember who we are talking to.
Do you see this pattern in your own prayer life?
I used to have a mentor who I watched pray for many people. Before he prayed, he would say, “I’m going to be quiet for a moment and listen to God.” When I asked what he was listening for, he told me he was asking God what He wanted to do for that person.
Because as many of us might have seen in our own lives, some things we are asking for in prayer aren’t necessarily the things God wants to do for us. In my experience, He usually wants to do even more.
I think our prayers would be more powerful and effective if we started by listening. I love that my mentor used to take a moment to listen to what God wanted to do in prayer before he started to pray. I think that’s an example worth following, but I want to take it a step further.
Before we pray for someone, we need to lift our eyes to the God who made them, who loves them who knows them. We need to focus less on the person or the circumstance we are praying for or about, and focus on the God who is about to move.
When we focus on the God who we know can work miracles, when we remember the answered prayers we have already experienced, that’s when our prayers shift from being prayers focused on what is in front of us to becoming focused on the unseen things God is at work in.
To have powerful prayers, remind yourself who it is you are praying to.
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