Pray For Yourself

Pray for Yourself

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10

AS YOU’VE GROWN IN FAITH, you’ve likely realized that your prayer life is bigger than your immediate concerns. God cares for your troubles, of course, but you fit within a larger purpose: the advancement of his Kingdom on earth. Your relationship with him is personal, but it’s larger than you are. You are meant to spill over into the world around you. You are called to be a fount of life, love, faith, joy, peace, wisdom, and comfort for the people you know. God pours all of his blessings into you for two purposes: for you to experience them yourself and for others to experience them in you. You are a carrier of his Kingdom.

It’s extremely important, then, to pray for yourself. You can pray diligently and zealously for others, but if those prayers are coming from a leaky vessel that is not overflowing with the wisdom, power, and love of God—if they aren’t saturated in faith and purpose—then they are not as effective and empowered as they could be. Just as flight attendants tell us before takeoff, it’s important to tend to our own oxygen masks before helping others with theirs. If our prayers aren’t flowing from ongoing experiences with the goodness of God, they aren’t nearly as likely to impart those experiences to others.

As we’ve seen, praying in power is not a matter of earning or deserving answers to our prayers, but it can be a matter of positioning—of stepping into the authority we have been given to pray in Jesus’ name. We need encounters with the goodness of God because they stir up our faith and cultivate expectancy. When we keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking for God to fill our lives with the Holy Spirit and the wisdom, power, and love he promises, we begin to embody the things we are praying for in others. We become vessels that carry the blessings and power of God. And that is worth prioritizing in our prayers every day.

God longs to make something supernatural of us.