Translated Prayers
"I prayed for a job, but instead, I received a peek into a different world."
If our baseline desire is to know God, then anything we pray for that grows out of that desire gets translated by the Holy Spirit, and God answers that translated prayer with a "YES!"
Ron Jensen is Director of Life Initiatives. The "300 Series" Videos present a weekly reflection on a Bible passage that addresses poverty or inter-cultural ministry.
This video is part of our Mentor Training series, "Spiritual Dynamics ", and is part of the training series Life Initiatives has developed for mentor development. Find out more here.
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sPIRITUAL DYNAMICS 301
Ron Jensen
"Translated Prayers"
(5 minutes)
Translated Prayers
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Text of the Video Message:
When my prayers aren't answered, I don't think it would bother me so much except that God says if we believe, He will answer. It's the inconsistency. I pray, but He doesn't answer. What do we do with that?
I know you've had the same struggle I have with this. In starting Life Initiatives, one of my desires has been to be able to pay the bills, so I have prayed for a job that will provide while we get established. I pray, but still no job.
The light came on last week as I read Romans 8:26-27 . God says this is how it works: If our baseline desire is to know God, then anything we pray for that grows out of that desire gets translated by the Holy Spirit, and God answers that translated prayer! He says, “Yes!”
God is an eternal, “big picture” God and we're people with short-sighted, today-only kind of prayers. How does an eternal God answer “today-only” prayers ?
God says His Spirit takes our weak, short-sighted prayers and translates them to match his will, his purpose .
Here's Romans 8:26-27:
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words . 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.
The Spirit pleads for us in harmony with God's will. If your heart is set on really loving God, your prayers are going to be “translate-able” to match God's will. So the challenge for us isn't to pray harder , it's to search our heart , and give God the priority, the first place there. Then go ahead and pray as you will, knowing that even if you're uncertain, your prayer will be carried by the Spirit to your Father who is enthusiastic about saying “yes” to your translated prayer.
If we look at prayer that way, then verse 28 in Romans 8 makes complete sense:
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
I think the best way to explain this is to give you an example from my own struggle in prayer. My prayer was for a job . That seems like a pretty fair request. I want to pay the bills and take care of my family. But there's another desire I have that's even deeper than that . I really want to know God, to see Him, and to work out his plan in the world around me. And that desire to see God at work is in every truly changed heart. It may not be a real strong desire at times, but every believer has it at his or her core.
So here's how my heavenly Dad answered my prayer for a job: He didn't give me one !
In leading me to establish Life Initiatives, my Father wants me to really understand what it's like to be unemployable . I have to feel, firsthand, the disappointment of trying to find a job, and time after time not getting one. That's what the poor feel a lot of the time. Either they don't have the skills, or the network of people, or the right skin color to get the job . If I don't feel that, then I'm going to enter their world with all the answers, and I'll come across as superior and condescending .
The folks I'm working with in Life Initiatives haven't felt that disappointment for only a few weeks or months; they've experienced it their entire lives.
As I share a small measure of that feeling, my attitude is changed in a huge way. I prayed for a job, but instead, I received a peek into a different world .
Can you see how my prayer was “translated”? I have been deeply satisfied by a prayer that was not answered in its original form . Instead it was translated, it was reshaped into a new form that more accurately met the needs of heart.
That's how God answers prayer! AWESOME!
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