I bet I know why we don’t ask bigger things of God. It’s because we’re afraid He won’t do them, and then we will be ashamed. It isn’t modesty; it’s unbelief.

But I have decided to go for broke and believe that God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, just as I have been professing He is (at least on paper). I am coming to Him with a quiverful of His promises: “All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). “Everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:8). “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2). Jesus doesn’t like timidity of expectation (Matthew 6:30; 8:26; 9:28-29; 14:31). Jesus likes it when we think He is outrageously powerful (Matthew 8:9-10). Jesus likes it when our faith reasoning is outrageously creative (Matthew 9:21-22; 15:26-28).

He delights in doing things with one hand tied behind his back. Don’t send out 32,000 soldiers, Gideon; let me do the thing with 300 men (Judges 7). “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather, let the shadow go back ten steps” (2 Kings 20:10). Why didn’t you trust me enough to strike the ground with the arrow more than three times, Hezekiah? Then I would have given you a spectacular victory, instead of just a ho-hum victory. (2 Kings 13:18-19).

We honor Him by taking Him at His Word, rather than mind-screwing a thousand reasons why the prayer cannot possibly be answered. When you think about it, all faith comes down to that.

This step has proved very freeing. Once one has crossed that Rubicon of faith, one notices an upsurge of new prayer requests from the heart. One begins to pray for things one not only was afraid to ask, but didn’t even think to ask.

Someone close to me has a 3-year-old child by a man who is serving time in prison. I have begun to pray that both the young woman and the man become Christians, they get married, and they raise their child together in a Christian home. I will just keep at it like the persistent widow God has made me.

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