The Prayer That Scares

Hello, tender friends!

Let’s talk sleep as a parent.

3 AM prayer life has become the norm for me since Cub was born. After spending way too long feeling bitter about having a kid who doesn’t sleep through the night, I embraced praying until I got back to sleep. During this time, God has recently put on my spirit to pray the “prayer that scares.”

This revelation came sometime over the past two weeks. (Please take it to the Holy Spirit if you think it may be applicable to you, because I am not a trained theologian, and I don’t believe one person’s revelation is necessarily applicable to anyone else).

Before Cub was born, I went on a weekend Christian women’s retreat in PA. The speaker said something I have gone back to over and over again. She said, “I’m staying on Earth until God calls me home or He allows the devil to take me out.”

That. That’s the kind of bad*** woman I want to be. I want to be that surrendered to whatever God chooses, even if he grants Satan authority like he did with Job, I thought.

I admired that she acknowledged the Christian call agitates Satan and that our obedience doesn’t always come easily. I admired that she was willing to remain obedient no matter the consequences.

But I have chickened out, tender friends.

I believe that I have experienced counterattacks following prayers for certain people who fall outside my normal realm of prayers. I recently prayed all day for a difficult personality, and when I encountered that person, they were agitated and even more difficult than usual.

It felt like my prayers were having the opposite effect and ruining my own quality of life. A normally unpleasant interaction was even more uncomfortable than usual.

So I stopped praying that prayer, that difficult prayer. I regularly pray the standard prayers with Anthony and Cub before bedtime: prayers for blessing on the family, prayers for the Lord to reveal how he wants us to use our time and talents to serve him, prayers to expose political corruption, prayers for our livelihood, etc.

But I gave up on the hardest prayer.

I’m not doing that anymore.

About a month ago, I felt led by the Holy Spirit to pray for our neighbor who I believe practices some sort of witchcraft. (This neighbor is never seen, shades are always drawn, they’ve got red paint on tree stumps on either side of their driveway and on their mailbox that look like blood dripping, tree limbs are arranged in formations on their lawn, and they’ve got a broomstick on their front door. If you know what this means, please let me know).

I obeyed the leading, but then started thinking:

What if demons hear me praying and try to attack me more?

Maybe this is all in my head.

I know there are rules to praying against dark forces, and I’m not well-trained in the rules.

When the Lord told me to pray the “prayer that scares” in the middle of the night, I knew he was challenging me to continue praying for the person that lives in that house. I know he’s challenging me to trust him not to give Satan any authority other than that which is already in God’s perfect will.

So I’ve been praying. Every day that I walk past that house, I repeat the Lord’s prayer. I haven’t discerned anything else yet for how I am to specifically direct prayer other than to continuously call the presence of God over the home so that whoever is inside can encounter the Light.

When I feel doubt rise up, Is this doing any good? What are you going to do if a demon appears to you demanding that you stop? I remind myself of what happened the day I looked a demon in the eye with absolute certainty he couldn’t harm me (a post for another day).

If I want to participate with God in bringing his kingdom to earth, I can’t expect it to be within the comfortable confines of my ordinary life. If I really want to say yes to the adventure that God calls us to, if I really want to get the privilege of watching strongholds fall, if I really want to experience more of God’s tremendous power, I have to pray the prayer that scares.

So that’s what I’m doing – today and every day. I’m praying the prayer that scares.

Ok tender friends, thank you for stopping by, and have a great day!

For those of you planning your readership, Thursday’s post will also be about praying the Lord’s prayer and a healing moment I had with God as a result of it. I’ll be writing next week about Cub’s recent theater experience and the marriage and family conference that we attended at our church. It was such a blessing to me that validated many of my parenting decisions.

If God has called you to do something outside of your comfort zone that you’re willing to share, please let me know in the comments!

Thank you for sharing!

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  1. hcline540

    Wow!!! What an encouraging read this was and it spoke volumes to me! Thank you Stacey!

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    1. Stacey

      Oh my, really!?. Thank you for letting me know! God always has the best timing.

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      1. hcline540

        When your feet got the floor, the devil says, uh-oh she’s up…

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  2. Debi Walter

    I remember years ago I prayed that God would teach me to love people as He does. I immediately sensed Him say, “Really?” It made me pause and ask if I was ready for an answer to that prayer. My life sense has been full of all kinds of adversity. But God has been with me every step. I think there are special blessings God reserves for those willing to enter the secret place of sufferings for His glory. Yes those prayers, like for your neighbors are scary if we stand alone. But think of Elisha who asked God to show his servant what he saw. The hills were surrounding them in the midst of opposition and oppression. God is the only One we must cowar before. For He is not safe, but He is good as C.S. Lewis said. Great bold prayers Stacey.

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    1. Stacey

      I love that! Thank you so much for sharing!

      That reminds me of the times I say, “Ok, Lord, tell me if I’m wrong and you want me to do something different.” It’s like an instant download from heaven redirecting me….and often so inconvenient but also loving. It is true he chastises those whom he loves! I aspire to that loving correction as a mom.

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  3. Ana Daksina

    The people next door might just be “goths.” It’s a harmless and largely lighthearted Halloween-y esthetic, often adopted by women of a certain weight who are convinced they look better in black.

    Like the big, scary, tattooed bikers whom you find in mass numbers on charitable kiddie gift runs at Christmas, sometimes goths turn out to be surprisingly some of the nicest people you know. Unless they start killing chickens over there you’re probably quite safe. 😊

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    1. Stacey

      We shall see, friend. I will write more on this in a blog post, but I have actually encountered the inhabitant twice since I wrote this post. In one encounter, I believe he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Since praying, some of the bark around the driveway that is covered in red paint has fallen off. I can’t say if there’s any connection or not.

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