mandy inchaustegui

The other day, I read an interview of a pretty famous author who primarily writes about spiritual type things. He talked about a near-death experience that he had and the journey he embarked on afterward, going to different countries in the world to talk to people about how they deal with some pretty ugly and horrible life situations.
Besides being convicted in my own attitude lately of allowing myself be consumed with being frustrated with some of my life circumstances, there was something else that really got me to thinking.

He said that a lot of the time, we focus our prayers to God on asking Him to take us out of whatever is causing us pain or to struggle. However, he found in his travels, that people in other places will focus their prayers more on asking God for strength and the ability to get through the pain and the struggle. One is a prayer to be released. The other is a prayer to get through, carrying oneself with joy and grace.

I realized that most of my prayers lately have been much more of the former type. I have to admit, my first instinct was to feel horrible that I had been praying those types of prayers, feeling like I should only be praying those for strength, accepting my circumstances and “hardship.”

Yet, the more I thought about it and spent time in the Scriptures, I noticed both types of prayers all throughout, often prayed in the same breath. Almost simultaneously or with the one prayer implied while praying the other.

As I was initially reading the interview and reflecting on my own life, I understood the two prayers to be mutually exclusive, coming from two different perspectives. Yet, I came to the conclusion that they both are appropriate, honest and necessary.
I believe that God is totally ok with me nagging Him to bring about some breakthroughs in my life. I also believe that He desires to give me the strength to walk through this with a joy and peace that seems weird, but that reveals who He is. Both are prayers of trust and faith. Trust and faith…something I definitely need more of.

So, I’ve begun to pray again for courage, strength and joy to walk through the life circumstances that I’m currently encountering. The good and exciting (yet, scary) ones, as well as the difficult and painful ones. I’ve also continued to plead with God for the painful circumstances to stop, honestly sharing with Him the desires of my heart.

I’ve noticed that as I’ve prayed more of the first, my attitude towards my circumstances is changing a bit. I've also noticed that my other prayers have become more bold, fueled by a renewed faith instead of frustration and disappointment. There's this weird sense of hopeful anticipation to see what God is going to do. This is proving to be much, much better!