I read, in a book, this story about Napolean. It goes like this:
The great French conqueror, Napolean, in his quest to rule the world, was quite surprised on one occasion when he encountered unexpected resistance while attempting to capture an island in the Mediterranean. The fighting was fierce and he lost many good men in the battle before finally overcoming the enemy.
Napolean and his generals were having a celebration feast when from out of nowhere, it seemed, a young officer approached him. Napolean saw the young man and asked abruptly, “What do you want?”
The young man said, “Sir, please give me this island.”
The generals were deeply offended at the brashness of the young man. But, suddenly, Napolean asked for pen and ink, promptly writing out a deed to the island. He then signed it and gave it to the impetuous officer.
By this time the generals were astounded. They asked their leader, “How could you give away the island to that young man when so many of our men paid such a high price to obtain it?”
Napolean responded, “He honored me by the magnitude of his request.”
Did you catch that? “He honored me by the magnitude of his request”!!
You know, I think sometimes we simply pray too small. We pray prayers that might come to pass on their own because we’re afraid to believe for the impossible. We pray safe prayers, for things that we can make happen on our own with hard work and perseverance. We pray for mud piles, but God wants us to pray for islands!
This story about Napolean provokes me to ask God for the impossible, implausible, and downright grandiose. I believe the Lord is honored by those kinds of prayers.
What’s YOUR island? Let me encourage you to bring your massive, hairy, crazy dream to God and see what happens. In fact, why don’t you start right here? If you’re willing to put yourself out there and share your impossible prayer in the comments section, I’ll commit to agreeing in prayer with you for it.
If you’re reading this, and would like to pray for the requests posted here, just hit that reply link under the request and let that person know you’re praying for them.
I’ll start OK? My big prayer is to be able to take three missions trips a year, including one to Africa this August to visit the well our church just financed. It’s a $4,300 trip, but it might as well be a million dollar trip for us.
Now how about you?
Praying for you Lee… my prayer is to have the courage to follow the seemingly scary steps God may be calling me to take & that i can discern His leading
Just prayed with you. God bless!!!
Just a thought, it is scary, to say the least, to think we can belittle God based on how we pray. that we can reduce Him to our own insecurities and inabilities…
What an amazing read and write! Totally touched my heart. I agree with you. I pray that all your prayers come true. That you make it to Africa and get to go on all your missions.
I pray that all my prayers come true. I would like nothing more than to become a grand writer, a successful business woman, for the one that my heart desires to desire me too. To live a long life. to be able to travel around the world with the words of the Lord on my lips and share what I have learned. I pray for peace with all my family members and to bring our family circle back together again. I pray for World peace and no war. I pray that my brother’s make it in the music business, they work so hard. I pray my son is okay in Japan all alone and he stay’s strong without his wife and children. I pray my house in New York will be renovated in a timely fashion so I can go and enjoy all the beautiful nature of North Country and finally settle down. I pray I stay in the light of your love Lord, in Jesus name, Amen!
Just prayed with you, Sherri. God bless!!!
Prayers for your goals to come to pass, Lee. This is the most inspirational and motivational thing I’ve read in awhile. Not because I think God’s some gift-giving genie who’s just waiting around to give me everything I desire, but because I am made aware that I–whether subconsciously or consciously–often think of God as too small. I am guilty of praying for things that could easily come to pass if I work hard enough at them. But it’s a challenge I need to face to believe that God can do ANYTHING.
He’s put on my heart the desire to become a published author, to make other people happy and inspire and entertain and motivate others with my writing, the way others have inspired me. And I pray to be successful enough in it that I can support my fiance’ to switch into a career path he’s more suited to, more passionate about. So that he can start enjoying his life and work so much more, the way I enjoy writing. That is my massive, hairy, crazy dream, and I know God is capable, and I believe fully He put this inkling of a dream (of being an author) in my head as a kid, and now as an adult with schooling and a degree that has sadly not allowed me to find a job in the current economic state for two years, I know He can do it all and much, much more.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts, and your prayer.
Just prayed with you, Cheyenne. God bless!!!
Thank you, Jarika! I’m praying with you as well. I can relate to your situation as it’s very similar to my own. I know God gives us gifts that He can use for so much more than we can imagine, and I pray He uses your screenwriting abilities in huge, amazing ways! God bless you!
You’re very welcome!
Yes! Agreed. He has a plan much bigger than ours. thank you too!
I have four big, hairy prayers: 1. that my father be healed of COPD, 2. that my mother be healed of Alzheimer’s 3. that my sister’s mother-in-law, a woman whom I also love be cured of stage 4 pancreatic cancer and 4. That the church I now serve be a true source of living water to the surrounding community, sharing the good news of Christ to those who may not already know it or have been misinformed about it.
I will hold all the prayers lifted here up as well. Whenever two or more are agreed in prayer, it will be done.
Just prayed with you, Nancy. God bless!
Thank you Jarika. Praying with you as well.
You’re welcome and thanks, Nancy!
Haahaahh. I’m not too bright today. Great post!
Lee,
Just prayed for your mission trips.
I am praying that God allows me to begin starting a church in August of 2013 and that we are given an opportunity to do a church planting residency starting this year in August 2012.
Just prayed with you, Josh. God bless!!!
Just prayed for you, Lee. I ran across you site via Twitter, and I like what I see. I really love this article. The idea of honoring God with big requests seems off-putting. It would seem burdensome to have a large request made of you. But then God is the maker of the Heavens, the Earth, and every single thing in between. If anyone has it to give, it’s Him.
With that said, I just prayed and will continue to pray for this:
I’m being laid off from my job on May 27, 2012. I don’t want to go into another traditional work field, because my God-given gift of writing has been calling my heart and mind. I want to answer the call. More specifically, I want to formally begin my writing career by selling my first screenplay between then and now. It’s a big & tall order, but we serve a bigger God. If you will, please pray with me as I pray with you all.
Thanks,
Jarika
Thank you all for your prayers! I’ve prayed for every one of you!
The young officer asked for an island and I can relate having lived on islands in the Pacific Rim for 20 years. However, my island now is a small town in southeast Arizona. My prayer is for righteousness to reign in my small town. I have served in a position of influence since for nearly 10 months and God has moved in great ways. Now my health requires I step down, but I believe that is so that I can focus my time on the prayer side of this battle.
God’s word tells us that righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people. I am claiming this verse for my town. Please join me.
I have prayed for you, Lee, and each prayer request as I went down this list.
Thank you for following me on Twitter, Lee. I loved your Twitter bio so checked out your link. Awesome!
Thank you Jennifer. I’ll make sure to say a prayer for your town in Arizona. Every place your foot will stand, the Lord will give you!
AMEN! I agree with that prayer, Lord.
Thank you again, Lee.
That was a nice little plug for a money request there at the end. Are you some kind of pop-up church pastor that grows his flock only to make millions off of it later? I’ve read only a couple of your posts and I feel the need to call out people who need to be called out.
I wouldn’t expect anything less from a philosophy major. Thanks!
I see what you did there. Clever.
Okie dokie – you exhort people to honor God with the magnitude of their requests? My wife left me on November 21st, 1987. That’s 10,816 days ago, or 1545 weeks + 1 day. On March 29th, 1988 I was told God would restore my marriage. Well, I am still waiting.
You have some of the most incredible patience I have ever seen. I will definitely say a prayer for you today Roger.
I know nothing of you and found your website when researching Napoleon’s gift of an island. Since you have been kind enough to respond to my posting, I will tell you a story I have never told anyone. It has a Biblical foundation – as you read it, see if you know its Biblical reference.
The facts I have related to you have more to do with the sheer power of love, rather than patience. Yes, patience is the characteristic which might initially jump out at a reader. But it is only the raw power of love which will truly support such an exhausting journey.
Before I tell you my story, I make one other point. Most people fail to understand that a great testimony requires a great test. Most people want a powerful testimony, but they have very little interest in paying the price required by a great test.
The story is as follows:
There is a very large dry gorge which is miles in length. The rock walls of the gorge are at least a thousand feet high. The full gorge takes the shape of a Y. The two arms of the gorge extend for miles and are each a mile wide. When the arms merge, the gorge expands to two miles in width. Water flows through the gorge only during times of flash flooding.
All along the arms of the gorge are jets of fire which blaze from open fissures originating along the bottom of the gorge. The jets are orange and yellow flames of fire. There are thousands of these fiery jets along the bottom of the gorge. Some are only a few feet in height; some may blaze a hundred or more feet into the atmosphere from the floor of the gorge.
When the arms of the gorge merge, there is only one pillar of fire which can be seen. It is at least a mile downstream from where the arms merge.
All at once, flash flooding conditions occur. Water begins to rush down the arms of the dry gorge. A wall of water five hundred feet high and a mile wide flows down each arm of the gorge. The water completely covers the flaming jets of fire along the bottom of the gorge and extinguishes each flame.
As the walls of water from the two arms collide into a raging torrent five hundred feet high and two miles wide, the water approaches the single pillar of fire. This flaming pillar is a cylindrical column half a mile wide and a thousand feet high. It burns blue/white – the color of an oxy-acetylene flame. The 9,000 degree heat from the pillar is so extreme no one can come within a mile of the pillar.
As the water rages toward the pillar, a fierce wall of steam begins to boil off from the face of the waters. As the waters continue to approach the blazing pillar, the heat and wind force of the pillar causes the torrent to divide and pass around the flame. But before the water can extend beyond the pillar, it fully dissipates into billowing clouds of pure steam.
The power of the pillar of flame was strong enough to both divert and vaporize waters which had extinguished thousand upon thousands of smaller flames.
And that my friends, is the flame of love necessary to sustain almost thirty years of separation. It is the love Christ had for His church; it is a God given love which is imparted by God to those who truly love their mates with all their hearts.
The citation? Song of Songs, 8:6-7.
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Wow, that’s beautiful! Only God can give us the ability to love like that.
This is both convicting and encouraging. In reading this post I saw how I imposed limits on God, and how all those limits are superficial; even imagined.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks Zach!