You may have heard someone warn against praying for patience because God will create a situation that will require a lot of patience. I heard someone say once that we should be praying God-sized prayers – prayers that we can’t fulfill on our own – prayers that only God can answer. I want to share two prayers with you that are dangerous, God-sized prayers.
The first is a Franciscan Benediction that Philip Yancey quoted in his book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference. It was also used at Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change tour. This beautiful prayer is a dangerous, God-sized prayer because it asks God to mold us into people who are broken by the things that God is passionate about.
The second prayer is actually a poem by Amy Carmichael called Make Me Thy Fuel. Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary who devoted her life to helping poor kids in India. This poem is a dangerous prayer to pray because it asks God for the opportunity to die to ourselves and live for Him and others.
A Fransican Benediction
May God bless you with discomfort,
at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger,
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
My God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their
pain to joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness,
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.
Make Me Thy Fuel
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from wind that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, free
The soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified),
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
What dangerous prayer have you prayed? What happened?
Grace Rules Weblog 
after I pray this dangerous prayer I feel different my body was free as I was holding a rock over my shoulder
the moment i prayed this prayer i felt differently from my feet
Hello, I can’t understand how to add your blog in my rss reader
————————
signature: http://xabul.ru/
SipPlaisp-
I have added a button on the right that links to my feed.
Rachel – I love the attitude of praying to be able to see what God is doing and asking him to transform us so that we can partner with him in his work. Thanks for sharing.
I love that benediction, we prayed it as our benediction for our wedding. I think it shapes me in some way each time I think of it.
I wish I could remember where I heard it, but the prayer I pray most often is: G-d, please open my heart and eyes to be a part of what you are already blessing.
It is I guess a direct reply back to the idea that we are constantly asking G-d to bless this, and bless that, rather than move us ever forward to have G-d reveal what G-d is currently blessing and to climb on board with that. And this prayer has led me in directions I never could have planned, asked me to care for things I never thought I would or could. Great post friend. Thank you.