Using Prayer to See Potential

How to Find Your Purpose Green Vegetable Soup [Recipe]

Using Prayer to See Potential

I think about my life today and the life I was living 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. Oh how things change.

This morning as I read my devotional, I realized just how much prayer influenced these changes.

Prayer isn’t just the way we cultivate our own potential; prayer is the way we recognize potential in others.

Those words are from Mark Batterson’s new devotional, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge.

I realize the prayers of others are shaping my life. Let me explain.

Growing up there were a lot of words thrown my way: fat, stupid, ugly, worthless, retarded. Guess what I believed? All of the above. No wonder I was 25 years old, weighed 330 lbs., and hated my very existence. You can read more about that in my new book, if you’re interested.

But things started to change.

I remember specifically writing in my journal for God to send me a mentor – someone to walk alongside me in my life. I don’t remember how long it took for the prayer to be answered, but He answered indeed, above anything I could have asked or imagined.

He sent me a prayer warrior named Jennifer White, and for the last five years, this woman has prayed over me and for me more times than I can count. I know there were days she would have rather strangled me than pray, but she didn’t.

She used prayer to recognize the potential in me.

She realized I had been writing my future based on the things I believed about myself. Instead of allowing it to continue, she stepped in the gap and used prayer to write my future. She has remained consistent in those prayers and God has done some amazing things in my life over the last five years.

Prayer… is the difference between letting things happen and making things happen.

Using prayer to see my potential, Jennifer taught me how to use prayer to see my own potential. Life isn’t filled with words of death for me anymore. I actually see and believe the potential in me, God’s potential in me.

Not only do I see the potential, I strive daily to live it out. Why? Because I don’t want to waste anything God has given me to use for His glory. I’ve still God a lot of work to do, but I know I’m on the right path.

I’m working on how I see other people. I’m asking myself,

Am I using prayer to see the potential in others?

I’m trying. Our prayers are important. Does God need them? No, but He certainly loves them.

I challenge you today to think of one person you can stand in the gap for.

How can you use prayer to see her potential? How are you using prayer to help write his future?

I’d love to read the answer to these questions below. Feel free to leave a comment.