Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus Was Never Meant to Be Safe

by Craig Groeschel

Jesus never asks us to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He calls us to a life of faith, not a life of comfort.

Your prayers matter. How you pray matters. What you pray matters. Your. Prayers. Move. God.

It’s easy to pretend we are good at heart, but the Bible teaches us that our heart deceives us and is desperately wicked. At its core, our heart is all about self—not Christ. It’s about what’s temporary—not eternal. It’s about what’s easy—not what’s right. It’s obsessed with what we want—not what God wants.

But the most common lies are the ones we tell ourselves.

Without Christ, your heart is deceitful.

God showed me that what I feared the most revealed where I trusted God the least.

Our fears matter. Because ultimately, our fears show how we’re relying on our own efforts and not trusting in our Savior.

I’ve often said, the pathway to your greatest potential is often straight through your greatest fear. Faith will propel you forward. In fact, what God wants for you may be on the other side of what you fear the most.

Without faith, it’s impossible to please God. Remind yourself that you love pleasing God more than you fear failing.

It’s not easy because most of us are masters at rationalizing our wrong actions.

We need God’s help to see the sin that’s difficult to see in the mirror.

Without even knowing it, our deceptive hearts deceive us into ignoring our own sin.

Denying the truth doesn’t change the facts.

Because becoming obsessed with what people think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.

Because your deepest need becomes a gift when it moves you to depend on Christ.

But my question then remains the same for all of us today: what are we losing by clinging to our comfort?

What are we missing out on because we’re so committed to avoiding pain and discomfort?