Strength or breakthrough... which one should I pray for?

 Hi my Christian Damsels!

It's great to have you back with me in another post. 

I trust that all is well with you🤗!

In this post I'll be discussing the matter of prayer in a difficult situation.

What's your reflex prayer?

I've been through (and I'm still going through...) my share of unpleasant life experiences. 

There was the experience of an emergency C-section for my second child. 

That was rough!

I was just coming out of a season where I knew and saw God intervene on behalf of others and even myself! I knew God heard and answered prayer!

So when I found myself in the painful distress of recovery after an emergency C-section, I prayed.

And prayed.

And prayed.

And eventually started crying.

Because God was not answering me!

I was asking for healing and deliverance and relief.

And nothing.

I was still in unbelievable pain and couldn't move. 

Now if any of you are familiar with pregnancy, you will know that there is a constant need to "attend to yourself" for those first six weeks after delivery.

And then there is a newborn baby to nurse, bathe, change, burp, put to sleep, and play with.

But there I was stuck on my bed. Yes! It was that bad! Like, we had a bathroom in our bedroom and I couldn't get up to go use that bathroom bad!

So I prayed, but the deliverance I sought was not forthcoming. 

I guess I should have discerned that God wanted me to pray for strength to go through, and not immediate release!

My knee jerk reaction was to ask God to get me out of it all!

How about switching prayers?

This time around I've found myself in a long-term difficult situation. 

Everyday I have been sighing and asking God for strength. 

Then one day it dawned on me: the same God who has been strengthening me has equal power to change my situation!

So, I began asking God to do just that! 

Sounds easy, right?

But a new warfare arose in my mind and spirit.

I was so used to things not working out that I struggled to grab hold of a breakthrough. 

I mean, what if it was God's will for me to stay in that condition?

Maybe the opposition and blockages I seemed to be perpetually facing were actually from God and not the Devil!?🤷🏽‍♀️

I can assure you that switching prayers may not be as seamless as you'd think.

How can we know what to pray for?

The answer to this question lies in the Holy Spirit and in the relationship you have with Him.

Let's recall what the Scripture says in Romans 8:26-27.

It takes the Holy Spirit for you and I to know God's will for us. And it takes the Holy Spirit to pray!

So we must be cultivating and nurturing a relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

That's the surest way to position ourselves to know what God wants, and to lean on His leading in prayer. The Holy Spirit is the One who will let you know if you should be saddling up with some strength, or if you're to expect a breakthrough.

We must also have one other very important key in place- that is, openness to whatever God's will is! It can't be all about relief. We must be open to when God will say He's just giving you strength.

Either way, it is the Holy Spirit who guides us. 

He's such a gracious Helper! 

I hope you find Him to be such as well.

God bless you, Christian Damsel!🤗 Thanks for stopping by!

And just in case you'd like to contribute to this blog, here's my PayPal donate button!👍🏾