By Steven Furtick

A few years ago, I started realizing that I prayed some pretty dumb prayers. Not that I think God needs me to be eloquent or profound when I talk to him. It’s just that a lot of the stuff I was praying was, well, rather pointless and obtuse. Here are a couple of examples from Furtick’s Book of Dumb Prayers.

See if you can relate to this one: God, just be with me today.

Now, before you go getting all insulted (because I know you’ve prayed this one yourself), let me say right here that I understand the heart behind this prayer. And I’m sure God does too. What we mean is that we want to experience his presence and power in our lives. But come on. Isn’t the prayer God, just be with me today usually just filler? The kind of prayer we pray because we know we need to pray but we don’t really know what to say? Or we really don’t want to commit to anything specific, so we just keep it comfortably vague?

God fills heaven and earth. Every inch on this planet, and every other planet, belongs to him. And if we’re believers in Jesus, God lives in us in the form of the Holy Spirit. Do we really need to make sure he’s going to be with us? Couldn’t we get a little more creative?

Or how about this one? I used to always prequalify my big prayers with this introduction: God, if it be thy will . . .  So, does God need an opt-out clause in the contract before he’s willing to sign on the line and cut a deal with Steven Furtick? or with you? Again, I think we tack this on without thinking. We don’t mean any harm. It sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s even got a little King James English flair—which we all know makes the prayer more official. And on the surface, this whole idea seems very humble.

Over time, though, I realized that I wasn’t buffering my prayers with this condition because I was humble. I was doing it because I was scared. When I started with God, if it be thy will…, it made whatever I prayed about next feel safer. So, actually, it was a cop-out. What I was really praying was, God, I’m asking you to do this, but I’m not really expecting that you will. So, just in case you
don’t, let me acknowledge up front that you might not.

How about you? Prayed any dumb prayers lately? Don’t you get tired of lobbing empty language out into the atmosphere, hoping it materializes into something good? Would you believe me if I told you that audacious faith introduces a whole new way to approach your prayer life…and you can turn it around today?

A LARGE, OVERPOWERING FORCE IN MOTION
When it comes to prayer, a lot of us have the standard stuff down. We can string together enough spiritual-sounding words to hold our own if called upon in public. But praying a Sun Stand Still prayer requires something more than general competence. It takes us into new, unfamiliar, often intimidating territory. It isn’t like asking God to give you a good parking spot when you’re late for church or to bless your pepperoni pizza to the nourishment of your body. A Sun Stand Still prayer is wrapped with urgency. It’s filled with possibility. And for most of us, it’s a whole new way to pray.
I call it praying like a juggernaut. A juggernaut is defined as “a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path.” It’s often used to describe an unstoppable movement. I like that image. A lot. Maybe this is my testosterone talking, but when it comes to prayer, I don’t think it gets any better than that. And when it comes to identifying a model for praying this way, I can’t think of a more unstoppable juggernaut than our man Joshua.

Joshua’s Sun Stand Still prayer is not something we simply admire. Simple as it is, it shows us a bold way to address God that we can emulate. And this is true of all the great prayers of the Bible. They’re recorded in Scripture to set an all-time prayer standard for us. To force us out of our defensive prayer posture. To inspire us to rise up and begin to pray…like juggernauts.

Juggernauts like Moses, who stood in God’s way and prayed that God wouldn’t kill the Israelites after they worshiped the golden calf.

Juggernauts like the apostles, who asked for and expected miracles, and who spoke out boldly in the face of persecution so that the name of Jesus could be lifted high.

Juggernauts like Elijah, whose prayer both caused and ended a three-and-a-half-year drought.

You may push back on this, but I suggest that the prayers of these people are not abnormal. They are not the exception. At least they were never meant to be. The tragedy of our time is that we have taken what was meant to be ordinary and made it exceptional.

We’ve put audacity on the highest shelf, out of reach, and declared it off limits. James 5:17 makes this eye-opening statement:

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

It’s too bad that most of us focus on the second part of this verse. We’re stunned by the superior power of Elijah’s prayer life.

We’d love to have an ounce of his power flowing in our prayer lives. But we don’t have to wish. That’s the whole point of this passage. We are just like Elijah. We are just like Joshua.

Think about it. Elijah had access to an all-powerful God who could stop the rain. We have access to an all-powerful God who can stop the rain. Joshua had access to an all-powerful God who could make the sun stand still. We have access to an allpowerful God who can make the sun stand still. The only difference is that Elijah and Joshua had the audacity to pray prayers that lived up to God’s character, God’s heart, God’s resources, God’s will, and God’s abilities.

That’s what it means to pray like a juggernaut: to pray prayers worthy of the God we’re praying to. After all, we’re praying to a God whose capability always exceeds our audacity. You don’t have to worry about ever putting God in an awkward or embarrassing position. You’re not going to back him into a corner. You won’t ever challenge him to do something beyond his aptitude.

Prayer is the arena where our faith meets God’s abilities. And there is never going to be a moment when the audacity of our faith surpasses God’s capacity to respond. That’s why timid prayers are a waste of time. Is it really worthy of our God to ask him for a good day as our main point of conversation with him every morning? Or to ask him to make our job more tolerable? You and I are called to pray beyond that. Not just that God would give us a good day, but that he would show us his greatness throughout the day. Not just that we will find the strength to tolerate our work, but that we will find a purpose that can drive us to excel in our jobs for his glory.

It may take some adjustment and coaching to get to a place where extraordinary prayers become ordinary in our lives. It may require that we flex some muscles we didn’t know we had. But the
Bible leaves us without excuse. We’re strong in the Lord. And it’s time to put those muscles to work.
I’m going to let you in on the simple approach that has incubated my audacious prayer life. It has given new life, new perspective, and a different dimension to my prayers. I’ve got to warn you, though—this is high-voltage stuff. Sun Stand Still prayers can generate some pretty radical results.

SUNSET ON THE LOADING DOCK
One of the most discouraging days of my pastoral career was the day in 2008 when our church was scheduled to sign a contract to occupy a forty-two-thousand-square-foot facility in a local shopping center. We had big plans to retrofit the space and turn it into a worship center. It was going to be our first permanent location and our new ministry headquarters. But at the last minute, one of the other tenants chose to exercise a clause in the lease to deny us occupancy. This particular company couldn’t stand the thought of a church having worship services anywhere near its store. We pleaded. The tenant wouldn’t budge.

So we prayed. Not like beggars. Like juggernauts. We loaded up a group of about a hundred hard-core Elevators (that’s what we call our church members) and went to the facility that very night.

We got down on our knees on the oil-stained loading docks behind the building and asked God to give us that property…in Jesus’ name.

For a solid year, nothing happened.

Still, almost every day, when I drove by that building on my way to our offices, I just couldn’t let it go. I sensed that this space was supposed to be ours. So I prayed. Every time I passed it. Out loud. I must have stretched my hand toward that warehouse three hundred times. And each time, I spoke these words of faith:

“Father, I thank you that our church will have worship services in that warehouse and we will reach thousands of people for Jesus Christ, according to your perfect plan, in your perfect timing.”

By September 2009, we were conducting worship services with thousands of people in that building. Not only that, but one Sunday evening we also had the opportunity to baptize a couple hundred people on the very same oil-stained loading docks where we had lifted our voices in bold prayer eighteen months earlier. I had chills throughout my body as I stood off to the side, taking in the baptisms with my whole family and staff by my side. The atmosphere of gratitude was absolutely electric.

God had come through for us against all odds.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what happened to the business that originally wouldn’t let us in the building—it went bankrupt.

Not just that one store. The whole chain. Seventy-seven stores nationwide. I’m not saying God put this company out of business. But it makes you wonder…

A large, powerful force in motion. Unstoppable movement. What a way to pray!

I hope I’m not freaking you out too badly here. Listen, I’m not advocating that we drive around praying for organizations to go out of business or waving our arms wildly, randomly claiming
real estate.

But when it comes to standing on God’s purposes and promises, why shouldn’t we push the limits and aggressively pursue new territory? It’s the approach taken by the great juggernauts of prayer in the amazing events recorded in the Bible. And it’s the same approach that can enable you to become a juggernaut of prayer in our day.

I want to walk you through some of the specific qualities of Sun Stand Still prayers. When I’m finished, you’ll have a pattern for building a case before God in prayer. Now, the first time I heard the phrase build a case before God, I didn’t get it. It sounded like courtroom theology. It even seemed to have a manipulative vibe. I assure you, however, that building a case before God is biblical, and it’s practical. And I’ve seen it transform the prayer lives of thousands of Christians who are tired of praying to God about the same old things in the same old way.

It’s not enough to figure out what you need to pray about. But you might need some help knowing how to pray about what you know you need to pray about. And by building a case before God, you can approach him with audacious faith, because your prayer is based on a solid foundation.

RECONCILE YOUR DREAMS WITH GOD’S DESIRES
First John 5:14–15 is a classic juggernaut prayer passage:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Notice that it doesn’t say “if we ask anything we desire” or “if we ask anything audaciously,” but “if we ask anything according to his will.” In other words, God wants our agenda to align with his agenda. Our audacity must be in sync with God’s purposes.

Praying this way reconciles your God-sized dreams with the God you actually find in the Bible. It makes you filter your audacity through God’s desires, not just your own. And hopefully, over time, your desires and God’s desires will become one and the same.

Please note: Praying with audacity does not mean you simply pray the biggest prayer you can think of that is going to benefit your life. You don’t need much imagination to come up with this type of prayer. You could ask God to let you live the rest of your life free from physical and emotional pain. You could pray for billions of dollars to instantly hit your bank account. Hallelujah. Sun stand still. What’s the magic word again?

These requests are audacious. But they’re also self-obsessed and disconnected from reality. If your Sun Stand Still prayer isn’t based on God’s agenda in the world, you don’t have much of a case to build. What you have, my friend, is a fantasy.

The last thing I want to do is stifle your prayers or make you afraid to pray the impossible. Just the opposite: I desperately desire for you to stop settling for the low-grade prayers that characterize the lives of far too many believers. But I also want to see your bold prayers answered as God moves in a mighty way in your life for his glory. That’s not going to happen if you are praying only to benefit your own agenda.

This is why the Word of God is so crucial to audacious faith. It is impossible to separate audacious and effective prayer from knowledge of the Word of God. It is in the Word that we find God’s promises and his pattern of acting in history. It is in the Word that our paradigms of thinking are reprogrammed to match God’s purposes in our lives and the world. Every time you kneel before the Father to pray with audacity, you must have his Word in your mind and in your heart. Otherwise, you risk confusing your agenda with his, praying gigantic prayers that bring microscopic returns.

REMIND GOD OF WHAT HE ALREADY KNOWS
Joshua prayed that the sun would stand still because God had promised the Israelites to fight for them and defeat their enemies. Joshua’s bold request was based on a promise God had made to him. He wanted to see God’s purposes accomplished.

In Exodus 32, we read about how Moses found the courage to respond to God’s threat to destroy the Israelites after they worshiped the golden calf by pointing out that it would defame his name in Egypt and by reminding him of a promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses’ desire was to see God’s name honored and his promise fulfilled, and this gave him the audacity to stand between God and the Israelites.

David spent the first half of Psalm 68 praising God for his past deeds of deliverance and salvation. But on the basis of this, he said in verse 28, “Show us your strength, O God, as you have done before.”

David knew God had delivered the Israelites from enemies in the past and therefore asked that God would do it in the present.

In each of these scenarios, one of God’s servants is reminding God of something he did in the past or a promise he made concerning the future. What’s up with that? Did God forget? Does he need an administrative assistant?

Reminding God of his promises isn’t about giving him new information. It’s about experiencing his transformation. By going back to the Word of God and recalling his promises and the pattern of his actions in the past, your audacity is stirred. Your desires are aligned with God’s purposes. The promises of God are woven into the fabric of your faith. And your motivations become his
motivations.

Let me show you how this works in our lives today.

Maybe you’re facing a significant decision that will affect the entire direction of your life, and you don’t know what to do next. Your Sun Stand Still prayer could start like this:

Lord, I read in Genesis 12 how you told Abraham to go to the land that you would show him. He didn’t know what the final destination would be, but he acted in obedience to what you had said. And you led him step by step along the way. So, Lord, right now I don’t know what the final destination is going to be for me, but I’m going to take the next step that you’ve told me to take. God, like you led Abraham back then, would you lead me now? Would you give me wisdom? Would you show me the next right thing to do?

Or maybe you are married and have been unable to have children. Your Sun Stand Still prayer may begin with this:

Lord, my spouse and I desperately want to raise godly children who will be leaders in their generation for your glory. I was reading in the Bible about a woman named Hannah. She was really bitter and sad because she didn’t have a child. She prayed to you, and you gave her the desire of her heart. And she dedicated that child to you. Lord, I’m asking that you would send a child into our lives. As you do, I promise to give you the glory and the praise. I want this to be all about you, so if you say no to that, I trust that you’re wiser than I am, because I have built this prayer on the foundation of your sovereignty, not my preferences or my own agenda. But God, in accordance with what you’ve done for others, would you do it for me?

Or let’s say you have a shortage of money or assets, and you desperately need God to provide for your family. Instead of going to God and pleading with him on the basis of pretty please, God…, go to him and say:

Lord, I’m low on resources. One time I read in Matthew 14 how you fed over five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. God, would you multiply that same kind of provision for my family right now?

It’s remarkable to realize that you can pray this way about anything—the healing of an illness, the salvation of the lost, reconciliation in torn-apart families, the lifting of depression, the
homecoming of children who have wandered, and everything else under the sun. Building a case before God is so much better than resorting to prayers that begin like this: Lord, would you please send us some money? I mean, if you don’t want to, it’s all good. If it be thy will…

Discard the disclaimers. Stop hunting and pecking to find the will of God. Go to the Scriptures and know God’s will.

When you pray according to God’s promises, you will be praying God’s will. Like I said earlier, you don’t have to prequalify all your prayers. In 1 John 5:14, the Bible says that if you ask anything
according to his will, he hears you. It’s time to speak up with a bold, new confidence.

Building a case before God in prayer is dangerous. If done right, it has the power to actually change the fundamental structures of your life and the world. But if you get this concept twisted, you could end up asking for what you deserve. And in this case, that’s the worst possible approach you could take.

YOU DON’T WANT WHAT YOU DESERVE
I don’t want to expose you to the concept of building a case in prayer without clarifying exactly what kind of case you’re building. Otherwise, you might put down this book and start to pray:

Lord, I consider myself a good person. You know I’ve been working really hard. I’ve been serving you all my life. My back’s against the wall on this one. I need you to come through in a huge way. God, I’m doing the best I can. Now can you hook a brother up?

Let me assure you: When you come before God, the last thing you want to do is build your case on the basis of what you think you deserve. I promise you—you don’t want what you deserve.
That last statement goes against the grain of what our culture and even what many Christians believe. Most believe that if people are good, or at least try to be good, they deserve certain good things from God. They deserve to be blessed. They deserve to be happy. And they definitely deserve to have their prayers answered.

The problem is that this belief is based on a notion that God is keeping our spiritual credit score, and his response to us is based on the quality of our performance. In reality, when we come before God and start building a case on the basis of our credit, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.

When I was in tenth grade, I had a social studies teacher who was also a football coach. He was definitely more coach than teacher. So he wasn’t in class much during football season. He showed a lot of videos. I appreciated that. It made for my favorite kind of class—the kind I didn’t have to think about much.

When we got our first progress report, I was surprised to notice that I had a C in Coach’s class. Certainly I didn’t deserve a C.

I took my case straight to the coach. He was cool. He was laidback. He liked me. Surely we could work something out.

“Coach,” I said, “what’s up with this C you gave me?”

He studied my face. It seemed like he was trying to feel me out. Finally he said, “I don’t know. Let’s get out the grade book and take a look.”

He opened up the grade book. I noticed a lot of zeros in the homework column. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that he was actually keeping track of the homework that I wasn’t turning in. Obviously, I had underestimated him. Coach pulled out a calculator and started calculating all the other grades. The result was a C. Then he averaged in all the zeros. As he summed up the situation, he put the grade book down and looked at me squarely.

“You know, Steven, you’re right,” he said calmly. “You’re absolutely right. You don’t deserve a C in my class. Not at all. Looks like you deserve an F. Would you like me to make the adjustment?”

Suddenly that C seemed more than fair. In fact, it seemed downright gracious.

I sat back down and shut my mouth. So much for what I deserved.

We’ve got to realize that if God ever really broke out the calculator and the grade book, none of our prayers would be answered.

No one is qualified to come before God. None of us have built up enough credit or goodwill to enable us to be in any way entitled to get God to move.

Don’t ever ask God to give you the grade you deserve. True prayers of faith are based in grace. Build your case on this: the righteousness that has been credited to your account through the perfect performance of Jesus Christ.

Sun Stand Still prayers aren’t about changing God’s mind. They’re about changing your heart, activating your faith, and developing your confidence in God’s Word and character. As this
happens, the audacity of your prayers will increase because you will repeatedly encounter a God who has acted audaciously in the past and longs to do so today.

He still longs to make the sun stand still. In the past, it was a juggernaut named Joshua who acted on that promise. Now it’s your turn.

About the Author
Steven Furtick is the lead pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Elevation was launched five years ago on the principles of Sun Stand Still. Today Elevation ministers to more than 6,000 individuals every weekend from its three campuses. For more information on Sun Stand Still, click here.  Article is taken from Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. (C) 2010 Steven Furtick. Published by Random House. Used by permission.