“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12
The first principle for emotional healing is PRAYER! Now you are probably saying, I already know that! However, I am encouraging transformation prayer. The first step in transformation prayer is going to God with all of your heart. For most, we shrink back from doing this because, we believe that good people should not think or have these deep inner pains. We may also think that we should not burden God with our issues. In certain situations, we may think that we are not good enough to tell God our issues. Despite how we are thinking, God wants to hear from us. He wants to be trusted with our big or small issues! God can handle what you dish out. HE is saying that he will stop anything to hear from us!
Challenge: To embrace going to God with all of your heart, I challenge you to pray about an issue or emotion that you have kept buried in your heart. This issue is something that you have been afraid to tell God. To complete this challenge may take time as you muster the courage to do it. Start small by just telling God about your day.
“while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
Another element of transformation prayer is knowing that God is our best friend. He is our eternal unseen best friend! Like any close friends, we tend to chatter and share our lives with them. Sometimes it is difficult to pray through the deepest parts of our hearts when we cannot envision God being near us.
Challenge: Your challenge, if you choose to accept, is to spend time talking to God as if He is sitting right next to you. This may be hard at first and if other people are watching, they may think that you are bonkers. However, I rather be a little crazy because I am talking to God, instead of acting crazy towards others.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.
In transformation prayer, we accept God’s answers to our pleas. I must admit that I usually fall short in this area of transformation prayer. Why, I am God’s daughter and I believe without a shadow of doubt that God can do anything. This also means that when I pray, He should tell me, “Yes, my sweet daughter!” Now as I say this, you are probably like darn she’s spoiled. I must admit, I am. However, in transformation prayer, we accept how God answers our requests. He may state, “not right now, but I got something else for you.” He may also respond, “not right now, because this will harm you.”
Challenge: If you choose to accept, your challenge is to journal areas in your life where God said no. Also consider those experiences where it was not until later that you understood the no response and was grateful for it.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
The final element of transformation prayer is praying through. What do I mean by this? Sometimes it is easy to focus on our faults. When we do, we may feel that we are unworthy of God’s attention, especially for HIM to answer our prayers or redeem us. No matter how ugly we become due to our human limitations, shortcomings, character defects, God is always with us. He will never leave nor forsake us. Thus, despite our limitations, we know to continue to go to God and pray through whatever we are doing and experiencing.
Challenge: If you choose to accept, your challenge is to journal or reflect on a time when you knew you were doing wrong, but God still blessed you.
As we wrap up transformation prayer, this principal can be applied to any circumstance to where we experience emotional hurt. In terms of shutting down, we may decide to remove ourselves from life and people. We may also think that no one understands us. We might even think that we did not deserve the treatment dealt to us. In those moments, it is easy to feel isolated and not cared about. I am talking to myself at this moment. Nevertheless, when we implement transformation prayer, we put the responsibility back onto God to mend our spirits and hearts. We know that we are safe in HIM, He can take what we dish out, He has good intentions towards us, and He is always there. Pursuing transformation prayer versus shutting down takes time and practice. As we pursue life, all God asks of us is to continue on our journey with HIM.
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