God Wants Your Emotional Prayers

[God Wants Your Emotional Prayers]( Current Teaching Series [40 Days of Prayer]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [God Wants Your Emotional Prayers]( By Rick Warren — 08/31/2021 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( “I poured out my heart, baring my soul to GOD." Daniel 9:3 (The Message) Have you ever prayed, “Now, I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take”? Or how about, “Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies”? Most people have prayed these well-known prayers at some point. But what do they mean? And do we really mean them? So often we go through the motions of prayer, reciting words from memory and checking something off our list before moving on to the next thing. God is not looking for prayers with no emotion or authenticity. He doesn’t care if you can deliver words someone else made up. God doesn’t care how beautiful your prayer sounds. In fact, he doesn’t even care as much about the words as he does the emotions behind them. Whatever you are asking God for in prayer—whether it’s a physical, material, spiritual, or emotional need—express your desire with emotion. That’s what pleases God. When Daniel needed God’s wisdom for how to direct the Israelites, he “prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him” (Daniel 9:3 GNT). Pleading means to ask with emotion. It’s more than a routine request. It’s serious seeking and searching with all your heart and earnestly begging. God listens to our pleas. The Message paraphrase of this verse says, “I poured out my heart, baring my soul to GOD.” This is not wimpy praying. This is gutsy praying. When was the last time you prayed like that? I can tell you, without even knowing you personally, that the last time you prayed like that was when you were in deep pain. You don’t pour out your heart to God like that when things are going great. You pour out your heart to God and plead with him when you are in pain. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fill all your prayers with emotion. As you look around at what is going on in our world, your heart will break for the things that break the heart of God. He is an emotional God, and he responds to your emotions with love. Pour out your heart to God today. It will draw you closer to him and deepen your faith as you see how he answers your prayers. [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - When was the last time you truly bared your soul before God? What were you praying about? - If things are going well in your life, what does God want you to plead with him for? - How can you ask God to help you make your prayers more emotional if you do not consider yourself an emotional person? The post [God Wants Your Emotional Prayers]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email]( [Get the 40 Days of Prayer Scripture Cards when you give a gift to support Daily Hope]( True breakthrough from the struggles of life begins with prayer—and there is no better place to start cultivating a powerful prayer life than the Bible. Discover the biblical wisdom you need to transform the way you pray when you dive into this special collection of verses from God’s Word. You’ll be inspired and encouraged by Scripture as you learn to trust in his promises. Drawing key verses from Pastor Rick’s, 40 Days of Prayer teaching series, this set of 52 beautifully designed cards will help you memorize God’s Word so you can access it when you need it most. [LEARN MORE]( [Complete Audio Series (Purchase)]( Includes 7 full-length messages from Pastor Rick's series 40 Days of Prayer. [LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: Do You Really Want to Grow Up? Message 2: A Beginner's Guide to Prayer Message 3: Who Do You Think You Are Talking To? Message 4: Praying in Five Dimensions Message 5: How to Pray Throughout Your Day Message 6: How to Pray for Healing and Restoration Message 7: When God Says "No" [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( As the founding pastor of Saddleback Church with his wife Kay, Dr. Rick Warren leads a 30,000-member congregation in California with campuses in major cities around the world. As an author, his book [The Purpose Driven Life]( is one of the best-selling nonfiction books in publishing history. It has been translated into 74 languages and sold more than 50 million copies in all formats. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the century. 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