To prey upon something is defined as:

• (upon the mind) to make somebody think and worry about it all the time

• to hunt or go after

• to harm somebody who is weaker than you are

• victimize

• to hurt, cheat, or steal from someone, deceive

 

In our "What's in a Prayer?" blog post, we discussed the importance of prayer and we emphasized that prayer is indeed something that WE ALL NEED, especially now as we see the world being turned inside out and upside down. And with the uncertainties of today and what tomorrow might hold, we have to trust in God and hold fast to His Word so that we can continue to stand firm in prayer and not choose to begin to prey...PREY?...taking matters into our own hands because it seems like God is taking too long to come to our rescue, making the things that we want and need seem out of reach.

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"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." -Mark 11:24 (NIV)

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When we pray and still don't have an answer to that 'thing' that we prayed for and when our issues still have not been resolved, we tend to lose our faith. One of the biggest threats to our prayers is our disbelief. Our prayers must be rooted in faith that God will answer. The tricky part and the part that far too many of us fall short in is our ability to WAIT. When we pray, although we know that He can, we can't always expect God to fix the issue so that we can immediately see it. Because God is omnipotent and omniscient, every issue we have is ALREADY FIXED even before we see the manifestation of it because God goes before us and orchestrates those things on our behalf according to His will. We just have to be patient until what He has released in the heavens is made visible to us on the earth. We must seal our prayers with the assurance that God will not just respond but that He will give us that which we have asked of Him. Most importantly, we have to understand that waiting is not the enemy. It is our inability to wait that is the villain. When it seems like our prayers aren't working, we struggle with our ability to wait, which causes us to lose our patience. And as a result, we begin to 'prey'. Are you 'praying' or 'preying'? Sounds the same but there is no friendship between the two. Let's discuss 'preying' in the context of our first definition:

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Prey: (upon the mind) to make somebody think and worry about it all the time

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"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

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Far too often we allow others to 'prey' upon our minds making us believe 'their lie' that God will not fight for us. Making us believe 'their lie' that God does not hear our prayers. Making us believe that God will not work things out in our favor or on our behalf. And before we know it, they have inflicted this belief on us, and we accept it as our truth. This then causes us to prey upon our own minds, constantly causing ourselves to worry. Constantly causing ourselves to lose our faith. Constantly causing ourselves to not be able to let go of the thing that we were supposed to have turned over to God. And before we know it, we are losing sleep, which causes us to become irritable. This then leads to our losing all of our patience, which in turn leads to our deciding to heighten the way in which we 'prey'.

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When we pray about something, we must try our best to take our hands off of it and release it to God. Is it difficult?  ABSOLUTELY! We have all made the mistake of trying to be part of The Trinity, thinking that we know what's best. We might have all found ourselves trying to HELP them out with the things that we have prayed about. However, in case no one has ever told you and in case you are under false pretense, the truth and all of our reality is that GOD DOES NOT NEED OUR HELP!

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During the past couple of weeks, our blogs have expounded on our ability to give God thanks "IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES" and now here we are once again with this idea of "in all situations". In Philippians 4, Paul reminds us to not be anxious, to not worry about anything, but in all things, in every situation, to pray and along with that prayer, to "give thanks" as we submit our requests to God. And as we are able to do so, God will give us peace. And through this peace, our hearts and minds will be able to remain fixed on God therefore, putting us in a place in which we are not focused on or worried about what we are facing but are instead placing our hope and trust in God.

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Our ability to pray about "all our situations", "give thanks" as we present these requests to God, and then receive the peace that He so freely offers us, protects our hearts and minds from the anguish and pain of all those emotions that we experience as a result of our trials! It is imperative that we learn how to find rest in God and allow His peace to rest upon us so that those things that we face do not burden us in a way that makes us create our own way out. Allowing God's peace to rest upon us helps us to trust Him more. It helps us to withstand the wait between what we ask God for and the fulfillment of it. In Philippians 4, Paul urges us not to be anxious. Anxiousness is an instigator to the easy way out. Anxiousness can be a pathway to fear, doubt, and discouragement therefore leading to a "let me handle it" mindset. That is the point in which our preying moves from the context of worry and we find ourselves going after what we want in our own way by our own means:

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Prey: to hunt or go after

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When God does not respond in a way that appeases us, we begin to feel like praying is not enough and we then fall into the trap of "getting it for ourselves". When God doesn't give us what we want when we want it or when we think we need it, we "hunt down and go after" that thing that we want. We develop our own plan and strategy to obtain what we have prayed for. We get tired of being patient and begin to do whatever it takes to get that house, that car, that job, that raise, that promotion, that mate, or whatever it was that we had been asking God to do and could no longer wait for Him to do it.

 

And it is for this very reason that at some point you find yourself living in a house you can't afford, driving a car in which the maintenance of the car is more than the car payment itself, working on a job that you hate with a workload that is far greater than the rate of pay, surrounded by people who are trying to take you under, all while in a relationship that is as toxic as they come, all because when you felt that your prayers were not working and that God wasn't moving fast enough, you decided that the only way to make yourself happy was to prey your way into and through it.

 

As a result, you are now stuck with things that you can't get rid of with consequences that you are trying to pray away, all because you could not wait. And now the anxiety and frustrations are heightening because not only are you unhappy and stressed, but you in all your audacity are mad at God, thinking that He is the reason for your despair. Now that you have made a mountain out of a molehill, you have a real giant to worry about because your actions are no longer actions, but they have opened the door to that path of "if you can't beat them, then join them" which leads us to our next definition of 'preying':

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Prey: to harm somebody who is weaker than you are, victimize, to hurt, cheat, or steal from someone, deceive.

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"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" -Mark 8:36 (KJV)

 

Because you could not wait, it led to you becoming more irritable, which led to you believing that God was not going to give you what you were praying for, which then resulted in you taking matters into your own hands and trying to get what you wanted using your own strategy, tactics, and wiles. Now you are 'stuck' in the mess that you have created and because you have not been able to 'pray' the consequences of your actions away, you have decided to 'prey' like you've never 'preyed' before.

 

Far too many of us, once we find that we can't get out of the mess that we've made, we decide to make the best use of 'that mess'. And before you know it your mess is causing you to create mess in the lives of others; not realizing that inflicting mess on the lives of others does not mean that it's going to magically detach itself from you. If anything, as you inflict it upon others, it strengthens it bond with you. Before you know it instead of detaching mess from you, you become a magnet to messy.

 

There are far too many people who because they are unhappy with the material things that they have, those very things that they preyed their way into, do all that they can to hate on others who are 'reaping' the benefit of waiting on God. There are some individuals who cannot stand to hear about the success of others and will do all that they can to make the things that others accomplish seem less than par. There are some individuals that will even go as far as trying to prevent others from obtaining more. 

 

There are far too many people who find themselves unhappy in the positions that they planned, plotted, and cheated their way into, but can't walk away from them because leaving might expose how they got there. Therefore, in realizing that they're stuck, they will do all that they can to taint the work environment. They will do all that they can to get others fired. Behind closed doors they will complain to employees about management and complain to management about other employees, in an attempt to eliminate whomever they can so that they can maneuver themselves into another position in a way that will make them the noticeable 'likely candidate'. They do this with the goal of keeping how they preyed their way into the first position hidden, with the aim of putting themselves in a position that makes it look like they earnestly worked their way into their new promotion.

 

And then there are those who because they could not wait on God to send them a mate, are in toxic relationships that they now refuse to leave because they've invested too much time, energy, and money into them. Not to mention all of their energy that was put into creating social media posts to make their relationship 'buzzworthy' and 'legit'. In order not to "unverified" by all of their followers, friends, and family who think they are 'living the life', they keep one foot in their relationship and the other foot out, while also keeping their hands and every other object on the mates of others because they cannot stand to see a happy home. Especially, since it's not theirs.

 

The unfortunate thing is that at some point these individuals that once had a prayer life now have a preying life, all because they could not wait on God. Not only have they lost their patience, which led to them losing their faith, but at some point along the way, the more that they preyed, they also lost their souls. They got all the things they did not want as a result of trying to acquire the things that they wanted. Meanwhile, the only thing that they gained was 'hell' from what they thought would give them 'heaven'.

 

Praying or Preying?

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We must be mindful of how we react to our prayers. Once we pray and give it over to God, we must discipline ourselves in a way that keeps us awake so that we do not fall victim to our own hands. There are many times when we might find that we have prayed and are trusting God, and before we know it, we have made a decision that has worked in opposition of what God's will and intents for us were. The alarming thing is that at times we do these things so seamlessly and react to things in such a sudden manner that we don't even realize that we have interfered with the very thing that we have took to God in prayer, asking Him to handle.

 

Many of us have a natural tendency that when we ask someone to do something, if they don't do it within a time frame that is suitable for us, we take matters into our own hands and handle it for ourselves. And while this might at times be something that is necessary for us to do as it concerns the people in our lives, we cannot take this same approach with God when He does not answer based on our desired timing.

 

When we pray, we must trust that God not only knows when, but that He also knows how to respond to our requests. God knows how to fulfill all of those things that we have presented Him with. Sometimes as we wait, we must simply give thanks and trust God to do what we have requested of Him. We must understand that our timing is not God's timing. Maybe God did not give you the house when you asked for it or the car that you wanted because He was first going to give you the job that you needed to get a rate that was going to situate you in a way that was going to give you financial freedom. And had you waited on Him, you would have gotten more than you had asked Him for, far greater than you imagined, but you decided to prey instead of waiting patiently on what you had prayed for.

 

And had you waited on God, you would have discovered that instead of giving you the raise that you desired Him to make happen for you in your 'now', His intent was to first give you a promotion which was going to allow you to negotiate a higher salary increase. God was not moving when you wanted Him to because He was waiting for the department head to leave their position so that when you went to the table to negotiate not only were you getting a salary increase but He was giving you the position of the person that you were supposed to be working under. You would have been making more money with less responsibility, but because you could not wait on what you were praying for and you decided to prey, you walked around what God was trying to usher you into.

 

Had you waited on God to send you the mate that you had been praying for, you would have been in a stable relationship that was founded on God, love, and respect instead of lust, deceit, and lies, but because you could not wait on what you were praying for thus is the result of your preying.

 

What will it take for us to realize that God is not naïve. We say that we know that God knows best, but our actions don't act in accordance with that belief when we are constantly playing chess with God not realizing that regardless of what chess piece we have in our hand, God has control of the board while we are stuck only being able to make the moves based on the rules of the game. Understand that GOD CREATED THE GAME! Therefore, HE WROTE THE RULES! We will never be able to handle things better than God, make moves greater than He does, or win when we go up against Him. If you want to WIN you can't put yourself in opposition of God, you must instead seek to understand what it means to be on His team. You must learn to sit back and LET GOD CONTROL THE BOARD. YOU MUST LET GOD LEAD.

 

The Need to Wait

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Is waiting on God difficult? The reality is that no matter how much we love God or how 'holy' some of us think that we are, the answer is "Yes!"  Waiting is not always easy.  It is not always a skip and a hop. And because God is omniscient, in mostly all cases, we are not going to want things when God wants to give them to us, neither are we going to need them exactly when we want them.

 

We don't know what lies ahead, we can't see all that lies behind us, and we don't know what lies beneath. We only know what we want and what we think we need. However, GOD IS OMNISCIENT, HE KNOWS ALL!  We must seek and ask God for His guidance. We must ask God to help us to discipline ourselves and root ourselves in Him in a way that REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION, we can:

 

• take our concerns to Him

• pray about it

• give Him thanks as we pray and while we wait

• accept His peace

• don't worry

• don't try to fix it ourselves

• allow Him to lead and guide us,

• and while we wait for Him to answer...BE PATIENT!

 

Trying to avoid the wait by taking matters into our own hands can only make matters worse. As difficult as it might be, we must pray amidst all situations and give thanks amidst all circumstances. We cannot allow what we think are unanswered prayers to turn us into one that preys. Preying might give you what you want but it won't give you what you need. Preying might get you there quicker, but it will also keep you bound and burdened longer. Preying might seem the way out, but in actuality it is a way "into" sin upon sin and temptation after temptation.

 

If not kept under control, anxiousness can cause us to prey upon our own minds. Have you ever been faced with a burdensome bill or financial obligation that overwhelmed you so much so that you felt the only way to release yourself from the anxiety of it was to give it to God? You pray and you ask God to work it out. After praying you feel relieved, you feel a sense of calm and decide to finally go to sleep. And just as you're closing your eyes, along comes that awkward moment of silence that reminds you of what you just prayed about and before you know it, you're anxious and frustrated all over again. 

In order to not stay in that frustration, you turn on the tv hoping that something else will distract your thoughts and there goes that commercial with the infamous question of..."DO YOU HAVE OVERWHELMING DEBT?!". And now you feel like that commercial was a personal attack geared toward you. You're tossing and turning and up all night. You go to sleep thinking about it. You wake up thinking about it. You are on a constant up and down of trying to rid yourself of this aggravation. And just when you finally think that you're letting go, thus comes the monthly statement reminding you that you actually owe more than you thought you did. And thus goes your last straw, welcoming that thought of "I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!"

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Or maybe you've been praying about a health battle or about a loved one. You try to give it God and keep busy so that your thoughts surrounding these things don't overwhelm you. You let go and give it to God until you get the reminder about the next doctor's visit or the prescription refill. You let go and give it to God and suddenly the pain hits you and you find yourself tossing and turning, trying to find relief.

 

You let go but at some point, something greets you in a way that brings back that anxiousness. You have prayed and prayed for that loved one because you know that you don't have the power to help them. However, you know that God does. You pray for that loved one more than you pray for yourself. And as soon as you start to find peace, something comes along that sends you right back into worry trying to figure out how you can make a difference in their lives.

 

There is something about finances, health issues, and our loved ones that causes unshakeable anxiousness within us. That is why we must try our best to allow God to release the anxiousness from us and trust Him to work it out. We cannot allow our anxiousness to lead us into trying to fix things on our own. WE NEED GOD to fix it for us. We must realize that there are some things that WE JUST CANNOT FIX! We don't have the knowledge, power, or understanding to make all things RIGHT. We need God's guidance, knowledge, and wisdom. We cannot allow anxiousness to cause us to replace "PRAYING" with "PREYING".

 

If we can but completely GIVE ALL THINGS TO GOD and DON'T TAKE THEM BACK, He will show Himself faithful unto us. God will answer, but we must WAIT for Him to work it out.

 

No matter what you face, give it to God. Pray about it. Wait on Him. Don't Doubt. Thank God as you wait. Ask God to give you the strength and the patience to stand firm. No matter what circumstances you find yourself in, PRAY YOUR WAY THROUGH but please don't you PREY! God will COME THROUGH FOR YOU! Stay on Guard!

 

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." -Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)

 

We must come to the realization that regardless of what we face, God has an answer, BUT WE MUST SEEK HIM! God will reveal Himself to us in ways that are far beyond our human comprehension. If we pray and trust God to do what it is that we have requested of Him and not allow our faith to be shaken by the uncertainties and impossibilities that we face, HE WILL COME THROUGH! REMEMBER THAT GOD IS IN COMPLETE CONTROL! DON'T BE SHAKEN-STAND FIRM!