What does it mean to ‘pray your desire’?

This week in the ‘Questions for Jesus’ e-course, we’ve been learning about what it means to ‘pray our desires’. We all have core psychological desires – for love, security, significance, belonging etc. And those desires influence the way I act, because I go after the things that I believe will fill my desires. For e.g., the desire for Significance means that I want to live a life that means something; I want to leave a legacy behind. And so, I go after the things that feel significant. So, my desires are what drive my behaviour.

A cool thing about desires, is that God put them in our hearts, to draw us to him, because He’s the true object of our desire. What we really want is Him – and so desires will draw you to the heart of God, if you let them.

Praying my desire is about learning to have a conversation with Jesus, in a way that opens my heart to him and lets him fill my desires. So, when I pray my desire, I’m reconnecting with this desire-filling God who created me to be filled by Him. It’s learning to ask him open questions, that lets him fill me up in the way he wants to. That’s why this way of praying is also called ‘Questions for Jesus’.

So, you can ask a question like, ‘Jesus, how do I belong to you?’ and that speaks to your desire for belonging. Or you can ask, ‘Jesus, what did I do today, that made you laugh?’ And that speaks to your desire for joy. Or, ‘What do you tell the angels about me?’ And that speaks to a desire for recognition.

I find that it helps me grow in loving from the heart, because when I allow God in his love to fill my desires, I am free to approach others from this place of fullness, rather than out of need. For example, I can reach out to others in love to touch their desire for belonging, rather than needing them to respond to me in a certain way, to fill my own need for belonging.

The ‘Questions for Jesus’ e-course is a very hands-on experiential course, which enables you to build this way of praying into your everyday life. To find out more about when the next course is being run, email us here .