What I Prayed When Nothing Else Worked

For four years, I was unemployed or underemployed.

I did everything I knew to do. I searched the internet every day, hunting for work. I posted my resume on job sites and went on interviews.

Some interviewers said I was under-qualified.
Others claimed I was over-qualified.
Sometimes I came in second to the one who got the job - another way of saying I was the best loser.

When I could find work, the pay was less than 25% of what I needed to feed and clothe my family and pay all the bills.

I didn't limit my efforts to physical activity. I did all the spiritual things my pastors and ministers told me to do:

I prayed.
I confessed scriptures.
I commanded money to come.
I told the devil to take his hands off my finances.
I praised God for my complete and abundant supply.

Nothing Worked!

I was going deeper into debt every day.

It's hard to explain the emotional turmoil this caused and the pressure I felt as the provider for my family.

At one point, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I could feel it. It was like standing on the edge of a cliff. I knew if I inched forward just a little, I would go over the edge—and I wasn’t sure I’d ever come back. It was a scary experience.

Our city had the second highest job loss per capita in the U.S., after San Jose, CA.

Large corporations moved their headquarters, relocating jobs. Three of the city’s largest employers filed for bankruptcy. People were trying to move out of town, flooding the real estate market.

I couldn’t pay the mortgage, and I couldn’t sell the house because it was worth less than I owed.

Facing Foreclosure

One year into this mess, the bank sent me a foreclosure notice. I borrowed money from relatives to reinstate the loan.

When I failed to make the payments again, the bank sent another foreclosure notice. I borrowed more money from relatives and reinstated the loan.

When the bank sent me a third foreclosure notice, I couldn’t bring myself to borrow from family members again. I couldn’t pay the bank or repay the thousands I’d borrowed from my family.

I remember stewing over that third foreclosure notice. I was angry. I was frustrated. I was at a loss.

But that moment marked a shift in my perspective—one that would lead to significant change.

I Drew a Line in the Sand

I decided I wasn’t going to borrow again. But I had to figure out why things weren’t working.

I didn’t realize it then, but I was about to pray a prayer that would change my life.

This is what I prayed:

Father, Your Word says You will supply all my needs. I’m a tither, and Your Word says You’ll pour out a blessing that I’ll not have room enough to receive. Your Word says that Jesus became poor so that I might be rich. Your Word says to seek the Kingdom of God first, and You’ll add all the things necessary for life to me. Your Word says that Jesus came so that I might have an abundant, plentiful life.

But my life is very different from what You’ve promised.

God, either You’re lying, or I’m missing something.

I know You don’t lie. So I must be missing something.

What am I missing?

That Became My Prayer

Father, what am I missing?

I stopped assuming I was doing everything right.
I stopped thinking that I knew the correct interpretation of the scriptures.
I stopped seeing myself as a spiritual expert.

The result of that prayer was a turn-around that restored all I’d lost, got us out of debt, and launched me into a staggering economic increase.

My story doesn’t end with me taking pictures of myself in front of a Rolls Royce and a mansion. It is a story about living a life of abundant supply. It is one where I do the things I want and contribute tens of thousands of dollars to causes benefiting others. I live a life far from financial stress and worry—a life of confidence concerning the future.

What Do You Need?

While I needed financial stability, you may need something else. Your struggle may be with relationships. Your battle may be physical or emotional.

Whatever the need, here’s your starting place for change:

Decide you’re willing to challenge everything you know about:

how the economy works
how life works
how God works

If what you know could get you where you wanted to go, you would be there already. - Unknown

But since you’re not “there,” you must need to learn something different.

Do This

From a sincere heart, ask the Father to show you what YOU need to know.

Notice the emphasis is on you. Not on what others need to change. Not on how circumstances need to change.

There’s something you don’t see that you need to see.

What is it?

It’s incredible. I've watched people begin to pray that prayer, and God puts them in contact with information tailored to what THEY need so they can move forward into the abundance He has for them.

Your journey will be different from mine. Your journey will be unique to you. But it won’t start until you humble yourself and ask.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
- John 10:10 BSB

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
- 2 Chronicles 26:5 NKJV

Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.
- Matthew 7:7-8 AMPC

[I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and that the eyes of your heart will be opened and flooded with light so you may know the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
- Ephesians 1:17-18 AMPC

And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:19 BSB

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 BSB

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
- Matthew 6:33 BSB