Boldly Come

Yesterday morning as I was walking to the office, when of my sophomores stopped to tell me he had read some verses in his devotions that morning about prayer and that those verses reminded him God was going to answer our prayers about Tebow. Later, in homeroom, as we were waiting to begin devotions, I asked what verses he had read. He took us to a Psalm that basically says when we pray God actually listens. He said God emphasized that to him, that He really does listen when we pray.
We have a permanent prayer list on our white board, things we try to pray for every day. After what God had shown my student about prayer and what God had shared with me concerning Jarius' daughter, I told them we should now include meeting Tebow in our daily prayer time. Today was the day for my aforementioned student to pray. He did pray for our opportunity to meet Tebow, but it was how he prayed that struck me. He prayed that hopefully we would get to meet Tebow, just 15 minutes after stating God listens to us when we pray, he prays hopefully we get to meet him. It made we think of the verse in Hebrews that says we can come boldly to the throne of God. I think so often we mistake boldness for pride in our prayers and that often we don't pray boldly because we are unsure of our request.
What I think my student failed to understand is that our prayers are to be in accordance with God's will. If we can can turn our prayers over to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide them, let Him be our voice to the Father, we are praying in accordance with His will. We can then come boldly to God's throne with our requests knowing they are the things God desires and confident that God does hear and will act.
For my sophomores who will read this, I'm not criticizing your classmate. Praying boldly was something I had to learn at the beginning of this journey. It wasn't easy, and often the boldness turned into a demanding and prideful spirit and if I am not careful now, that still happens.  I just know that at this point, I am praying in the Father's will and  we don't have to hope we are going  to meet Tebow, we are...God has shown me in several verses and in a hundred answered prayers this is going to happen. Let this knowledge encourage you to pray boldly, to pray in confidence for the day you will meet Tim Tebow.