Prayer... Raise the Bar

Because of a series of events that have challenged my faith beyond the point I thought I could be challenged, I have really come to understand the exhortations from Scripture about praying with confidence and according to God's will. When I first moved overseas, I understood the idea that prayer was central to the work that we were doing, but my prayers tended to focus on things that were nothing out of the ordinary for God.
For instance, I would ask for things like protection when I was in a taxi, or grace and memory during a language lesson, or a time of conversation with a neighbor. Please dont hear me saying that these are bad things to ask for, because they are not; but in the last few months I have really begun to ask HIM for things that are outside my normal "prayer box". Things that seem like I am asking for too much, for too big!
Here is the thing though; they havent been too big for the Lord. They havent been to much, or too hard to handle, or even too full of audacity for the Creator of the universe. Instead, a neat thing has happened. As I have taken things before the throne, I have noticed a confidence that has invaded my conversations with Him. He has taken my requests, and made them grand, answering them in ways that only the Lord can answer. He has begun to weave story after story after story in my life that speaks of the grandness of God; but more than that, He has ignited in me a desire to ask for those big things, to almost dare God to work in a big way! I want to see the big things happen, not only in terms of hundreds of people coming to know Him, but in terms of one person taking one step closer to knowing the truth. I think it has a lot to do with perspective.
There is something else that I have learned lately. I learned it through this story. I was recently told that I had to move out of my apartment. This was frustrating to me for several reasons: that I was having to move again, and I felt like I was having to start over with new relationships and that I had to leave behind my neighbors, who have become like family to me. I was whining about this to a teammate, who is like a mom to me here, and she said this. It was really very simple.
She said, "Emily, have you ever thought to pray that God would move someone else in behind you, a local believer, who could pick up where you left off and move your neighbors closer to the cross?" NO!!! Of course I hadnt thought to pray that. In fact, I was a little insulted that she would even ask me to pray something like that! Why shouldnt I be the one that moved these people closer to the cross? NOt someone else.. I cant trust my precious neighbors with someone I dont even know!
Ahhh, but the perspective in Teri's words to me was so good. Pray something so far removed from yourself; pray something that is bigger than your limited, fleshly perspective! Oh how the situation changed when I began to see it in terms of something God was doing for His glory! And how I want to have that perspective all the time.
So raise the bar guys... I think that God wants something so much more than we often bring to Him. Paca