Shop
About
Posts
Joycast
Booking
Speaking
Write Brilliant
Contact

A Fresh Approach to Prayer (You’ve Never Heard Of)

by | 57 comments

My friend, Elisa Morgan, is a gifted writer, speaker and founder of MOPS. She recently slipped a special book into my hands called The Prayer Coin along with an actual coin. One side read, “Honest,” and the other, “Abandon.”

At first, I didn’t understand. Praying with a coin seemed strange, but as I read through her book, my eyes and heart were opened to what it means to pray with surrender.

I’ve asked Elisa to share a pinch of her beautiful story and what this kind of surrendered prayer looks like in her own life. I hope you enjoy.

“My phone binged in a message and ever-ready-me retrieved it immediately. I wasn’t expecting to read the message from a dear friend about her husband’s health ordeal: “It’s back. The cancer is back.”

No.

My throat tightened around possible responses, some four-lettered, others more yielded but none seemed appropriate to the weight of this revelation.

I’ve been learning to apply a prayer practice that I discovered in reading Jesus’ one-sentence plea, uttered repeatedly on the night before he went to the cross: “…take this cup, yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

How could Jesus pray two opposite requests in a single sentence?

Over and over again. Take this cup: This is what I want God. Not my will: But what do YOU want? Honest. Abandon. Two sides of Jesus. Two sides of prayer. The prayer coin.

I first stumbled upon this practice of prayer when my own husband was suffering with ill health. God challenged me to trust him with my honest and yet yield my abandon to him as well.

I dared to tell God exactly what I wanted: Heal my husband! And then I gathered the courage to ask what God might want – and sensed him nudging me to trust him that he would use the crisis in the lives of our family members, and in mine as well.

That led to more honest prayers which pivoted me to more abandon.

Over days and then weeks and then months, I moved between the two sides of prayer and found God meeting me in new levels of relationship. Prayer became more of a conversation with my Helper and my Hope.

Be clear – the prayer coin is not a formula that (poof!) brings about our desires.

Rather, minted in the garden of grief on Jesus’ last night on earth, the prayer coin is a practice that yields intimacy. The intimacy with God that Jesus died to provide.

I’ve prayed the prayer coin for the yearnings of my heart, for family challenges and for decisions large and small.

At times I find it easy to pray “honest,” pouring my raw feelings out to God. In other moments, I smoothly pivot into “abandon” as I have no idea how to pray and welcome God’s leading.

Admittedly, I can lean honest 24/7 and have to let the coin nudge me into abandon so that I don’t miss God’s offering to me in that posture.

In this unwanted moment of crisis with my friend’s diagnosis, I struggled: how to pray now?

Take this cup: Take the ridiculous cancer. Take the continuing diminishment of such a beautiful man. Take the stress and strain on his faithful wife. Take the struggle of uncertainty and shock for his precious children.

Not my will: If healing isn’t to be accomplished in my timeline and according to my desires, may it be ultimate and complete. May this family find complete peace in you.

Take this cup: Of suffering. For each one of these family members.

Not my will: May each minute of suffering give them more sustenance – the kind that only comes by being intimate with you.

As I typed my messaged two-sided prayers in response, I dared to spend the currency of the prayer coin:

Today my friends continue their uncertain journey, seeking answers and hope and the intimacy that comes from spending both sides of the prayer coin: honest and abandon.

What is your prayer concern today?

Might you pick up Jesus’ two-sided prayer coin and risk telling God exactly what you want?

And then, might you turn to the second side and dare to ask God what he wants?

Honest. Abandon.

A two-sided prayer modeled for us on the night before Jesus went to the cross to endure the ultimate sacrifice that would buy us true intimacy with God.

Pick up your copy of The Prayer Coin today.

Elisa Morgan is the cohost of Discover the Word and contributor to Our Daily Bread. Connect with Elisa at www.elisamorgan.com, @elisa_morgan on Twitter, and elisamorganauthor on Facebook and Instagram.

 

57 Comments

  1. Donna
    Donna on January 28, 2019 at 8:56 pm

    Scary… It is not in the bible, we shouldn’t be flipping a coin, we should just be obedient…

  2. Teresa
    Teresa on February 28, 2019 at 10:29 am

    It most certainly is in the Bible – the concept of praying what you want but submitting to His will just like Jesus did. Putting it on a coin is just giving you something to remind you that there are two sides to your situation. It’s no different than wearing cross jewelry or any other reminder we use to keep us centered in Christ

  3. Cherlyn
    Cherlyn on May 29, 2019 at 7:38 am

    Well yes a coin is in the Bible. The pharisees gave Jesus a coin when they tried to trick Him about taxes. He said render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and God the things that are God’s. Anything that helps us remember what belongs to God is just that. The same coin used to pay taxes to Caesar is the same type of coin used to pay Tithes. Our money we use today has the amount the coin or dollar is worth but on the other side of it there is a statement saying “In God we trust”. We gave to stop condemning everything that might be just a suggestion to use as a reminder to turn toward God just because that exact suggestion isn’t in the Bible. The coin is a reminder of Jesus’ wilderness experience in the Garden of Gethsemane and the two sides to His prayer.

  4. Lamascown
    Lamascown on March 16, 2025 at 9:27 pm

    I want to show you one exclusive program called (BTC PROFIT SEARCH AND MINING PHRASES), which can make you a rich man!

    This program searches for Bitcoin wallets with a balance, and tries to find a secret phrase for them to get full access to the lost wallet!

    Run the program and wait, and in order to increase your chances, install the program on all computers available to you, at work, with your friends, with your relatives, you can also ask your classmates to use the program, so your chances will increase tenfold!
    Remember the more computers you use, the higher your chances of getting the treasure!

    DOWNLOAD FOR FREE

    Telegram:
    https://t.me/btc_profit_search

  12. MonteKit
    MonteKit on March 24, 2025 at 1:56 pm

    MexicanPharmInter MexicanPharmInter MexicanPharmInter

  23. ArthurHathy
    ArthurHathy on March 25, 2025 at 6:01 pm

    https://indiamedfast.com/# india pharmacy without prescription
    canadapharmacyonline com

  29. Williamheirl
    Williamheirl on March 26, 2025 at 5:55 am

    Generic100mgEasy: Generic100mgEasy – Generic100mgEasy

  30. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 26, 2025 at 9:36 am

    KamagraKopen.pro: kamagra gel kopen – Kamagra Kopen Online

  31. Dwaynejures
    Dwaynejures on March 26, 2025 at 10:03 am

    Kamagra Kopen kamagra gel kopen Officiele Kamagra van Nederland

  34. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 26, 2025 at 3:35 pm

    cialis without a doctor prescription: Cialis 20mg price – Generic Cialis without a doctor prescription

  36. Dwaynejures
    Dwaynejures on March 26, 2025 at 7:31 pm

    Tadalafil Easy Buy Tadalafil price TadalafilEasyBuy.com

  38. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 26, 2025 at 10:00 pm

    Buy generic 100mg Viagra online: Generic 100mg Easy – buy generic 100mg viagra online

  42. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 27, 2025 at 5:45 am

    Viagra without a doctor prescription Canada: Generic 100mg Easy – Generic 100mg Easy

  44. Williamheirl
    Williamheirl on March 27, 2025 at 9:00 am

    Tadalafil Easy Buy: TadalafilEasyBuy.com – TadalafilEasyBuy.com

  48. Dwaynejures
    Dwaynejures on March 27, 2025 at 6:43 pm

    Generic100mgEasy Generic 100mg Easy Viagra without a doctor prescription Canada

  51. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 27, 2025 at 8:28 pm

    Kamagra Kopen: Kamagra – kamagra jelly kopen

  53. Williamheirl
    Williamheirl on March 28, 2025 at 1:07 am

    Kamagra Kopen: kamagra gel kopen – KamagraKopen.pro

  55. GregoryVar
    GregoryVar on March 28, 2025 at 3:36 am

    Tadalafil Easy Buy: Tadalafil Easy Buy – Buy Tadalafil 20mg

  56. Dwaynejures
    Dwaynejures on March 28, 2025 at 6:11 am

    viagra canada Generic 100mg Easy Generic 100mg Easy

  57. Williamheirl
    Williamheirl on March 28, 2025 at 7:29 am

    Cialis over the counter: TadalafilEasyBuy.com – TadalafilEasyBuy.com

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *