Elisa Morgan
About the Author

Elisa Morgan was named by Christianity Today as one of the top fifty women influencing today’s church and culture. She has authored more than twenty-five books, and her newest release is The Prayer Coin: Daring to Pray with Honest Abandon (www.theprayercoin.org). Connect with Elisa and her blog at www.elisamorgan.com.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately, particularly about the place where my will intersects with God’s will and the mystery of unanswered prayer. This two-sided view of prayer is SO helpful, and I’m thankful for this heads-up about your book.

  2. Elisa,
    What a truly powerful post!! I want the person who hurt me so deeply to suffer and pay a price (honest) YET….I will trust You, Lord as the supreme judge and leave the outcome in your hands. I release the hurt and the person who hurt me to You. FORGIVENESS (abandon). I am terribly afraid of this upcoming surgery. Will the cancer be gone for good? (honest) YET…..I will trust your good and perfect plan for me. You are God and I am not. Your grace will be sufficient regardless of the outcome. TRUST (abandon). So many times Christ invites me/us to “Cast all our cares upon Him.” What He is calling us to is abandon….letting it go….letting it be God’s will not our own. It sounds so difficult, but I find when I do truly let it go and give it ALL over to God, I abandon my thoughts and I abandon myself unto Him and in doing so, I am truly able to walk in freedom. Thank you, Lord that you are a God we can be honest with. Help me/us to abandon our burdens and ourselves to YOUR sovereign will. Thank you, Elisa, for such a thought provoking post.
    Blessings,
    Bev xx

    • Bev,
      I’m so sorry to hear that you are struggling with all of this….. I hope and pray that this feeling of fear will be calmed and for your well being.
      Have a blessed day,
      Penny

  3. Thank you for the reminder that we can always be honest with God in prayer, and yet His ways are often still mysterious and hidden… so that we are called to trust His perfect plans rather than our own. The image of the prayer coin will be in my thoughts as I pray daily!

  4. What an interesting concept explained well by the instrument of s coin. I will use this definitely in my prayers with God. Thank you Elisa for this thought provoking post. I sure do want a deeper relationship with God and I’m appreciative of this tool you have provided to use in my prayers with Him. We are so blessed to have such s loving God that delivers messages such as yours in giving us a deeper glimpse at his magnificent power and teaching us methods to use to aid our understanding of Christ and our relationship with him!

  5. Good morning, Elisa, and thank you for sharing your story and wisdom. I marvel at how the Holy Spirit quickens our hearts and minds to do what Jesus would do versus what our flesh may be inclined to do in circumstances. It’s not easy some days to yield but Praise to our King that He’s patient with us and provides opportunity after opportunity for us to grow to be more like his Son, our Savior, Jesus! Have a blessed day!

  6. I can be so real and honest in just talking to Him, and then turn the coin over

    • And if you want to get the “official” prayer coin, you can do so at dhp.org. It’s a limited edition with the book and journal for a specific time.

      • Hi Elisa, Can you send the link for the book that also includes getting the actual coin. I was just trying to do a search and can’t find it. So excited about this!!! I want the book and the coin 🙂 God bless you, Cindy xx

  7. What a great reminder that God wants and is not afraid of our honesty. Just this morning I was praying about a situation that happened 30 years ago where I ended up hurt and rejected by someone. Yet I had been so sure that this relationship had been part of God’s plan. At the time I was scared and ashamed to admit that I was disappointed in God. How could He have allowed this to happen? I was too scared to admit it to Him and so I isolated myself from Him for a season. As it turns out, God’s plan was the best for me (no surprise there). This post validated that there is freedom in knowing that God wants our honest feelings and wants. Yet we can be secure that because of His mercy and grace and unfailing love He will continue to work His plan for our lives. Lord, I surrender to Your will.

  8. Elisa,

    I have learned the pivot of prayer through many trials. You pray one thing & then say, but not my will yours God. You even ask why? We may never know the answer this side of Heaven. One thing for sure-His ways are perfect. Sometimes a no means I want to show you a miracle & increase your faith. That happened to me with my aging dad. God healed his severe dementia & he was “semi” normal for a while until God took Him home. Now my faith is increased & when my FIL had cancer surgery I told my hubby that God could heal him-just pray & watch. Sure enough he made it through the surgery. Most people just read a litany of prayer requests & ask for healing or restoration, but don’t stop to think about what God wants in the end. He sees the grand picture. He knows everything. This world wants instant results. Some treat God like a genie in a bottle. Fix this do that & all is well. I will praise you. When bad things happen-the patient dies, someone gets cancer, lose job-they lose their faith. How can God allow suffering like this they ask? We will never know this side of Heaven, but we need to hold the two sided prayer coin & ask for help-yet always allow His will to rule in our lives. Great post!

    Blessings 🙂

  9. Elisa,
    This was truly an amazing post. And I’m so glad that all went well with your husband and that your older children were there to care for him.
    Over the past few weeks I’ve felt unsettled in a certain circumstance, and I think that your gift of offering of the prayer coin will be a help, thank-you so much.
    Have a blessed day all,
    Penny

  10. Elisa, thank you for this insightful post. Praise God for His wonderful ways in both caring for your husband and inspiring you to write The Prayer Coin. The visual, concrete imagery of the coin is so helpful to my understanding of this paradox.

    In Christ,
    Vicki

    • I’m so grateful – still! – that my husband has healed! The adventure of the prayer coin has taught me much. And it’s a joy to be able to share it with others, you included!

  11. Elisa, it’s such a joy to share the (in)courage table with you today! I sense the Spirit stirring deeply in my own heart through the message of The Prayer Coin. My He take His people deep into the heart of prayer — His heart — as we learn to walk intimately with Him with both honesty and abandon. Thanks so much for sharing with us!

  12. I love this! Often it is so helpful to have a visual cue to better understand scripture. I’ve heard and read “Take this cup…but…” hundreds of times, but I’ll never hear or read it again without the Prayer Coin jumping to the forefront of my mind. Thank you!

    • I love it that the prayer coin can now “jump”! Truly. isn’t it amazing to have such a tangible concept to contemplate? May God make himself oh-so-present to you today.

  13. Wow – God answered my heart yet again! I’ve told Him I know He could find someone to buy our house so that “my great desire” to move can be accomplished. I’ve tried to live by “bloom where you’re planted” and acknowledge in my heart that my desires must be His desires. Have I truly surrendered to His will ? The reminder in the “two coins” helped me get on track again with what’s truly important: not my will but His be done!” Thankyou, Lord, for reminding me that (1) of course you could get my house sold but (2) learn from waiting and acknowledge that my desire must be His desire first and foremost

  14. This post was so timely. I needed it and THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. My 67 yr ld husband had a heart attack less than 3 weeks ago. His “widow maker” artery was 100% blocked! I could have been that widow but God spared his life.
    Fortunately and unfortunately, I was a coronary care RN for 10 yrs, so I know how to care for him.
    Its when he doesn’t understand his limitations and how close he was to dying, that I have to take this cup and abandon what I want (a healthy man) and realize that Jesus is up to something in both our lives (Not my will, but Yours). Its been a scary few weeks, yet this post reminded me once again, that GOD is always here, always in control, and always I can have hope and live with thanksgiving.

    • Oh Missy, yes so hard! I like your comment of “fortunately and unfortunately”. God uses everything, doesn’t he? May God continue to heal your husband and lead you toward himself as well!

  15. Love this post, Elisa. I especially like the visual of the “Honest/Abandon” coins! Beautiful and practical analogy. I was recently reading the book of John and it stood out to me how Jesus was always doing the will of His Father. He made a point to let us know He was here to carry out His Father’s plan, not His own agenda.

    Oh, to lay down our agendas for His perfect plan! Help us to do your will, Father. Give us an obedient heart that seeks to do your will over our own. Amen.

    • Sweet words, Aixa. Isn’t it stunning to realize that God loves our “honest” as much as he loves our “abandon” and that both these postures help us discover the intimacy he died to provide for us?

  16. What sweet insight. Love that “duality”, and haven’t considered it in quite that way. Thank you, Elisa. Congrats on the book; I look forward to reading it. ♥

  17. Sometimes it’s so hard to come up with the “abandon” side to even get to the right mindset, thank you for your “excluded/go first” coin example, I appreciated that.

  18. I love this. I was recently thinking about Mizpah coins, wrote a blog an upcoming blog post called Bad Pennies, and there was another blog post about finding pennies, there is a story about angels leaving them. This is a good reminder, Jesus, with His human side, turning to God, just what we have to do to follow His example, and because he knows what it is like to be human, He is easily touched by our prayers.