How’s your prayer life? Is it hard? Do you find you have no time to pray? Perhaps you have the time, but do you have no clue what to say? Perhaps you would like to pray but are seem disheartened a prayers don’t seem to be answered. Praying is as important to the life of a believer as breathing is to a human. It isn’t something you can negotiate on. It is something you need. Prayer requires three simple things, however, to work.

1. Prayer is answered according to God’s will.
If those prayers for a sweet new Jaguar aren’t working out, there may be a “will” problem. Hopefully you know that God is not a genie waiting to make all your dreams come true. God’s will is what we are supposed to pray for. That is why one of the best prayers you can pray is modeled in the Lord’s Prayer: “…may your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Your life would drastically change if you woke up every morning and prayed,

“God, I know that I have a will, and I have an idea of how I want to see this day play out, but I ask that if my will is different from yours today, that you would show me and give me the courage to change my will to match yours. I want what you want for my life, Jesus, and I ask your help in making my will for today your will for today.”

If you make that a part of your morning routine, don’t be surprised if you see God showing you some things, nudging you to adjust your will. By the way, you want this. You want your will and his will to match. He has your best interest in mind, even better than you have for yourself.

2. Prayer takes faith.
We’ve all heard Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God,” but did you know that your prayers need faith too? It really seems elementary to say it like this, but the truth is, many people pray faithless prayers and experience disappointment when they go unmet. We’ve got to understand, though, that faithless prayers are really just wishes. When you wish, you hope something happens, but when you pray prayers by faith, you expect something to happen. Hope relies on a feeling, but expectation calls on your faith. Every single time Jesus encountered faith, miracles happened. When Jesus met the recipients of these miracles, they weren’t hoping Jesus would do something. They were expecting it. Both hope and expectation recognized that Jesus had the power to heal, but expectation recognized the fact that, according to his will, he would do it. We need to be sure we are praying with expectation, not hoping something may happen.

Matthew 21:22 says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Our prayers hinge on faith. Perhaps before you ask God to meet your need, you should take a moment and ask God to give you faith. “Father, please give me faith to believe. Give me faith to ask in prayer.” It is crazy how easy it is to believe God for salvation, but how hard it is to believe the Lord answer our prayers. The reason is sometimes that the answer he gives is not the answer we expect. But many times, it is simply a lack of faith. Be bold, be full of faith when you petition God. But be ready for the response! Yes’s are great, but no’s can be, too. A “no” from God is really just him protecting us from what he doesn’t want us to have.

3. Prayer is connected to righteousness.
James 5:16 tells us, “The prayers of a righteous man avail much.” For those of you who need to Google “avail,” here’s a modern translation from the NLT, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” If we had to be spotless to pray, then none of us could could even be saved, much less heard. If a sinner can’t pray to receive Jesus, then the whole thing is off. But what the writer is saying here is not that perfection is required, but when we live lives to honor God and we are doing our best to please him, our prayers have greater impact. And if I could once again reference the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us that confession and repentance are a huge part of prayer. Confession and repentance is not so that God can say, “See how bad you are?” It is to allow freedom from sin to enter your life, and as a byproduct, your prayers begin to avail much. Seek first God’s kingdom, then all you need will be met. In reality, James 5:16 is just echoing the truth found in Matthew 6:33, just in the context of prayer. When you are living for God, seeking his will, and living in covenant with God and his people, prayers simply have more power.

I can’t stress enough the power of prayer and your need for a consistent prayer time. I’ve heard it said, “What you won’t schedule, you won’t do.” Maybe you need to mark your prayer times on your calendar just like you would any other meeting. Perhaps you can stick to a schedule better that way. But can I encourage you in that? If you will schedule it and start doing it, it won’t be long before you pray out of a hunger for more of God rather than satisfying a calendar slot.

Pray. Pray according to God’s will. Pray in faith. Commit yourself to God and his righteousness found through Jesus Christ. God has so much he wants to say and do in you. We live in a crazy, hectic world with events, one after the other, vying for our time. But God is calling you and me to consistent and powerful times of prayer. Would you obey? Would you spend the time he deserves with him each day? Morning or night makes no difference, as long as we pray. God wants to interact with you. Will you give him the opportunity?

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Be blessed,
J

Practical Tip:
One good way to build your faith is to keep a small notebook of prayer requests you have for God. Write down the date you first presented the request to God, and then write down the date he answered it and how. The next time you pray for something and you haven’t seen him answer yet, it will build your faith as you look back on the answers God provided to your other requests.