What Makes You Think Your Prayers Work?

4 Jan

As I wrote my last post, I heard my own soul asking a question I expect some of you will have: “How do you know that your prayer will be answered? What makes you sure it’s the right way to pray?”

Let’s look at Scripture:

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

That is the basis of my prayers of alignment. I sought out one of God’s promises in Scripture. It was one I didn’t really believe. So I applied this verse and put my prayer in my own language. Now, it’s true that I don’t talk like that prayer most of the time. I made the extra effort to cover all the bases I could think of. It’s a quirk of mine. I see loopholes and double meanings and possible misunderstandings. So I’ve developed my prayer life to be as specific as possible, not so God won’t be confused, but so I know exactly what I’m asking for.

The Holy Spirit has been teaching me that a major part of prayer is agreement with God’s Word. I didn’t want to believe this a couple years ago because the Word seemed lifeless and dead to me, and praying passages to God seemed so impersonal. I don’t feel that same way anymore.

When I was all prideful and superior, I didn’t need Scripture to pray. I also heard almost no responses to my prayers. Great success. These days, I pray much more Scripture, and I’m seeing God answer more often in ways I can recognize.

Rather than praying just any old thing that I feel like praying, I am beginning to pay closer attention to God’s promises in Scripture. Since God is not a man that He should lie, His Word is the only absolute truth I have in this world. So when God says He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, I know I want to humble myself so I can receive His grace. And when God tells husbands to honor and love their wives or their prayers will be hindered, I take that seriously too. And when Jesus shows us how to pray (“Our Father, who art in heaven…”), that prayer is worth praying a hundred times.

The reason I’m beginning a series on God’s promises is that there’s no better truth to line up with. Everywhere God says He’ll bless, protect, give, honor, save, redeem, restore, pour out, etc, those are truths I want to lay hold of and pray. I want to agree with His goodness and not be my own worst enemy by disbelieving and therefore not receiving.

Think on it. Pray on it. Ask the Lord if He would have you approach prayer this way, or a modification of this way. Let me know what He says.

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  • lonnie
    Humility is always a good place to start any conversation with God. Read Micah 6 especially vs 8. " He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"
  • Well said, Lonnie. I've found it easier to approach God when my heart is already humble. If not, I have to go through a process of humbling myself before I am really willing to listen.
  • Richard
    Daniel,
    This is one of my fav vs. Is 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please,
    And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. NKJV
    When the Lord speaks to my heart (what ever that might be) I return that word back to Him in prayer. The Lord spoke to me one day and said "if you do not return My word to Me then you will void that word! It's only in returning His word back to Him that makes his word effective and a reality.
  • Wow. Powerful word, Richard. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I
    will make it a point to do that now.

    I have gone back through most of my 20 journals and copied all the things
    the Lord has spoken to me either directly or through others and compiled
    those into a separate book. My purpose was to use them as "the sword of the
    Spirit", but was lacking some direction. This helps immensely.
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