In Part 1 of this article, we looked at some Scriptures that promise we will receive whatever we pray for--most of them spoken by Jesus Himself. While these are beautiful promises, they are also hard to understand, because we know by experience that we can't call high-paying jobs, perfect marriage partners, or hey, even a candy bar and a pair of jeans, into being with merely a word and a snap of the fingers. So why does Jesus tell us we can throw a mountain into the sea just by commanding it? We examined the relevant Scriptures and found that the promise holds--we receive whatever we ask for in prayer--if the following conditions are met:
- We persist in prayer and don't give up
- We have faith and don't doubt
- We ask in Jesus' name
- We seek to glorify the Father, bear fruit, and be disciples
- We remain in Jesus and delight in the Lord
- We pray in God's will
- We don't ask for something merely to indulge our appetites
Well, to begin with, I think too often we give up too soon. Some will argue that praying for the same thing repeatedly displays lack of faith, but the "ask, seek, knock" scripture and the Parable of the Unjust Judge teach otherwise. We need to keep going until we either get our answer or it becomes abundantly clear that we won't because some immutable, irreversible, undeniable deadline has passed. If neither has happened, keep praying! Two common examples that can require years of persistence are prayers for salvation and prayers for healing. Tough cases appear to require a lot of prayer energy and power for breakthrough, not because God is unwilling--we are never, ever, trying to twist God's arm--but because He has ordained that human beings help bring about His will on Earth through prayer. This is how we participate with Him in worldly and heavenly events. There is power in prayer, and sometimes it takes a lot of prayer to release enough power to win the victory.
And speaking of faith without doubt, that doesn't mean never, ever doubting even for a moment. It means, when we waver and wobble because that thing we're praying for is desperate, precious, and precarious, we tell God about it, pick ourselves up quickly, repent, and return to a faith stance. This is far different from the wishy-washy "yesterday I believed but today I don't" seesaw, which we want to avoid. How can we become firmer in our faith, though? By placing it in Jesus rather than circumstances. Instead of putting our eyes on the result we want, we need to fix them firmly on Jesus and Him alone. All other ground is sinking sand.
We should also dig deeply, every day, into relationship with Jesus, through prayer, Scripture, praise, worship, speaking to Him throughout the day, asking Him to speak and listening for His voice, inviting Him into every aspect of our comings and goings. This is remaining in Jesus and delighting in Him. We can check our motives, making sure we seek to glorify God in our requests rather than please our flesh. This alone may help us weed out prayers we really shouldn't be praying.
But is there a practical way to implement these points--for example, increase faith and decrease doubt? I believe there is, and the key lies in the second-last point above: We pray in God's will. At first this sounds like another conundrum: But what if I don't know what that is? The Bible doesn't tell me whether I should marry Mr. Hotstuff from apartment 2C, or whether I should go to law school, or whether it's His will to heal my Grandma or if it's her time to go to heaven. Well, let's look at that last example.
I have a dear family member with a serious congenital, genetic disability. There is no realistic chance in the natural for complete healing, at least with today's medicine. There's not even a chance for much improvement, honestly. Could I pray for her complete healing? Absolutely I could, but there are two problems: (a) I don't know if this is God's will, and (b) I don't have the faith for it. Lacking these, I can't pray an effective prayer. What, then, can I do? I can construct my prayer in such a way that I know it is God's will, and therefore, knowing He delights to do His will, I can pray it in faith. I don't pray, "Please heal her completely," or even just, "Please heal her." I pray, "In Jesus' name, Father, please heal her to the greatest extent You can in keeping with Your call upon her life." That I have the faith for, and that I know is God's will. I'm prepared to pray it for the rest of my life.
And what about Mr. Hotstuff from 2C? Relying on the above points, construct a prayer you know is in God's will. "Father, at this point I don't know whether Mr. H is the husband You've chosen for me or not. In fact, it would be a mistake to even assume I'm called to marriage, because sometimes people aren't. I would like to be married, and I'm interested in Mr. H. Lord, I pray that if he's meant to be my husband, You will show us both how we are meant to serve the Kingdom as a couple, that our marriage would glorify You, that we would bear Holy Spirit fruit, and that we will show ourselves to be Your disciples so that people see Jesus in us. I lift Mr. H up to You in Jesus' name and ask You to meet his needs, and I pray that his relationship with You will keep on growing. If it's Your will for us to be together, I ask You to open that door, and if it's not Your will, I ask You to close the door. I admit my feelings for him because You know them anyway, but I ask that You take them away if they are not of You. Please have Your way, Lord."
When you pray in God's known will, then your faith level will rise, because He rejoices to do us good (Jeremiah 32:41). When you remain in Jesus and delight yourself in the Lord, you won't indulge your flesh. When you seek the Kingdom, all these things will be added. And now keep praying until your answer comes.
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