God answers all prayers, but there are different ways to pray. Find out how to pray and how God answers prayers.
I glanced down at my wrist and gasped. My diamond tennis bracelet was gone. As I rushed around doing errands that day it fell off in one of the stores. It could have fallen off anywhere.
With my heart pounding, I felt a wave of desperation wash over me. I knew it was just a bracelet but it mattered to me.
I said, Lord, you know where my bracelet is please help me find it.
Several days went by with hope diminishing. I called various places to hear, “No, we didn’t find it.”
I was trying to keep hope alive but it was not looking good for me. I resisted the temptation to give into doubt.
It was a struggle keeping my heart in faith but I knew God heard my prayer. If I could find it without relying on God’s help then I wouldn’t need to use my faith.
After a few long days I got a call from the furniture store I visited, someone had found it and turned it in. This is where I did the happy dance.
I was relieved knowing it was a miracle for someone to turn in a diamond bracelet.
Prayer works guys. From the smallest concern to the greatest need we have, God waits for us to ask him for help.
Prayer isn’t trying to pry something from God’s reluctant hand, it’s coming to his open hand for help.
Let’s Look at What Prayer is and How God Answers Our Prayers.
Prayer is the way we communicate with God. It is our connection to him. We communicate all our needs and desires to him through our prayers.
Prayer is a dialogue, not just a monolog. We need the discipline of listening. When we become still it silences the noise of our lives to hear from the one who quiets the sea.
You have been given access to enter into God’s presence.
May we refrain from spouting off our checklist of things we need to be done. Prayer is about discovering who God is not just getting what we need.
Imagine if your kids came to you and dumped everything they wanted at your feet and then left until they had another need.
The Lord wants us to know him. To be with him. It is about intimacy.
He never turns us away when we come with our needs. But He wants to grow us up in spiritual understanding.
When we are young spiritually(like babes), we frequently have prayers answered. This builds faith and encourages us to pray more frequently.
The more answers to prayer we receive, the more we are encouraged to pray and seek God’s help and guidance.
As we grow in our spiritual maturity we may experience some delay seeing God move. We enter the waiting season.
We wait, then wait some more, and then begin to question if God heard us because it seems like the heavens are brass. They’re not. You’re heard. God is working as you wait.
Let’s look at Daniel during a time of waiting as He prayed. Twenty-one days of waiting. There was a ton of spiritual activity happening but Daniel couldn’t see it in the natural.
The Bible says in Daniel Chapter 10 from the first moment Daniel humbled himself and prayed God heard him.
It didn’t look that way when he waited, hearing and seeing nothing for twenty-one days. It didn’t look that way when He got thrown in a lion’s den.
God did not forsake him when He and his friends were thrown into a fire, God was with them in the fire.
All this happened because Daniel refused to compromise. He believed God. His convictions ruled him, not the pressure from outsiders who didn’t walk with God.
While they may have been watching Daniel’s every move, Daniel was walking with God.
He refused to stop praying even when his faithfulness landed him right in the lion’s den. Still, Daniel persisted because He knew God, and you can do the same.
You have an enemy who wants to hinder you. Don’t quit and don’t shrink back, God will show himself strong towards those devoted to him.
Delayed answers in prayer do not always mean denied answers to prayer. Maybe, you’ve been waiting more than twenty-one days, or twenty-one weeks or even twenty-one months. God knows and hears you.
Let’s Look At 5 Different Types Of Prayers And How They Help Us Pray Effectively.
Here are five different types of prayer every believer should master. Each one teaches us something about how to pray effectively.
1.) The Lord’s Prayer Matthew 6:19-13 (NIV)
We can see Jesus model order in prayer from his own life:
V.9 Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
Our attention should be to acknowledge who God is to us. Declaring He is holy and glorified.
V.10 Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Praying for God’s will not ours.
V.11 Give us today our daily bread
Focus on today and those specific needs not worrying about what we need for tomorrow.
V.12 and Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors
Cleanse your heart and forgive others. Because we stand forgiven we are empowered to forgive others.
V.13 and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one
Protection from temptation and whatever bait the enemy would attempt to present to you.
Jesus teaches us sequence as we pray. It’s not meant to be rigid or a religious “formula” but a position for our hearts to take.
Now, we move into another effective prayer type. Private and personal.
2.) The Power of Private Prayer
Our key passage is from Matthew 6:6
But when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Matthew 6:6
Private prayer gets rewarded openly. A life that is shut in with sincere prayer seems to find the windows of heaven open to their voice.
This isn’t about eloquent words, it’s about genuine, humble prayers spoken from the heart. It’s sacred and secret between you and God. This is not how the Pharisees prayed.
The Pharisees love to be seen praying. They strut through the sanctuary hoping others will see them through the stained glass windows.
It’s even better if they are heard and admired for their long-winded prayers. Jesus said, don’t be like them.
He is saying, drop any facades or religious faces and be yourself. No airs. Layout privately between you and God what you need.
He hears those sincere prayers. Be simple and authentic.
3.)Boldness in Prayer
Now this is the confidence that we have in him, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15
We can have bold confidence when we are praying in alignment with God’s will.
We don’t have to be afraid to ask. We can be bold with our ask. We can wait with expectancy until we have it.
Confidence comes from knowing who God is and what he wants us to ask him for in prayer. When you know something is his will, you will confidently ask knowing He wants that too.
4.) Layers of Prayers
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; not, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8
Ask. Seek. Knock.
3 layers of pivotal prayers.
The first part is your asking; bringing the need or desire before God. He can’t do what we don’t ask him to do.
Our faith is voice-activated. We must confess with our mouth what we need from God.
The second part is seeking and pursuing what he leads you to do. Waiting well doesn’t mean inactivity. It can mean a quiet adapting by calming your soul as God brings you to where you need to be.
Part of seeking is you are persevering in your prayers. You are seeking to know God’s will for your situation.
You are taking a step of faith with your prayers. Faith requires corresponding action. You are encouraging yourself as you believe for the answer to be on the way.
You are giving God thanks in advance for the answer. You are spending time with God and leaning in to listen to what He is saying to you while you wait.
The 3rd layer is you are at the door knocking.
You are determined, not deterred. You are at the door of your promise. You have scriptures you have been standing on and declaring over your situation.
God has led you to this place. God has led you somewhere specific and now you’re knocking. Keep knocking. Don’t quit over weariness. Receive his strength to do what He has asked you to do and walk through the door He opens.
If you stop knocking you may never know what is on the other side of the door you stand in front of. Push through to the other side. You have more strength in reserve. This is the place where asking, seeking, and knocking led you: to the answer.
5.) Prayers of Intercession
These are prayers prayed on behalf of others. You’re standing between heaven and earth and closing the gap on their behalf.
Whether it’s a physical, emotional, spiritual, or material need someone has, you are lifting them up in prayer. You are releasing God’s kingdom to move on their behalf.
Abraham did this in Genesis 18:23-33.
He pleads with The Lord to not destroy the city on behalf of the people. He cared about these people so He stood in on their behalf. He continued going back to God multiple times on behalf of these people. He knew God was merciful.
He seemed to have shaky confidence but He kept asking and with every ask He had his request got bigger. We might think of the term go big or go home. Do it.
God’s not scared off by a big request. He welcomes it. It isn’t any harder for God to heal cancer than it is for God to heal a cold. Abraham knew God was able.
Abraham’s position of humility and persistence affected what God would do. Abraham understood the power of intercession. God has an open ear turned towards us. Care enough to ask, He waits for it.
Intercession for others has a way of linking them to God, whether they know they’re being prayed for or not.
This is the most selfless prayer you can pray. Praying for someone else. God answers prayers for those we intercede for.
Watch for the fruit of it in their lives as you pray. Sometimes, we don’t struggle in prayer for others as we do for ourselves because we aren’t physically or literally in their shoes. We can’t feel physical symptoms like they might be experiencing or the anxiety rising up from financial upheaval.
We can pray in confidence not battling the personal trial they are experiencing. We can lift them up when they don’t know how to pray for themselves.
Intercessory prayer is an act of love for someone in need. It has blocked assaults of the enemy and also cleared away the debris from someone’s thinking so they could see clearer.
It has healed bodies and imparted strength to those weary ones on your list.
It gives strategy to those in business. And wisdom for those who lead others. All because someone hit their knees with a humble heart and lifted their voice towards heaven.
God heard and moved on their behalf. They may never know you prayed but God will and those you prayed for will experience the blessings of your prayers.
Today, remind yourself of the power of prayer. Build the discipline of a committed prayer life for you and for others.
The time you invest in seeking God will bring to you the fruit of your prayers. Never forget: God answers prayer.
The intimacy and trust you develop with God will bring you into a new place of knowing God in a deeper way. Remember friend, He hears your prayers and He is for you.