Prayers Released

Week Seventeen

Prayers released

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:22-26.

Again in Matthew we read a similar verse. “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 21:21. And again in James 4:1-3, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

What are you praying for? Are your prayers selfish or do you find yourself praying for the needs of others more than for yourself? Do you truly believe when you pray that God hears and will answer your requests? It seems there is a lot to know about prayer before we pray, but the basic elements are quite simple. 

To have our prayers answered, we have to pray. We have to pray believing that God will answer our prayers and we have to pray in accordance to God’s will. Seems like a lot to remember, but the more you know about God the easier it is to pray his will.

God wants to answer our prayers, he longs for us to come to him with every concern we have. He is able to meet every need in the world. There are a few keys in the scriptures above about how to pray. 

First we need to have faith in God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We just assume that if we are praying we must believe. But there are many people who pray and are unsure to whom they are praying. They really don’t know the God of the universe. They know of him, but they don’t have a relationship with him. So we must first believe that he is the Sovereign ruler of the world and that he is completely capable of answering our prayers.

Second we have to pray boldly. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

In other words we can come to God because of Jesus and Jesus doesn’t want us to doubt what we are asking for. If we ask God for something that he doesn’t want us to have, he won’t give us our request. But we need to ask him and let him make the decision.

Third, we need to pray with pure hearts. That doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but that we are in right standing with our brothers and sisters, that we do not have anger or jealousy in our hearts, that we do not have unforgiveness inside of us. Before we can really pray for others, we need to ask God to reveal any sin in our lives so that we might confess and repent, then our prayers will be heard. The psalmist said, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 Should we expect anything else?

When our hearts are cleansed, then our requests are heard. What is in your heart that needs to be repented? Do you harbor unforgiveness against anyone? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any sin in your life to you and repent.

God, our father, doesn’t want us to come to him with a list of requests that reads like a shopping list or a to-do list. He really wants our heartfelt requests. 

The best way to pray is to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal needs to us and wait quietly while he speaks to our hearts. Sometimes this may be a person who is ill, in trouble of some sort, or just having to make a tough decision. Sometimes it is for a particular national need. Decisions that are being made by government officials. Sometimes it is for our children, grandchildren, parents, siblings. The spirit knows who is in need better than we do. He can direct our prayers right to the heart of the matter. 

Whatever the need, we can have complete confidence that God has heard our request. When we lift the needs to God, we should release them completely. He is able to meet the needs in ways that we could never dream of.

When we pray for a need, we need to let it go. Sometimes the spirit may keep putting a request on our hearts over and over. But sometimes, we only have to make one request to God and then leave it in his hands to answer.

Heavenly Father,

We praise you and worship your holy name. We ask that you cleanse our hearts and reveal sin that is hiding inside us. We ask forgiveness in the name of Jesus. Hear the requests of our hearts today. Relieve our fears for our own needs. 

We know that you are a God of provision, a God who cares, a God who is able to meet every need we have. Thank you for knowing what we need before we can even ask. Teach us to let go of our requests and let you answer them in your own time, in your own way and not according to what we think. We trust you to know what is best for us and for all those we lift to you. These requests we lift to you in the precious wonderful name of Jesus. Amen