How to Get Your Prayers Answered

How to Get Your Prayers Answered... Biblically!

What is prayer? It’s communicating with God, right? But wait, I get to communicate with God? Anytime I want to? Do you realize how awesome that is? You can’t get an audience with a human ruler anytime you want to.

But the Good News of the Christian faith is that God wants a relationship with us. He wants to communicate with us. He doesn’t want to cast us away; He wants to bring us near to Himself.

God’s personal relationship looks different from person to person, which is good. Because God is personal. He treats us as Individuals. The way God speaks to me is different from how He speaks to my wife is different from how He communicates to you. So as we talk about prayer and communicating with God, I want us to understand that our prayer lives and our conversations with God won’t all be the same.

When we pray, what are we communicating about? Sometimes, we’re praising Him and thanking Him, sometimes we’re confessing what we feel we’ve done wrong, or pouring our heart out to Him because we’re concerned about something. Sometimes we’re having a running dialog with the Lord, just talking to Him about whatever pops into our heads that day, or bouncing ideas off God.

It’s good to have a time for dedicated prayer, when you’re focused on speaking to the Lord, but then also keep the communication open throughout the day.

And when we’re praying, we have to remember to not do all the talking. Prayer is a conversation with God, so we also need to practice listening.

1 Samuel 3:9 - “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.”

When you pray, try asking if there’s anything He wants to say to you, and then be silent for a time as you give Him room to speak in your spirit.

 

Biblical Examples of What to Pray For

I recently did a survey of all the things people ask God to do in the Bible. There were over 400 times people prayed and asked God for something, so here are some examples.

A lot of people prayed for healing of various diseases - for themselves or someone else.

There were a lot of prayers for people to have children - for various couples to be able to get pregnant and bring that pregnancy to birth. I’m thinking of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Hannah and Elkanah, Zechariah and Elizabeth

There were a few times, like in the cases of the prophets or Elijah and Elisha that people prayed for God to raise the dead - and He did!

People prayed most for protection from their enemies, or for God’s strength so that they could defeat their enemies. Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still - and it did! - so that he could continue winning the fight against his enemies.

How do we feel about praying to defeat our enemies? Should the Christians in Ukraine pray for God to help them defeat the Russians? Should the Israelis pray to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and Iran and Turkey and…

Jesus said to pray for our enemies. He said to turn the other cheek. He said when He returns He will punish the evildoers.

I don’t know if we can still pray to defeat our enemies. I know we can pray for God to make bad things stop. I know we can long for the day when sin will be done away with and we’ll be living in His Kingdom.

I also know that even if we’re not at war physically, we always have a spiritual enemy. Try praying for protection against and victory over Satan.

Psalm 7:6 - Arise, Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice.

Ezra says to pray for the welfare of the king and his sons. Peter says to pray for those who are in governmental authority. Paul prays for the king to become a believer.

Ezra prays for a safe journey when he traveled back to Israel.

Some people in the Bible prayed for guidance or success on their mission, asking, “God what should I do? Where should I go? You’ve sent me on this mission, so please bring it to success.” David asked God specific questions about what he should do.

1 Samuel 23:9-12 - But David learned of Saul’s plan and told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and ask the Lord what he should do. Then David prayed, “O Lord, God of Israel, I have heard that Saul is planning to come and destroy Keilah because I am here. Will the leaders of Keilah betray me to him?[a] And will Saul actually come as I have heard? O Lord, God of Israel, please tell me.”

And the Lord said, “He will come.”

Again David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah betray me and my men to Saul?”

And the Lord replied, “Yes, they will betray you.”

We can ask God questions. Sometimes He answers one way, sometimes another. And He doesn’t answer everyone the same. Sometimes, He doesn’t answer because we haven’t asked a valid question. (How can I get revenge on my enemies? How can I get this other woman’s husband to notice me? Should I get drunk on vodka or bourbon?) But you can ask God questions and learn to ask better questions.

People like Moses and Samuel prayed for God to forgive people when they sinned and for God to not punish them, or to stop punishing them.

Solomon prayed for the dedication of the Temple, that it would be a holy place and that God’s favor would be on it.

Elijah prayed that it would rain after the drought.

Elijah prayed to die when Queen Jezebel was threatening his life. But Elijah wasn’t in the right mental state. God didn’t grant that prayer. But there’s a time to talk to God about end of life issues and ask for it to be easier rather than harder. Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

Jabez prayed for God’s blessing on his life. We hesitate to ask for blessings, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking God to bless us - as long as we’re not using that blessing solely for ourselves. Blessing is always meant to spill over to others.

Jesus says to pray for workers to share the Good News, and Paul prays for the right words and opportunities to share.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s name to be treated as holy, for God’s will to be done, for Him to meet our daily needs, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for strength against giving into temptation.

Jesus prayed for the disciples to be united.

The early believers prayed for Peter to be released from jail.

Paul prayed spiritual blessings and understanding on the churches he was writing to.

In 1 John, the Beloved Apostle tells us to pray for a fellow Christian who is sinning.

 

How God Receives Our Prayers

Revelation 5:8 - And when the Lamb took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

All of these prayers are incense rising to God, just like the priests in the Old Testament covered the Ark of the Covenant with a cloud of sweet-smelling incense. God breathes these prayers in. I say something that God breathes in, takes into Himself.

 

Making Our Prayers Heard

But there are times when God refuses to take our prayers, times when He doesn’t listen to our prayers.

1 Peter 3:7 -  In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

Your prayers can be hindered, blocked because you’re not treating your wife rightly.

1 Peter 3:12 - The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. but the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.”

Hebrews 5:7 - While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God.

Proverbs 15:8 - The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but he delights in the prayers of the upright.

Proverbs 28:9 - God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.

James 5:16 - The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

So, whose prayers does God not listen to? The person who is not obeying Him.

Whose prayers does God listen to? The person who is living righteously.

 

Praying God’s Will

But wait, there’s more! Being right before God isn’t all there is to having your prayers answered.

Ephesians 6:18 - Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Jude 1:20 - pray in the power of the Holy Spirit

Mark 11:22-24 - Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

If we want to be heard, and we want our prayers to be effective, 

1. We need to be living rightly before the Lord,
2. We need to be praying in the Spirit, and
3. We need to be praying in faith.

Do you know how you can pray in faith? You pray in the Spirit. You ask the Spirit, “What do You want me to pray? How are You leading me in this?” And then you pray that, having faith that’s what God has led you to say and ask for.

But there are times when we can’t pray, or we don’t know what to say.

Romans 8:26 - And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

The Holy Spirit prays for us. Do you think that when God prays to God, for us, that those prayers will be effective?

 

Summary Application

So, let’s sum up.

When you pray, are you setting aside time for focused prayer?

Are you bringing all your requests to God and being bold like the people in Scripture were? Sometimes they prayed for normal, everyday stuff, and sometimes they prayed for big miracles. Are you praying for the little things, and being bold enough to ask God to do big things?

Are you asking questions and listening, giving God room to speak?

Are you living righteously so that your prayers will be effective?

Are you letting the Spirit lead you in your prayers?

Are you trusting the Spirit to pray for you when you can’t?

How is the Spirit asking you right now to better communicate with your Heavenly Father?