Prevailing Word: “Let your requests be made known to God”- Philippians 4:6
Memory Verse: (For after all these things do the gentiles seek for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things”-Matthew 6:32
Some of us view prayer as a means of venting our frustrations. We unconsciously turn prayer into a time of complaining and reminding God of our needs. Sometimes in our frustration, we even forget to mention our requests.
There is no place in the scripture where we are commanded to tell God our needs, yet, this is a common habit of so many of us. Child of God, our memory verse reminds us that God already knows our needs. What He wants to hear is our request(s).
Take for instance the story of the healing of blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). When the blind man finally stood before the Lord, he was asked, “what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” as a beggar, and blind man, the man had several possible needs- like for money, clothes, help with his family introduction to governmental leaders for various favours, healing for his eyes, etc. Receiving his sight was just one out of several other needs. Jesus did not assume that He already knew what the man wanted.
In verse 50, the bible tells us that the blind man discarded his garments in order to go to Jesus – So, he also needed clothes. Jesus said to him, “What specifically do you want?”
Without hesitating, the man replied, “ Lord, that I might receive my sight”. I want you to notice that he did not mention the particular one that he wanted God to address.
You certainly have many needs. They may even be very pressing to the point that you are feeling frustrated about them.
Please calm down and sort out your feelings so that you can determine your requests. Don’t just jump into prayer without thinking. What exactly do you want God to do?
Finding your answer to this questions is extremely important. Most prayer failures occur during the time of designing your prayer requests. If the prayer request is wrong, God cannot answer it.
There are many “demonic” prayer requests! That’s one of the ways that the enemy frustrates believers. God is not committed to answering every prayer request. Knowing this, the devil suggests prayer requests to believers because he understands that God will never answer such requests. When such prayers are unanswered, the believers involved eventually feel frustrated. Some may go as far as not praying again. The following kinds of prayer requests will never be answered.
(i) Telling God your needs instead of your requests.
(ii) Asking God to do for you something which He commanded you to do. eg. asking God to humble you instead of obeying His command to humble yourself. In other words, if something is a command, what is needed is “obedience”, not prayer. Sometimes, prayer can be a type of disobedience! May your prayers never become acts of disobedience!
(iii) Asking God for something forbidden in the scripture. For example, the bible says “not to covet” anything belonging to some else. So it wrong to ask God to give you somebody s’ car, or wife or husband etc.
(iv) Asking God to give you something He has already given you. Sometimes due to ignorance of divine provisions, many are praying that God will give them “righteousness”. They do not realize that in Christ, righteousness has already been given.
(v) Asking God to bless your “sinful” plans. And so on. Some people love to pray for things which God has NOT promised in Scripture, you have no business asking God for it.
Prayer Requests must be consistent with God’s promises and character. If that prayer is very important, then, think before you pray. Screen and edit your Prayer list until you reduce them to the MOST IMPORTANT ONE(S)
Jesus said that prayer must be based on “what thing soever you desire”. (Mark11:24). If you don’t have a strong desire about that prayer request then it is not worth praying about.
Work on your prayer list.
For each prayer request, study the bible in order to locate the scriptures that definitely promise you these things. Eliminate all unscriptural requests.
Then check your motives. Why do you want God to answer that particular request? (James 4:1-3). The request may be right but the motive may be wrong. God does not always respond according to His promises alone. He also considers our hearts and His character.
The time you spend examining your prayer request is not wasted time. If your prayer request is right, God will always say “yes” to you. It is better to get 2 requests answered positively than pray 100 prayer request which are never answered you will succeed. Prayer is a Miracle
Bible Reading: Joshua 12,13,14 and John 6
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Prayer is indeed a miracle! Amen