Hello everyone. Welcome again to my blog. Yesterday I wrote about Reasons For Prayer for prayer in Effective Praying. You can check it out here. Today, we are going to look at the requirements of effective praying.

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Requirements Of Effective Praying

Although prayer is not a particular formula of things to say or do, there are still several conditions that must be met for our prayers to be effective.
(1) We must have true and sincere faith that God hears our prayers, that he has the ability to accomplish what is needed and that He will do what He knows is best in the situation. Jesus states clearly: "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believed that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Matthew 11:24). To the father of a demon-possessed boy, He said: Everything is possible for him who believes" (Mark 9:23). The author of Hebrews urges us to draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith" (Hebrew 10:22). Also, James encourages us to "believe and not doubt" (James 1:6; 5:15).

(2) Prayer also should be made in Jesus' name. In the Bible, doing something in someone's name means doing it with their approval and in their authority. It means being aware of who that person is and all they represent. Therefore, as we pray, we must do so with an awareness of Jesus' power, compassion and desire to respond to our needs and requests. Praying with this in mind will build our faith and give us peace that He has all things under control. Jesus Himself teaches us this when He says: " And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:13-14). This means that if our prayers are made in harmony with Jesus' character and intentions-realizing who He is and what He wants to do through us-they can be extremely effective.

(3) The effective of prayer is greatest when we ask those things that are in harmony with God's perfect will (i.e., desires, intentions, plans and purposes). "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us" (I John 5:14). Jesus teaches this principle in His model prayer (often called the Lord's Prayer): " Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Much of the time we know Gods will because He has revealed it to us in the Bible. We can be sure that any prayer truly based on the promises and motives of God's Word will be effective. Elijah was certain that God would respond to his prayer by sending fire and rain because the Lord's prophetic Word had already been revealed to him (1King 18:1). He was fully confident that none of the pagan gods was greater than or even as powerful as Israel's God (1King 18:21-24). At other times, Gods will becomes clear only as we seriously seek to understand what His will is. This knowledge comes through prayer, reading the Bible and observing what God seems to be doing already. Then once we feel that we know Gods will for a certain issue or situation, we can pray with confidence and faith that God will answer.

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(4) Not only must we pray according to God's will, but we must be living in God's will if we expect Him to respond positively to our prayers. God will give us the things we ask for only if our desires are in harmony with His desires and our motives are right and pure. Jesus tells us to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness" and He will take care of us and provide all that we need.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. - Matthew 6:33

The apostle John, one of Jesus' closest followers during his time on earth, wrote that we "recieve from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him" (1John 3:22). Obeying Gods commands, following His instructions, loving Him and trying to do what pleases Him are all necessary for receiving answers to prayer. When James wrote that the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective, he was referring to "righteousness" in two ways. The first is righteousness in the sense of being made right in God through faith in Christ. Then there is righteousness in the sense of living right or obeying God's standards, as the prophet Elijah did (James 5:16-18). Moses is another good example. God made it clear that His prayers for the Israelite were effective because of his loyal and obedient relationship with God (Exodus 13:17). But the psalmist says if we hold on to sin in our lives, the Lord will not listen to our prayers (Psalm 66:18). This sort of attitude was the main reason God did not respond at times to the prayers of the Israelite. When they were living wickedly and worshiping other gods (Isaiah 1:15), God would not answer their prayers. But God also says that if His people "will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" 2Chronicles 7:14) A right relationship with God is so important to prayer that even the prayer for forgiveness made by the high priest on the Day of Atonement would only be heard if he had already gone through the ritual of cleansing for his own sin first.

(5) Finally, for our prayers to be effective we must be persistent. We must continue to ask until we get our answer. This is the main point of the story about the widow described in Luke 18:1-7. Jesus' instruction to "ask ...seek ...knock" (Matthew 7:7-8) is meant to teach us to pray patiently but persistently. That does not mean we do not have faith that God heard and has an answer for us. Praying persistently means that instead of worrying about a situation, we take it to God whenever it comes to mind, realizing that He is in control and will do what is best. The apostle Paul also urges us to devotee ourselves to prayer (Colossians 4:2). Gods faithful people throughout the history have recognized this principle. For example, on one occasion the israelites were successful in their battle against the Amalekites. But success came as long as Moses kept praying with his hands raised toward God. After Elijah received the prophetic message from God that rain was coming, he kept praying until it actually started to rain (1Kings 18:41-45). On a previous occasion, this great prophet had prayed long and hard that God would bring back to life a widows dead son. He did not stop calling out to God until the Lord answered his prayer (1Kings 17:17-23).

This are the requirements we need to follow for God to answer our prayers. We can do it and having faith in God that He hear us will quickening things for us. It will not end here. By tommorrow, we will be looking at the Biblical Elements And Methods Of Effective Praying. Don't miss it and I know you will be bless. Amen.

Thanks for reading.
Shalom.

[NIV Study Edition Bible]

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