How to get your prayers answered in 2021

How to get your prayers answered in 2021. Interested in that happening?

Believe it or not, it’s a promise from God.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Jesus, in John 14:13

You might not get the answer you’re looking for at the moment you want it, but isn’t trust intrinsic to prayer? You must transfer your reliance on the past, present, and future to the Creator of Time. Otherwise, what you pray is not actually a prayer. It’s a mantra. A self-help practice. Some good might come from it, but the answer will be entirely under your power to initiate and follow-through.

It won’t be a miracle.

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?

Corrie ten Boom, Holocaust survivor and author of The Hiding Place

If you want your prayers answered, you can’t rub a lamp. You can’t force an answer by giving money to charity or waving your hands in the air to praise music. You can’t even demand an answer.

You can only worship. Let me explain what that means. It doesn’t have to make sense. (It is, after all, a holy invention.)

• Prayer isn’t about giving you want you want when you want it. Prayer is an avenue through which you can experience and communicate with the God who formed you and understands you. It’s a way for you to worship and express faith that God is all that He claims to be in the Bible.
• Answered prayers bring glory to God. It’s not about making you happy. Prayer is about directing the world’s attention to their Creator and Savior.
• Prayer provides a way for you to express all your emotions, fears, and needs to the only place they can be answered. The process of doing so helps you transfer the stress and anxiety we all hold on to when we try to solve our own problems and figure out the reason for our own existence in the world.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Here’s how the prayer process could work for you in 2021:

1. Pray from your heart, not your mind. Focus on what you feel and believe. Then transfer those concerns onto God’s shoulders. (1 Peter 5:7)
2. Say what you know to be true, even if it’s hard to believe: “God is good, and God does good.” Whatever else is happening occurs outside the perimeter of God’s direct influence. God allows evil because He gives us free will to choose Him. But God does not do evil. He cannot, or He would cease to exist as a holy God. (Romans 8:28)
3. Pray anywhere, anytime. Does it still work if you take big breaks in between your prayers? Of course, but praying regularly will make you more comfortable with the process and will allow you to hear the voice of God when you pray. If you take big breaks, you may not recognize when He answers you. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
4. Be humble. Be willing to shed your ideas about what you think God owes you. Just seek His presence and wait there. This will require you to set aside time for prayer and Bible study, time alone (possibly outside) and in corporate worship. The heroes of the Bible, including Jesus, all made time for these disciplines. It’s silly to think we can grow or communicate to God without them. (Mark 1:35)

People like formulas for prayer. We keep journals or calendars or beads. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I stumbled on a process, rather than a formula, when I was studying prayer in the Bible. This process became the basis and structure for my Selah Award-winning book, Soulspeak: Praying Change into Unexpected Places. Here’s the process that great prayer warriors of the Bible seemed to follow:

1. speak PRAISE first; this reminds you of who God is
2. speak CONFESSION next; this reminds you of who you are and how God forgives you
3. speak LAMENTATION next; this reminds you that God sees and understands your pain; He is with you
4. speak THANKSGIVING next; this reminds you of what God has already provided for you
5. speak REQUEST after; this reminds you that you can trust God with your longings and needs
6. speak INTERCESSION next; this reminds you that you can call God’s favor on others because of your faith
7. speak SPIRITUAL WARFARE last; this reminds you that God’s power lives in you and works through you to change the world

Take the PRAYER CHALLENGE in 2021: start praying, and start with PRAISE. Then add the other types of prayer. God will most certainly answer you if you approach Him with humble worship and adoration!

For more help with prayer, you can visit 7prayersthatwork.com and choose any of the 7 types of prayers listed in this blog. Use the search bar to find something specific, like vengeance, anxiety, rebellious children, spouse, forgiveness, anger. etc.

You literally can pray about ANYTHING, and God will answer a heart that wants to hear from Him!

Write a comment below and tell me what you’re doing and how it’s going. Or give me a prayer request, and I’ll intercede for you!

Blessings in 2021!