A Lesson on Powerfully Praying

"For this reason I tell you:  When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for. 

Mark 11:24 GNT

I've been learning something significant about praying, something that will change your life, starting today.  This is how I learned it.

Once I needed a job.  Not just any job, mind you.  I job that pays at least 17 dollars hour for 40 hours a week.  So I would follow the prayer formula Jesus gave in the following verses:

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;  and the one who knocks, the door will be opened."  Matt. 7:7-8

I asked God in prayer to give me a job that paid at least 17 dollars an hour for 40 hours a week.  Then I sought this job through job searches until I found it.  I then knocked on the doors of these jobs by applying for them until I was interviewed...but something happened in this process that didn't match what Jesus said.

Though I asked for and sought a job that paid 17 an hour for 40 hours a week, I would find jobs that would not tell me how much they paid an hour, or how many hours a week the job was.  But I would still pursue the job!  In the book of James, it is written, "You have not because you ask not."  That was me.  Whenever these jobs would call me in for an interview, I would not stop and ask them, "Excuse me, how much does this job pay, and for how many hours a week?"  So I'd go to an interview and waste my time and theirs because I wouldn't take the job if it wasn't what I asked for.  But the problem was deeper than wasting their time and mine.

The problem was my lack of faith, that I was double minded, unstable, and wavering, as it says in the book of James of those who shouldn't expect to receive anything from God in prayer:

"But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.  James 1: 6-8

Those verses described me at the time.  I was desperate for work.  So I wavered and compromised from the specific prayer request I gave God.  Keyword:  specific.

Jesus taught that our prayers should be specific, and we should seek to receive exactly what we ask for.  Nothing more, less, or other than what we ask.  When we do this, and when we stick to doing this by faith and honesty about what we want, the answers to our prayers become clearer and clearer.  Either you will get what you ask, or you will not get what you ask.  But if you aren't getting what you asked for, like getting a job that pays less than what you asked, don't compromise like I did.  Don't try to make it work, or adjust your prayer...unless your prayer was unwise in the first place.  Then just pray a new prayer all together.  But the new prayer should be wise and specific.  The more specific your prayers, and the more single minded, doubtless, and unwavering you are, the more you will see God give you clear direction and guidance.

This is the lesson on powerfully praying that I learned, and that I'm sharing with you.  

Share your lessons on powerfully praying with me in the comments section.  I look forward to hearing from you.  May God bless you, and answer all of your prayers.