7 Actions to Help You Get Your Prayers Answered
You are loved, loved more than you can imagine. God loves you; he is love. You are his top priority whether you believe it or not. He hears you. He wants your prayers to be answered, but they must be in his will. The Lord has your best interest in mind, you just have to trust him. He wants you to receive the desires of your heart. God wants to see you happy and living a fulfilled life. You can have confidence in this, but you also need to take action. You may not realize it, but you play a big role in receiving what you are asking God for.
John 15:7 says “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” The Bible, God’s word, is your rock, your truth. You can rely on what it says. His word will give you hope and confidence. Your prayer life will become more powerful when you base it on Bible scripture. In this post, I have provided you with actionable tips on how you can help get your prayers answered based on scripture.
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Action to get your prayers answered #1 Gather
The Bible says in Matthew 18:19-20 “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by your father in heaven. And where two or three are gathered in my name there he is among them.”
I can personally attest to the power of gathering together in prayer. I have seen it work numerous time in my life. I can give you a personal example that recently occurred.
My nineteen-year-old son went on a trip to Los Angeles by himself. He texted me when he was riding to the airport in the Uber to return home. He asked me to pray for him because he was really sick with nausea and shaking and was unsure if he could get on the plane. I panicked because I know people that have been deathly sick from food poisoning and hospitalized with it. Your mind goes to the worst – I envisioned him unable to get on that plane and stuck in Los Angeles in a hospital all alone.
I felt helpless but began to pray. I didn’t want to bother anyone, but I felt so strongly to ask some of my family to pray for him. I grabbed my phone and sent a group text asking them to pray for healing for my son.
He felt much better once he reached the airport and did make it onto the airplane. Interestingly enough, when he got home I asked if he had taken the nausea medicine I had packed for him. He said yes, but he had mistakenly taken allergy medicine instead. So, if he didn’t take the correct medicine but instantly felt better, I thought it must have been the prayers.
Prayer in numbers works. If you have a request to God, put some power behind it by gathering with friends and family. And you don’t have to get together in person. With all the technology today, you can group text, Skype, or post on social media.
#2 Seek God First
If you want to see your prayers get answered you must love God and put him first. Matthew 6:33 says “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” And Romans 8:28 says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called to his purpose.”
God loves you so much. He wants a close relationship with you. You may say I just don’t have time to pray or read the bible or talk to God. Can I ask you what the first thing you do in the morning is after your alarm goes off? Is it check social media or the weather app? Lol, I’m not being critical. I do the same thing. But recently I’ve been doing a little something different. I do grab my phone but hit my Bible app or inspirational scripture app instead of social media.
I try to wake up a few minutes early to pray or chat with God. Try it, you will be amazed how much more peace you will have and how things just seem to go your way the rest of the day when you start it off this way.
#3 Pray with Persistence
Make your requests known to God every day if you need to. Romans 12:12 says to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Every person on this earth goes through troubles, storms, and heartbreak. If you feel like you are drowning in the middle of one, are discouraged because your prayers aren’t being answered, or feel like God has abandoned you, don’t give up. Believe he is by your side and keep praying.
Psalm 40:1 says “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. God tells us to pray at all times. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says “Pray without ceasing.” And according to Ephesians 6:18 we should “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”
When you pray incessantly, you are getting closer to God. You will sense his divine peace like nothing you have ever felt before. James 4:8 tells us “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
You are showing God you have faith in him when you are being patient and persistent in your prayer life. Your faith is very pleasing to him. When you give up on prayer, you start to rely on yourself for your wants and needs. You need to depend on God. When you totally rely on him and give him your concerns, troubles, and requests it will feel very liberating to you. He won’t let you down, he wants the best for your life. Don’t get discouraged if your prayer isn’t answered right away. You must trust God’s timing, so be tenacious with your prayer requests.
#4 Keep the Faith
When you ask for something from God believe he hears you and will answer you. This can be difficult, especially if you are feeling lonely and you aren’t getting what you are asking for fast enough. Once you ask, it is essential that you believe.
In Mark 11:22-24 Jesus says “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
I would like to share an experience in my life with you that changed it forever and strengthened my faith beyond anything I could have imagined. In 2013 my father had complications after a heart bypass surgery. He fell into a coma and was given a five percent chance of living.
Needless to say, I was desperate and in total despair. I couldn’t imagine life without him. He was only 65. I was in my room crying (that ugly cry) and begging God. I said to him, “I know you’re real, I know it, please, please, please save him!” I kept saying it over and over while sobbing uncontrollably. Then suddenly I heard a voice, not with my physical ears but with my spiritual ears. But it was loud and clear as day. He said, “Stop, stop begging and start believing.” I knew it was him, I knew in my heart it was Jesus.
The following day when I and some family members were in the waiting room, my uncle said, “We’ve said our prayers, now it’s time to start believing.” His statement was confirmation to me of what the Lord had told me to do the previous evening. My dad was healed, walked out of that hospital after being in a coma for a month, and is alive and well today!
Faith may be the most important factor in getting your prayer answered. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” according to Hebrews 11:6. The Lord wants to reward you. Believe.
#5 Be Thankful & Expectant
When you are thankful for what you have and what you are currently asking the Lord for, you are showing him you have faith in him. This makes God happy. It proves you trust him and are content in what he has already given you and where you are in life. When I’m feeling discouraged I try to thank him, even for the basic things like a roof over my head or the ability to get out of bed and walk every day. Try it. Being thankful for even the little things will lift your spirits and make you feel better when you’re down.
According to Colossians 4:2 “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Philippians 4:6 says “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Once you have prayed your prayer expect God to answer you. Psalm 31:24 states “Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and expect the Lord!” Living with the expectation that God will give you good things produces hope and strength in your heart. If you are expecting God to do his perfect will in your life you will live more victoriously and fulfilled knowing he is taking care of you and your needs. You will be less stressed.
What and how much God does for you is determined by your level of expectation. We limit him when we don’t believe or don’t hold expectation. Expect him to give you the best life. Remember Jeremiah 29:11 tells us “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
#6 Ask for Forgiveness, Forgive Others
God wants you to have the desires of your heart. But we must be obedient and try our best to live right and in God’s will. Acts 3:19 says “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”
Don’t be too hard on yourself. None of us are perfect, we all fall short and sin. God knows this and does not expect you to be perfect. I think so many people believe he is an angry, wrathful God who is just waiting to come down on us when we make a mistake. This is so far from the truth. Once you say you are sorry for a sin, God never remembers it (Hebrews 10:17). So, you need to forget it and move on as well.
He loves you so much. He isn’t going to turn his back on you when you sin, nor will he abandon you. He wants you to try and live without sin, so you can have a victorious life, but he will never leave you. Hebrews 13:5 promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God may not be answering your prayer because he is waiting for you to repent. According to Psalm 66:18, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart the Lord would not have listened.” When you feel like your requests are being ignored it should cause you to do a little self-reflection. This benefits you because you will recognize something may be wrong and can work on it. When you try and live right and shy away from sin, you will live a more victorious life. You will notice things start to work out and go your way.
If you want to see your prayers answered, you will need to forgive yourself and others as well. I know this can be extremely difficult when someone has hurt you. But by forgiving others you are only helping yourself. Give it to God – let him deal with them. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Harboring unforgiveness in your heart only robs you of your blessing. Let it go and be free of it. With sin and unforgiveness out of the way, you are left with a clearer path for your prayer to be answered.
#7 Pray & Confess Scripture
The Bible is full of God’s promises. In fact, several thousand can be found within its pages. Believers can totally rely on these promises because they are irreversible, and God is completely devoted to you and his word. When you ask God for something, look up scriptures that pertain to your request.
For example, if you are asking the Lord to cure your sickness look up bible scripture regarding healing. Once you find the verses you need, meditate on them and speak them out loud with your prayer. Say the words “God you said” in front of the verse.
By speaking the Word, you are reminding God of his promise and making your request clear to him. Proverbs says that the tongue has the power of life and death in it.
Speaking scripture will help with your spiritual growth. When you speak it out loud and hear God’s word with your own ears it will sink down deep into your soul and edify you. You will begin to believe what you are saying (God’s promises are true) and your faith will blossom. You will feel your prayer life become more powerful.
According to Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
I want to add that just because you do these seven things does not mean your prayer is guaranteed to be answered. But don’t get discouraged, if you don’t get an answer right away either. It doesn’t mean God’s answer is “no.” Maybe his answer is just “not yet” or maybe it’s “I have something better for you.” Trust in the Lord’s timing and in his final answer. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “For everything, there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.”
He wants what is best for you. Sometimes you may think you know what is best for you, but only he knows that answer for sure. I love Habakkuk 2:3, “For the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
I look back at times in my life where I felt like God let me down and did not answer my prayers but later learned it really was for the best. An example was my sister and I had a little boutique. It did well our first two years of business, but with the growth of the online retail market and the construction of two big outlet malls, our business started to go downhill.
I prayed so hard that the shop would be saved but it was not. I remember closing it down the last day, it was like going to a funeral. But I look back and think if the shop would have survived I would have never written my book or started my blog. I just didn’t have time back then with running the shop and working at the med spa. Crime has been increasing where the shop is located as well. So, God had his best in mind for me, I just needed to trust him.
Trust in him today, trust in his word, and watch your prayer life gain power and strength like you never imagined!
Living with Jesus Christ in your heart will greatly empower your prayer life and give you a life full of peace, joy, and contentment. It will give you eternal life. If you would like to accept him into your life today say this easy prayer:
Prayer of Salvation
Dear Jesus, please forgive me for all of my sins. I am truly sorry and wish for my soul to be fully cleansed. I believe you are the Son of God and died for me on the cross. Please come into my heart and live there forever. I ask this in your mighty name. Amen.
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