Matthew 21:22
“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
One of the greatest needs for every Christian is to get their prayers answered. Oftentimes, many Christians stop praying because they believe their prayers are not being answered when in reality God will answer their prayer if they would just follow His prerequisites to get them answered. Verse 21-22 give several guidelines to getting prayers answered.
First, don’t limit your prayers. The verse above says, “And all things…” Don’t fall into Satan’s trap believing that you should only pray for the “important” things. Let me ask you, what situation in your life is not important? Everything is important, and God wants you to pray to Him for “all things.” Just like a child doesn’t qualify what they ask their parents for, neither should you put a limit on what you are willing to ask God. God is as interested in the “little” prayer as He is in the “big” prayer. God can answer the prayer that we think is trivial as much as He can the prayer of major significance. Many “big” prayers are situations that we tried to work out on our own because we didn’t think to go to God about the circumstance when they were smaller. Don’t limit what you ask God for; ask Him for “all things.”
Second, praying is the best way to get prayers answered. I know this seems obvious, but most people don’t get their prayers answered because they simply are not praying. God has designed prayer as the avenue to get things from Him. You will never get your prayers answered if you don’t pray. The power of prayer will never be realized if the closet of prayer is never visited.
Third, believe that God can answer your prayer. The verse above says, “…whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” You will notice that there must be a belief that God can answer your prayer. Don’t make your prayer lip service, but actually believe that He can answer your prayer. It is the lack of belief in God that He can answer prayer that causes many prayers to go unanswered. The word “believing” insinuates that you are committing it to God. In other words, believing that you will receive your request is simply committing it to God and walking away not thinking that you have to do something to help Him out. Too many times we are trying to help God answer our prayer, and that is a sign that we don’t believe He can answer it. God mostly answers the prayer when we take our hands off and commit the need totally into His control; it is then that He will get total glory for the answer.
Fourth, faith is the measurement to how much God will answer. Verse 21 says, “If ye have faith, and doubt not…ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” Your faith will determine how many of your prayers God will answer. Your faith is the size of the container that you are bringing to God. The smaller the container that you bring to God, the less you will be able to see His power work. Christian, stop bringing your smaller containers to God and grab the largest one you can find and put Him to the test. He says that if your faith is large enough to believe that He can remove a mountain; “it shall be done.”
Getting your prayers answered is as simple as praying. Let me encourage you to enlarge your faith and pray, expecting God to answer. “It shall be done” if you will simply bring it to God believing.