The Secret to Answered Prayers

People pray every day, some for hours, and the majority don't get answers to their prayers. Is it that God isn't hearing them? No; that is far from it. The reason for unanswered prayers is lack of knowledge of how to pray. Once you know how to pray, everything you ask for in prayer would be yours in a matter of time. As it is said by Jesus in the book of Mathew (in the Bible) - "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Mathew 21:22)

A lot of people have read the above passage in the Bible, but still don't get answered prayers, and they don't know what they are doing wrong. If you pay attention and read the verse again, you would notice that the word "believing" is in italic; that is because it is the secret to answered prayers. It is the belief in your mind that your prayer has been answered that leads to your prayer being granted.

Think about it- how do a lot of people approach praying? A good percent of people only pray when things are bad, and they half believe in their mind that they would get answered. Some people go to prayer crying; some pray when they have fear in their mind; some finish praying and start worrying about the problem again. Once you pass the request to your Father in heaven, you should have faith in your mind that your prayers have been answered, and not bother yourself with that problem again, because it has been answered. If you would recall, all the miracles Jesus performed in the Bible, he always said one thing- "your faith has healed you".

So, that is the secret; you must have faith that God is more than able to solve the problem, and believe that once you end that prayer, it is just a matter of time before you start seeing results. At this point, I know a lot of people are thinking- "but how do I make sure I believe every time I pray?" To tackle this, we must first ask why you don't believe in the first place. He is your God, and in your natural state, you are supposed to be able to communicate with him like you communicate with your physical father. But what you see around you every day has created the doubt you have, and have caused a resistance between you and your answered prayers. So, what you should be working on is how to completely remove that resistance, or reduce it.

Times to Pray
The best times to pass your request to your Heavenly father are when you are very still or in a high positive frequency. To make sure you are very quiet and still, pray early in the mornings, late at night, or at very quiet places where you cannot be disturbed and your mind can quiet down. At these times, activities from your conscious mind are reduced to nil, and since it is the cause of most of the doubt in the first place, it is easier for your prayers to get answered. And secondly, pass your request over when you are having a praise session in church or in your home, and you are in a joyous state. At this state, you would be operating high in the positive frequency, which shatters all resistance, and allows more positive into your life.

Kayode Odusanya is a writer in the niche of self improvement. He has been writing articles for years in his country Nigeria, to help uplift the countless citizens living below the poverty level. For more of his works, head over to http://www.kaystipstogettingrich.blogspot.com/

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Psalm 88 - When God Doesn't Answer Our Prayers

O LORD, why do you cast me off?
Why do you hide your face from me?
Wretched and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.
~Psalm 88:14-15 (NRSV).

What's in range here is something that all people, and all Christians, know is a feature of life, but we so often pretend isn't. No genuine Christian likes to consider that God doesn't, occasionally, answer prayer. More importantly, the real world wants to learn that even the Bible - God's Word - suggests that feeling estranged from God happens.

Of course it happens, and Psalm 88 attests to its happening. Additionally, the psalmist - Heman the Ezrahite - grapples with their own imminent death. This may be a depressing psalm for many, but it is an urgent voice speaking to those in the wilderness. It speaks to a world needing relevant and compassionate encouragement in the midst of silence from God.

THE PURPOSE OF 'DARK' PSALMS

Psalms of the darkness, like this one, polarise the emotions.

We read them when life is swimmingly good and they really make no sense - the psalmist heaping bulbous nodules of self-pity, and blinded by same, all over themselves.

Then, life changes. Quickly we burrow into a hole centred upon our own oblivion. All around us is stark as fear entraps our hope. No one can empathise with us in the pit; truly, only God can help. And as we read God not helping, we are helped, because we don't feel like we are be only ones left completely barren of response from God.

Psalm 88 is, perhaps, the darkest psalm; almost because it takes aim at God for not helping. The truth is, many journeys of matured faith involve such seasons where feelings of abandonment are normal. God never abandons us, but we genuinely feel that he has during these times. So wonderful it is that God's Word speaks to us, here, in such darkness.

RELEVANT NUANCES FOR THE SPIRITUALLY DISENFRANCHISED

Such dark psalms offer hope to the spiritually oppressed. The following are some nuances relevant to dark nights of the soul:

1. Often we might feel like we are occupying hell. This psalm mentions "the Pit," "Sheol," and "Abaddon" in verses 4, 6, 3, and 11. Such nouns are, in effect, adjectives of a weary soul, desolate, and without a companion - even God. When we reside here - in the hellishness of life - we actually want to read that others have experienced the same isolation. An answer is less important than the empathy we receive (from God, ironically) to consider others have also suffered.

2. Given a certain hypochondria, a matter for more of us than we would care to admit, we will often worry even despite biblical commands not to. We worry about death and disease; about an unpredictable and sudden demise; and not just from a health viewpoint; it occurs in the financial sense as well, among others.

3. It will be clear to every human being - at varying stages - that God does not wait with his ear fixed to the door of our prayer closets anxiously seeking to break through our challenges. God does listen. But part of the process of maturity is resolving our challenges in our own way with God as a non-interfering heavenly Sponsor. Such prayer is the medium for the psalmist's communication with God in verses 2 and 13. The psalmist is not answered, and oftentimes we will not feel answered, either.

4. Loneliness comes for many reasons. Sometimes it is only circumstantial; not because of conflict or betrayal. We are just alone. At other times, however, loneliness comes because of our friendships. In verses 8 and 18 we get a glimpse of the psalmist in their shame. Again, this is an enormous encouragement. We, as a fact of being human, will all feel the king-hit of shame, as well as pangs of guilt for some of the things we've done. It's important to be reminded, as we read a psalm like this one, that these are not unique emotions. Almost everyone has them.

There is a season for a psalm so dark; its testimony enfolding over us is encouragement, for the darkness others too have experienced. God wants us to know, we are not alone in that darkness time. Others are there, and have been there. In this we are encouraged.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

Further Recommended Reading: Craig C. Broyles, Psalms: New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1999), pp. 352-54.

Steve Wickham is a Registered Safety Practitioner (BSc, FSIA, RSP[Australia]) and a qualified, unordained Christian minister (GradDipBib&Min). His blogs are at: http://epitemnein-epitomic.blogspot.com/ and http://inspiringbetterlife.blogspot.com/

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