How to Pray for God’s Will In Your Life
Are you searching for clarity on how to approach God with your needs? Many people experience frustration, feeling their prayers are ineffective because they misunderstand the fundamental rules of divine engagement. The truth is that God delights to meet your need, and it is actually a dishonor to the Heavenly Father if He does not meet the needs of His children.
The Lord Jesus Christ provided the Model Prayer, teaching us to pray not necessarily by rote repetition, but to pray “in this manner”. The effectiveness of prayer is not determined by its length, logic, or language, but by its faith, focus, and force.
Drawing from the Model Prayer in Matthew Chapter Six, here are four steps for praying for your needs, symbolically represented by “daily bread”:
Step 1: Establish a Proper Priority (Seek God’s Will First)
The most crucial step in powerful prayer is establishing the correct spiritual priority. If this priority is not straight, your prayers will lack power.
God Demands Preeminence
God is not merely a “heavenly bellhop” running around to meet your needs. Prayer is not a place where man gets his will done in heaven; prayer is the way that God gets His will done on earth.
The Model Prayer clearly outlines this hierarchy:
- Thy Name (God’s Name)
- Thy Kingdom (God’s Kingdom)
- Thy Will (God’s Will)
- Our Bread (Our Need)
- Our Debts (Our Forgiveness)
- Our Temptations (Our Deliverance)
This priority is summed up powerfully in Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you”. God does not want a place or mere prominence in your life; God demands preeminence.
Why Priority Matters
If your prayers are for bread (which symbolizes strength and nourishment for activity), you must first align that strength with God’s purpose. The question is: Why should God give you more strength to serve the devil?. He should not.
When you are submitted to the will of God, He becomes your supplier. Like an employer supplying food to workers pouring concrete, you get the food (provision) when you are dedicated to the work. God will not work in second place. Therefore, answered prayer is not for rebels. You must be able to say from your heart that the burning, consuming desire is for God’s name, kingdom, and will before your own needs.
Step 2: Express a Prayerful Petition (Ask God for Your Need)
Once the priority is established, the next essential step is simply to ask God. Many people do not have their needs met because they do not ask.
The Power of Asking
The Apostle James stated that many people “have not because they ask not”. Denying yourself the blessing is a consequence of failing to pray. Jesus explicitly taught us to ask: “Give us this day our daily bread”.
A deep realization is that God answers prayer. If the one who created the universe will hear you, you are an “unmitigated fool if you don’t learn how to pray”. Prayer is the key that unlocks heaven’s treasury.
Defining “Daily Bread”
While the King James Version states, “Give us this day, our daily bread,” the term “daily bread” may also be translated as “bread sufficient for us”. God promises to meet your need, but not your greed. God will “supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). This means your provision is measured by the inexhaustible wealth of God, not your own limited resources.
It is important to ask, as God knows how to give good gifts. If a child asks for bread, a good father would not give a stone. The danger lies in expecting what you do not need, or in trying to steal what is freely offered. Like the small boy who tried to steal a sour orange when the best oranges were spoiling in the closet, many miss out on the blessings God wants to give them simply because they never asked.
The Assurance of Answered Prayer
God answers prayers for things both great and small. A powerful example of corporate asking occurred in Moscow during an outdoor concert organized by Bill Bright and Josh McDowell. Despite rain forcing the cancellation of the concert (due to the expensive piano and electrical equipment), a small group of leaders prayed for the rain to stop. In nine and a half minutes, the rain ceased, the sky turned blue, and the concert proceeded, resulting in thousands coming to Christ. This demonstrated that there is a God who reigns in the heavens and answers the prayer of His people.
Step 3: Exercise a Personal Performance (Work)
A crucial mistake is believing that prayer is a substitute for work or diligence. If you pray for bread, your way of saying “Amen” is to work for it.
The Command to Work
God feeds the “fowls of the air,” but they still “get out and scratch for it”. You must not be indolent or lazy. Scripture clearly mandates labor:
- “In the sweat of my face shall thou eat bread” (Genesis 3:19).
- “If any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
- The sluggard who is too lazy to plow will beg in harvest and have nothing (Proverbs 20:4).
Faith without works is dead. Your performance is the proof of your faith. For instance, if you pray for a house, you say “Amen with a hammer and saw.” If you pray for a wife, you pray, then “go shave and put on some cologne, learn some manners”.
You cannot ask God to counteract your laziness, indulgence, and selfishness through prayer. As Dwight L. Moody told a fellow preacher in bad health: he would not pray for him because the man did “ten days work in five and eats everything in sight”. The prayer for health is ineffective if one refuses to practice the rudiments of health.