When you pray to God, how is your heart positioned?
Are you begging and pleading with God from a place of fear and doubt?
-OR-
Are you confidently and humbly reminding your Heavenly and Sovereign Father, of what He already said knowing that He's faithful to perform it?
We should be fervent and passionate when we pray to God but in our seeking, we must always believe and have full faith in Him and His Word. What has God already said about you and the situation? What has He already done?
Sometimes, when we don't get what we have been praying about, the Bible tells us in James that it's because we pray amiss. We are actually not praying the will of God for our lives. We're praying what we want for our lives and just hope that God will grant us that. So as we're trusting God to make all our dreams come true, we sometimes start to beg God in prayer out of a deep desire, doubt or wondering. God wants us to have faith in Him. He will do what He said He will do but He might not do what you want Him to do.
When we pray, we can boldly petition His throne of grace and make our requests known to Him but we need to do so with a full and certain knowing that He is faithtful to His Word. He's not moved by our emotions. As I've walked with God I've learned when I go to God in prayer that it's never about my perfection or my ability to say the right words or have the right emotions. It's about my heart posture towards Him in that I fully trust Him to be faithful to what's He's already said and did. I also know that because He loves me so much, His not granting that thing I desire most is usually for my own good. In many cases, it's been for my protection.
Some key points to remember as you go to God in prayer:
1. God cannot lie. (So what has He promised you?) (Numbers 23:10; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18)
2. God's Word will not return to Him void. So say what He said back to Him in prayer. (Isaiah 55:11)
3. God has plans to prosper us and give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) Be hopeful. 4. He is faithful to finish the good work He started in us. (Philippians 1:6). He finishes not us.