Joyce Meyer - How Should I Pray? (08/18/2019)
This message focuses on simplifying prayer and overcoming doubt. The preacher shares that effective prayer isn't about length or eloquence but is rooted in simple faith and sincerity, as illustrated by a child's prayer. The key scriptures referenced highlight that the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous person avails much, and we receive God's promises through faith and patience.
Overcoming Doubt in Prayer
How many of you, when you pray, sometimes, or even a lot of the time, have this vague feeling that there's still something lacking that you didn't do that you should have done? You know, the devil does not want us to pray with confidence. He wants us to pray with fear and doubt and wondering. And I used to have the exact same thing. As many years as I've been praying and will continue to pray, I used to have that feeling on a regular basis, too. Well, you know, I should have said more. Maybe I didn't pray about the right thing. Or maybe I just didn't say it the right way.
And one of the things that I felt like God showed me was that I complicated it. I thought that it depended on length of time or eloquence in what was said. But he taught me that prayer, effective, life-changing, dynamic prayer, can be so simple. Just so amazingly simple. I have one great-grandchild, and he's, I guess Jeremiah's about three. And his mommy one night had a real bad stomachache, and she was laying in bed, kind of doubled up in pain. And he went over and laid his hand on her, said he was going to pray for her. And he said, "Jesus, mommy, ouchie, amen."
The Power of Simple, Sincere Prayer
But listen, she said she almost immediately, the pain stopped, and she started feeling better. Actually, I came to a point in my life at one time where God actually challenged me. He said, I want you to ask me for what you want and need with as few words as possible. Hmm, yeah, it's harder than you think. You know, it's hard when you've done something wrong to say, "Father, I'm so sorry, forgive me for that, thank you." No, we want to go on, "Oh, God, oh, God. Oh, please forgive me, God. Please, please, please forgive me. Oh, God, I've been so bad. Please forgive me, God. I promise I'll never do it again." Yes, you will. Don't even waste your time making promises you can't keep. You're better off to say, "I'll definitely do it again if you don't help me."
So why don't we learn that the power of prayer is not in how many words or how eloquent or how long, but I believe it's two things. I think it's faith. Do I believe that God hears me? Do I believe he cares about me and wants to be involved in my life? Well, I can't read the Bible and not believe that. And I think that prayer must be sincere. You're going to see in Scripture today, the Bible says that the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much, makes tremendous power available. I love that in the Amplified: when we pray, tremendous power is made available.
Maintaining Faith While You Wait
You know where we usually lose our faith? It's while we're waiting. We can pray in such faith, and boy, we can get really excited and have faith when we see a manifestation. But we receive the promises of God, the Bible says, through faith and patience. And a lot of times we have to wait. And one of the things that I've learned to do during that waiting time is any time that doubt comes against me, I open my mouth and say out loud, "I believe that God is working in my life right now. I believe that God is working in my life right now." And I'm going to give you some good Scriptures to back these things up. But I believe it's just the simple faith: God hears me. He wants to help me. And also then just being sincere about what you're praying.
And I think that takes focus. How many of you find it extremely difficult to even focus for 10 minutes in prayer? So this morning, I looked at my clock. It was 8 o'clock. And of course, you know, I've been praying in and out here and there. You know, we... And that's good. God hears all that, you know. But I wanted to have 10 minutes of focused, uninterrupted prayer for this session this morning. And I had to really set my mind to do that and not let anything else get my attention.
What is Fervent, Effectual Prayer?
I think, to me, that's what fervent, effectual prayer is. Fervent doesn't have to be yelling. It doesn't have to be crying. You know, I read books about people who weep and cry in prayer and I think that's marvelous. But I don't cry very easy. And so I'm sure hoping God answers my prayers if I don't cry. Amen? I think it's fervent, effectual prayer. Sincere, focused prayer. When we pray, we are talking to God. So let's act like we're talking to God. And not act the way we do when we're talking to somebody else that we are giving them about 10% of our attention and something else, 90% of our attention.
The First Rule of Prayer: Ask
Well, the first thing is you're not ever going to get an answer if you don't ask. So the first royal law of prayer is: you have not because you ask not. Now, I just wonder how many people in here this morning, or possibly people watching by television, have tremendous needs in your life, but you're not asking. Maybe you're wishing. "Well, I wish..." And I tell this story pretty often because it amazed me, but it fits right into this teaching this morning, and this is just a great example.
I met a woman in a department store and she recognized me from TV. So we started chatting. Yes, she was a Christian. She'd been in this certain church for, I don't know, 15 years, something like that. And so I was just asking her questions about the department store. And I said, "Do you guys work on commission or do you work on salary?" And she said, "Well, we actually work on salary, but we do have a quota that we have to meet. And if we don't meet that quota, then we'll get a warning. And then if we still don't meet that quota, then we can actually lose our jobs."
You Can Ask God About Anything
And so to me, that's just a real easy fix because of what I've learned about the word of God. So I said, "Well, why don't you just pray that God will give you favor so the people shopping here will come to you for their purchases?" And she looked at me kind of like some of you are looking at me—like, well, all I've been doing is just standing around being afraid I'm going to lose my job. And she looked at me and she said, "Well, would it be okay to pray for something like that?" I said, "Honey, you can talk to God about anything and everything that concerns you."
If I needed to meet my quota at work and all it was going to take would be for some of the customers to float over toward me, then why would I not ask God to send them in my direction? "Well, what if that wasn't His will?" Well, then don't worry about it. You won't get it. This is not going to be hard today. I love what the Apostle Paul said. He said, "I've learned how to be content." And the Amplified Bible says, "satisfied to the point where I'm not disturbed no matter what state I'm in."
Now, He didn't say, "satisfied to the point where I never want to see change." See, you can want to see change. You can want things to be different in your life. You can want to get married someday, but you don't have to be unhappy every day until you are. You have not because you ask not. That's the answer to the whole mess. Why is there so much strife and quarreling and bickering and arguing? It's all the stuff you want. You don't get it. You see somebody that's got it. You get jealous and envious. You still don't end up with what you want. What's the problem? You have not because you ask not.
Asking vs. Works of the Flesh
Well, I don't know about you, but when I read that many years ago, I tell you what, I was into so many works of the flesh. You know what works of the flesh are? It's us trying to do what only God can do. So ask, ask, ask. And then in the Amplified Bible—and I love this—when it says, "ask in my name," you know, we are to pray in Jesus' name, to the Father, through the Holy Spirit. When you say "in Jesus' name," it's not like a little magic charm that we tack on to the end of all of our prayers.
But when I say "in Jesus' name," what I'm actually saying is, "Father, I'm presenting to you everything that Jesus is." That's the Amplified translation. When you pray in my name, that is presenting all to the Father that Jesus is. So, thank God, we don't go and present what we are. We would never get anything. We pray in His name. We pray in His name. In His name. So, the first thing is we need to learn that we can pray anytime, anywhere. Learn to pray your way through the day. Prayer is a privilege, not an obligation.
Keep Prayer Simple and Frequent
And we miss a great deal in life just because of a failure to get God involved in it. Open up the door and get God involved in everything just by asking Him. Acknowledge God in all your ways and He will direct your path. Keep prayer simple. We're more likely to pray often if we believe it can be short and simple. Matthew 6:7 says, "And when you pray, don't heap up phrases, multiplying words, repeating the same ones over and over as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking."
So what's He saying? You ask for it, you believe in the Spirit that you got it, and then you will get it. You see that? First comes faith, then comes sight. First you believe, then you see. In our society, we say, "Well, I'm not going to believe it if I don't see it." But in God's economy, we have to learn how to live the exact opposite. If it's in the Word, if it's the will of God, if I ask God for it, I believe that He's sending it and that I will get it, and I'm going to stay firm in my faith until I see that manifestation.