How to Pray: Be Specific, Bold, Expectant, and Thankful

This week we’re still on the topic of prayer.  Previously we discussed some of the reasons to pray, places/times to pray, and some examples of how to pray (here and here).  I’d like to continue discussing more on how to pray by being specific, bold, expectant, and thankful in our prayers.  These are some things I’ve learned over the years that I think a lot of people either leave out or are negligent in doing in their prayer life.

I’m so very thankful for my pastor teaching us these principles of prayer over the years.  These principles work.  Because I’ve learned these things and have put them into practice in my life, I have experienced a very powerful and effective prayer life.  My husband, Eric, was even joking with me once about my prayers getting answered.  A song that got on my nerves came on the radio, and I made a face at him and groaned.  Then, a few seconds later, the radio just went silent, and Eric said “Did you pray for that to happen?”  I replied with a smirk, “No, but I’m glad that you recognize the power of my prayers!”  If you will put these principles of how to pray into practice, you too will have a powerful and effective prayer life.

How to Pray: Be SPECIFIC when making requests of God and include scripture.

I learned early on from my pastor that God wants us to be specific in our prayers and when approaching Him with our needs.  We shouldn’t just go to God listing all of our problems.  We should tell Him how we want Him to help. When we are requesting something of God, we need to state our specific request.  I heard Kenneth Copeland say once that if you’re praying for “nothing in particular” that’s just about what you’re gonna get!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

The New Living Translation says “tell God what you need”.  I think it’s also important to remind God of His Word and promises.  In other words, find a scripture or a promise in the Bible to back up what you are asking for.  God wants us to remind Him.  In fact, He tells us to do so—to put Him in remembrance…

“Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.” Isaiah 43:26 (ESV)

Example: 

Instead of saying,

“God, we’re short on money.  I can’t afford to pay this unexpected medical expense.  Please help me.”

Be specific and say,

“God, we’re short on money.  I can’t afford to pay this unexpected medical expense.  Your word says in Philippians 4:19 that you will provide all of my needs according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  I need $800 to pay for this medical bill.  Please provide a way for this $800 need to be met—either by providing the money somehow or by providing an idea or means of obtaining this money.  Thank you for hearing me and for providing my need.”

The second approach states not only the problem but the specific request along with a scripture to remind God (and us) that He is our source and provider. 

How to Pray: Be BOLD and have confidence when approaching God.

We should approach God with boldness and have confidence and faith that God hears us and will answer our prayers.  The Bible says that we can come to God with boldness and confidence because of what Jesus did and because of who we are.  We are children of God, sons and daughters of the King, heirs to the throne.  In essence, we are royalty, and thus get the benefits of royalty.  We would never picture a prince or princess afraid to ask for things that are rightfully his/hers.  We should act no different.

This is not arrogance.  This is confidence and faith in what God has already done for us and has given to us through Jesus.  When we can shift our mindset to think of ourselves this way, it’s easy to overcome timidity and fear.  When we see ourselves as children and God as our dad, it’s not as scary to ask God for things.  Think of how our own kids have no problems whatsoever asking us for things!  God, our heavenly Father, is attentive to us, more so than we are even to our own children.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

Same verse, different translation:

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…”Romans 8:16-17 (NIV)

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 1 Peter 3:12 (NIV)

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.” Psalm 34:15 (NIV) 

Be bold and have confidence when approaching God. We are children of the King. #royalty

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How to Pray: Be EXPECTANT that God will answer your prayer.

We should be expectant of an answer from God when we make a request of Him.  If we pray keeping God’s will in mind (seeking God first, Matthew 6:33), then we can expect God to hear us and answer us.  When you pray, believe that you receive.  After you’ve prayed believe in faith that you have your answer and continue to thank God for it.  Jesus said that if we ask for anything in His name He will do it.  We need to have the kind of faith like a child that when we ask God for something, we are fully convinced and expecting Him to answer.  God WILL do what He promises.

A few years ago at an event at my church, I heard Lisa Young (wife of Pastor Ed Young, Fellowship Church) tell a story about when her oldest daughter was 3 years old.  Lisa and Ed were getting ready to go on a mission trip to Korea, and her daughter asked, “Mommy, will you and daddy bring me a Korea outfit?”  Upon their return 3 weeks later, Lisa said they were pulling up the driveway as their daughter was playing in the front yard.  As soon as their daughter saw the car she started stripping her clothes off, completely naked, saying, “Where’s my outfit momma, where’s my outfit?”  She had not forgotten what she had asked for, and she was fully confident and expecting her mom and dad to deliver!  She knew they would.

We need to have that kind of expectancy with God.  We need to not only boldly ask God for the specific things we need but also expect God to deliver.

“Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in the hard times; pray all the harder.” Romans 12:12 (MSG)

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:23-24 (NKJV)

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!” John 15:7 (NLT)

“You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” John 14:13-14 (NLT)

“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)” Hebrews 10:23 (KJV)

“Yet he (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Romans 4:20-21 (NIV) 

How to Pray: Be THANKFUL in advance before God ever answers and persevere in faith.

Because we can expect God to answer our prayers, we can also give him thanks in advance before we even have our answer.  We can be that confident.  This is faith.  We know God will answer, therefore we will thank him for that answer even though we don’t see it yet.  Furthermore, we should also keep doing so until the answer arrives.  We shouldn’t give up but persevere in prayer and continue in thanks.  We need to be persistent in faith.

My pastor gave such an excellent visual example once.  He stood on stage with a lasso/rope in hand.  Swinging the rope in a circle overhead, he gave an example of a prayer (i.e. “Lord, I need healing in my body for pneumonia.  Your word says that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed.  I request healing from you right now in Jesus’ name.  Thank you for healing me.”).  As he was finishing up the prayer he threw the rope and captured a chair that was across the stage.  The chair represented the answer to prayer (i.e. healing).  He said that when he prayed, he received the answer (i.e. he took hold of the chair with the rope).  So he HAD his answer in his possession even though it wasn’t in front of him yet.

He said that when we use our faith and continue to thank God even though we don’t see our answer directly in front of us yet, it’s like we’re using that rope to pull that chair toward us with every bit of thanks, faith, and praise.  We don’t need to keep asking “Please God heal me, please God heal me.”  God heard us the first time.  We received our answer (i.e. healing in this example) when we first prayed.  We just don’t see it yet.  Now we just persevere in faith, believing that we HAVE received healing and thanking God for it.  So until we have the answer in hand we persist and give thanks (i.e. “Thank you God that I am healed.  Thank you God that I am recovering.”).

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:23-24 (NKJV)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

Luke 11:5-13-This is a parable to teach to keep asking, searching and knocking. It encourages us to be persistent and it will be given to us.  As parents, being “evil”, we still give good gifts to our children—what more would our good heavenly father give us?

Luke 18:1-8-Here Jesus told a parable to the effect that we should always pray and not lose heart and give up.

“Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 (NLT)

“O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day.” Psalm 88:13 (NLT)

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” Ephesians 6:18 (NLT) 

Thank God in advance before your prayer is even answered. #faith

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Take Some Practical Steps to Learn How to Pray by Being Specific, Bold, Expectant, and Thankful:

• First, make specific requests when you pray—don’t just state the problem.

Tell God what you need.

• Secondly, find scripture to accompany your requests.

Remind God of His Word.  Locate a relevant verse or promise in the Bible that speaks to your need or situation.  You can do this in several different ways: look in a concordance (often in the back of your Bible), do a keyword search in an online Bible or in a Bible app, google a keyword (i.e. “scriptures on healing”), use a topical scripture guide or pray and ask God to give you a verse to fit your situation (I know it might sound weird to pray about what you’re going to pray about, but it’s not.  I do it all the time…but maybe I am a little weird!  It works though.) *Read more about scripture-based prayers here.

• Then, pray with boldness and confidence.

You don’t have to be afraid of God.  Remember that you are now royalty, a son/daughter of the King.  Remember that you are just his kid, and He is your dad (a loving dad, better than any human father could ever be).  You can be bold in approaching Him because He is attentive to us and He hears us.  Not only that, but He is looking to help us and to give us anything that we ask for that is in line with His will.

• Next, expect God to answer your prayer.

Pray in God’s will, in line with His Word (have a scripture to stand on), then you can be confident that God will hear you and answer you.  Be fully convinced, like Abraham was, that God is able and WILL do what He promises.

• Finally, thank God in advance before your prayer is even answered.

Show that you have faith and are expectant by thanking God in advance.  Picture yourself throwing a lasso over your answer to your prayer, and pull it toward you by saying “Thank you for _____.  By faith, I believe that I have received it.”  When it seems like the answer will never come, keep persisting in your faith and thanking God anyway.  Don’t give up.

As you’ve learned how to pray, what might you have omitted in your prayers…being specific, bold, expectant, or thankful?  Tell us about it by leaving a comment below. 

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If you have benefited from this post or if you know anyone that could benefit from this, please pay it forward and share this post with them via the sharing links below! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV) 

*Updated: Originally posted 8/4/2015