This week and this year you will face many different experiences. Problems will arise, burdens will come. Decisions will need to be made, many of them life altering.

What do you do? If you are a serious follower of Jesus, you know you must pray, because only prayer brings God deeply into the middle of your circumstance. If you try to handle it alone, you will quickly discover that the arm of flesh will fail you.

What to Pray

We all want to pray effectively. No one desires to lift some flimsy, selfish prayer that accomplishes little, but the “effective prayer” that “can accomplish much” of which James 5:16 speaks.

Jesus, as always, gives us the answer. He models for us the perfect prayer to pray in any equation—the prayer that is always rewarded.

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:27-28 NASB).

Embrace God’s Purpose and Pray Accordingly

Jesus knew that He had been sent on purpose by His Father … that He lived on mission. The most effective prayer, the one that is always answered, is this: “Father, glorify Your name.”

“Answer my cry, O Lord, in a way that will accomplish Your will, for Your will is good, acceptable, and perfect. It is best for You, and therefore best for me and any others who may be affected by this prayer. Father, I want You to be magnified and seen in this circumstance.”

In the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6, this is encouraged in another way: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth [in the same way] as it is [being done right now] in heaven.”

God delights to answer this prayer, and the results are stunning. It is the prayer that never fails.

 

Sign Up for Our Daily Devotional

If this message resonated and you’d like to receive more encouragement and inspiration to live on mission with Christ, sign up for our daily devotional email below.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Share via
Copy link