Be Specific In Prayer

Recently I have really been studying prayer and faith. Luke 11:1-13 talks about prayer and how to pray. Verse 9-10 says: 

⁹ And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

¹⁰ For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

This verse tells me that God is willing and able to answer prayers when we ask. Then Jesus goes on to say: 

¹¹ If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

¹² Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

¹³ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

This passage is assurance that God is more than willing to meet our spiritual and material needs. One thing that the God has been challenging me with recently is to be specific with my prayers. He give you what you ask for if it is according to His will and if you are not asking to consume it upon your own lusts (James 4:1-4). When one prays a general prayer it is mostly because of unbelief. We don’t want to ask God for specifics because in the back of our minds we think “Well I might not get what I pray for.”. 

I love Luke 11:11-12 because Jesus is telling us that whatever we ask He WILL give it to us. If we ask to have an opportunity to witness to 5 people tomorrow He will give us those 5 opportunities, not 1 or 3 but what we ask for! James 5:16 tells us that the fervent, EFFECTIVE prayers of a righteous man avails much. 

So I encourage you to study prayer out for yourself, it’s a much larger topic than what I am covering, but here are some points that you can apply in your prayer life today.

• Have faith in God to provide your needs
• Don’t be general about your prayer, be specific and watch God provide
• Believe ONLY don’t let doubt tell you God doesn't hear or answer.
• Meditate on God’s Word to build your faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17)