God has called us to be people of prayer. What is prayer? It is two-way communication between God and His children. Have you ever prayed about something you want, and the Lord answered, “No”? Or sometimes you pray and it doesn’t seem to get past the ceiling? What seems logical and appropriate to us may not be what God actually wants for us. When this happens, perhaps we need to change the direction we are praying. It’s like hitting a bell. If you hit it on the top, you will only get a clunk. But if you change your angle and hit it on the rim, it will resound with a ring that can be felt and resonates long afterwards. When we pray according to our will, we get a clunk. But when we pray according to God’s will, it resounds in God’s Spirit and our spirit, and He delights in granting our request.
Be confident to bring all your requests to God in prayer. He will not turn you away…ever. But He may help you redirect your prayers to line up with His will so they will be more effective.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 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 the petitions (requests) that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
How can we know what to pray according to His will? How can we discern what is the Lord’s voice and not our own thoughts in our mind? It is like hearing a peculiar noise in your house. Your ears can triangulate on where it is originating from, and your brain can filter out all extraneous noises to focus on that one sound until you can find out what is causing it. I always take a few moments in my prayer time to close off my thoughts and ask the Lord to respond to me about my requests. And He usually does. As you listen, His words will come through like a still, small voice that does not originate from your own thoughts. Sometimes it may be just a single word or short phrase, but once you can identify that as the voice of the Lord, He will speak to you more and more.
Keep a pen and paper handy to write down anything you hear from the Lord so you will not forget it. Soon, you will begin to notice a pattern, a theme to His messages. This will be the direction you should pray in to ring God’s bell, and it will resound in your spirit that your prayers have been heard and the answer is on its way.
Don’t get discouraged. Keep on praying. The Lord has only your good in mind. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…” (James 1:17) He will not speak things to you that will make you fearful or ashamed. His words of will always encourage you or strengthen your faith or steer you away from wrongdoing. If you hear that still, small voice breaking through your thoughts today, know that it may be the Lord ringing the bell in your heart.