5 Attitudes of Effective Prayer

his wife, Elizabeth, were righteous and Godly people.

One time, Zechariah was sweeping the temple and burning incense and the angel Gabriel appeared to him. The angel told him that his prayers had been heard and they would be answered. He said that Elizabeth would give birth to a boy.

Now, instead of having the faith to believe his prayer had been answered, Zechariah expressed doubt. The angel said that because of his disbelief, Zechariah would lose his voice until the day the baby was born.

I can understand why Zechariah had doubt, can’t you? Sometimes when I pray, I do not have that solid foreknowledge that God will answer my prayers either. So, I can see why Zechariah expressed some doubt. The problem with having any doubt, though, is that when we have any doubt at all, we actually hinder the work God can do for us, and we can even hinder the blessings we could have received by having full faith.

Zechariah doubted because he was a very old man, and his wife was a very old woman. In the Scripture, it says he told the angel, ‘I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.’ Now, that man had diplomacy! You see, a man should never think of his wife as ‘old’.

As I said a moment ago, we need to let God work in His time. In verse 13, it says that the angel told Zechariah that his prayer ‘has been heard’. That is a past-tense word. God had already heard the prayers Zechariah prayed. But, it wasn’t until now that God had everything in place for the baby to be born. See, in His time, we find the perfect time.

Someone once said that they had tried prayer. They said they prayed regularly for two weeks and having received no answer at all, they said they then lost their faith in prayer. I say they did not lose their faith in prayer, but rather they lost their patience for prayer!

My son used to ask me if he could drive the car. I would tell him ‘not yet’, because he was only 7 years old. He had to grow and be prepared before he could properly handle a car. We need to grow and get prepared sometimes before we can handle the answer to the prayers we have already prayed.

Many times, we pray for something and then get aggravated at God, wanting Him to hurry up and do what we want. We have to understand that God wants very much to give us what we need and what we want, but because we are the sinners, He sometimes has to change us first, and that takes time. God is more interested in making you a solid Christian than He is making your life comfy and cozy.

For instance, if you are having financial difficulty, God may be telling you that He wants you to learn the right attitude about money before he makes more money available to you.

Okay, now what happens when you pray and pray and pray again, and you still see no answer in sight? What do you do then? You have faith that God is preparing the answer for you, and you just keep on praying. Pray with the knowledge that God will answer your prayers, and He will answer them in the best way for you.

In MARK 11, we are told to pray with the belief that we have already received the answer. It is all a matter of how solid your faith in God is. And remember that when God says, ‘Not yet’, that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘No’.

3. LET GOD ANSWER PRAYERS IN HIS WAY.

We talked about letting God answer your prayers in His time,