Written By Ben Dankaka
Meditation – I John 5:14
Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons that any Christian can have against the enemy. Among other benefits, prayer can solve problems that money cannot. If you disagree, please visit any hospital and ask some of the doctors and nurses. Doctors have had many situations where they had to give up on their patients, not because they didn’t have enough money but for the reason that such patients had ailments that seemed incurable. But after someone prayed for the same patients, they miraculously got healed.
Another reason, why I find prayer very vital is because it is the one way through which we can build our relationship with God. I got to know more about God and turned my life around, through prayers. While prayer has a lot of advantages, it is also important to note that not every prayer is effective. You and I know that we have said certain prayers that God didn’t answer. It is hard to admit, but the truth is, there are prayers that God doesn’t answer. There are many reasons why some of our prayers turn out to be ineffective. Let me deal with one of them.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to begin our prayers by aligning God’s will with ours. So, He advised us to say, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This very prayer reflects the influence that the will of God has over the wishes of men. Often, when we don’t pray according to God’s will for our lives, our prayers fail to yield the desired result. But you might want to ask; “how do I know God’s will?” Knowing God’s will or plan can be a difficult task, especially if you haven’t discovered your purpose in life. When you know what God wants you to do, you will likely pray according to His will.
Shortly before God called me to teach His word, I was asking Him to bless me in other areas I thought were relevant to my life and career. To my wonder, God didn’t answer any of those prayers. Instead, He kept on showing me visions of what He wanted me to do. But the moment I understood the visions and began to pray according to His plans for me, my prayers were answered. However, even at that, there were times I prayed for things I felt were essential to my divine assignment but God didn’t respond as at the time I thought He would. It was through this experience that I understood why John said, “If we ask anything according to His will, He listens to and hears us” (1 John 5:14). Praying according to God’s will is one of the best ways to pray. But then again, if you haven’t discovered your purpose, you might as well as ask Him to reveal it to you. That kind of prayer often gets answered.
Prayer: Lord, teach me how to pray.
REFERENCES/FURTHER STUDY: 1 John 5:14; Matthew 6:9-13
Unless otherwise stated all scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version.