Dave’s Monday Blast – October 12, 2015

Prayer is efficacious! That is a great Reader’s Digest Power word. It simply means that prayers have the power to produce a desired result or effect. Prayer is supposed to be a common practice for believers; however, if one has been a believer long enough it is easy to fall into habits that result in a lifeless and empty prayer life. Men of Intention know that they will be increasingly ineffective if they are not praying consistently, thoughtfully and actively listening for God’s response.

How is your prayer life? Have your prayers become like grocery lists? Because communication with the Lord is such a vital part of the Christian life, we occasionally need to step back and examine how we’re doing. In Touch Ministries suggests that we can analyze the current state of our prayer life by asking ourselves these questions:

1. How effective are my prayers? Is God answering my petitions, or does it seem as if they NEVER go past the ceiling?

2. Who am I praying for? Are most of my requests for myself or for others?

3. What am I asking the Lord to do? Have I looked in the Word to see what He wants, or am I trying to get Him to intervene according to my plans and desires?

4. When do I pray? Is it only during emergencies or when I need something?

If you discovered any selfishness in your answers, you’re not alone. Most of us struggle to enter God’s presence with our eyes focused on Him instead of our needs. But the only way we’ll be able to pray with impact (efficaciously) is to fill our minds with Scripture so we can find out what the Lords wants us to do.

Your prayer life can become effective and dynamic if you’ll approach the Lord with a clean heart (Psalms 66:18), INTENTIONALLY align your requests with His will, and believe He will do what He says (Mark 11:24). Then you’ll be able to pray with absolute confidence knowing that He will hear and answer your petitions.