Are You Getting What You Pray For? 

If Not, Maybe the Problem Lies in Your Expectation 

We’ve all had times when we prayed for something only to be disappointed. Whether the outcome we prayed for happened only to make things worse. Or, maybe we prayed and prayed and never got the answer we wanted.

What’s the problem with our praying? 

We need to align our praying with God’s plans.

Pastor Lee told a story about a church that was struggling financially. They needed $10,000 to meet their year-end obligations. The church began a prayer campaign to this end and soon they were given some stocks worth $5,000. The leadership of the church met and decided to go ahead and sell the stock and continue to pray for the remaining $5,000.

The next day when the pastor was planning to go sell the stocks there was a snowstorm that kept him from going. After a few days the storm was over and the roads had cleared, he went to complete the sale of the stocks. In the few days he was unable to go, the stock price had doubled. Prayer answered.

Why is it when we pray for peace or healing or some other worthy cause we don’t receive it?

We need to align our praying with God’s plans.

Maybe we need to alter our expectations, but not our faith. In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus teaches us how to pray. Most of us are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, Verses 1-4, and many can recite it from memory. We’re less familiar with Verses 5-13. Here He tells us to continue asking and you will get what you ask for. The problem is that often what we ask for is not the thing WE SHOULD ASK FOR.

If we break down praying, there are six main points:

1 - Remember that God is God. He made everything and can do anything He wants. We need to align our wants with His.

2 – Give what we need each day. God wants us to have blessings overflowing, but to not be wasteful.

3 – Forgive us because we continually mess up. Jesus has already paid the price for our failures…we just need accept the payment and mess up less tomorrow.

4 – Forgive others. This is paying forgiveness forward. We’ve been forgiven, it only makes sense to forgive others.

5 – Protection from being tempted. Put on and wear the Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10-16. This protection is ours to use, but we have to put it on and wear it every day.

6 – Be relentless in your asking. Ask…ask…ask…ask…and ask again, just be careful what it is that you’re asking for. Once you get it, it might not be what you thought.

When we align our praying with God’s plans for our lives, things go a lot smoother and the outcome is much better.

A lady was shopping for an anniversary card for her husband and found the perfect card to give him. On the front of the card it said, “Well it’s not what you prayed for…” On the inside it said, “but apparently it’s the answer.”

We need to align our praying with God’s plans and then we’ll get what we pray for.