Gaining the tools for effective praying
By Leslie Ludy
A number of years ago, I was invited to speak on a radio program for Christian mothers. When I began to talk about prayer being one of our most important motherhood tools, the host stopped me short. “Prayer is great, but it’s not a very practical solution to our daily problems,” she countered.
This is a common sentiment among modern Christians. Many of us have felt that God isn’t really hearing or answering our prayers. When Heaven is silent, we are usually tempted to give up and assume God doesn’t want to answer our requests. Prayer often feels more like a formality, rather than an activity that can actually change anything practically in our lives. But I can tell you from personal experience that nothing could be further from the truth. When we truly understand what prayer is and how to approach it biblically, we will experience God’s real answers to the real needs in our lives.
Let’s unpack five biblical keys to answered prayer. Putting these principles into practice can shift our prayer life from routine to powerful. When we pray the way God intends us to pray, prayer will become a delight instead of a drudgery.
Prayer Principle #1
Wrestle for the Breakthrough
The majority of modern Christians have never learned or understood the biblical pattern of wrestling prayer. “Wimpy” or “dinner table” praying is what is most common in the church today. We can easily fall into a pattern of weak, generalized prayer and quickly give up when the answers don’t seem to come immediately. But wimpy praying isn’t the way God desires us to bring our petitions before Him. We are called to pray boldly, specifically, and persistently — like Jacob wrestling through the night, like the woman from Canaan who continued to ask even when Jesus was silent, like the widow who continued to plead her case to the unjust judge, like the man who kept knocking at his neighbor’s door asking for bread.
Importunate, passionate, persistent prayer moves Heaven.
As E.M. Bounds wrote, “He prays not at all who does not press his plea. Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage that never fails.”
When Eric and I first began to catch a vision for wrestling prayer, it seemed like continually asking for the same thing would be tiring and tedious. But once we began to see that we were actually bringing our requests into God’s throne room and that the King of the universe was actually listening to our needs and was eager to act on our behalf, it became an exciting opportunity.
Wrestling prayer doesn’t mean just repeating the same words over and over again. It means pouring out our heart to God, laying all our cares at His feet, declaring our faith in Him, and continuing to bring our requests before Him until the prayer has been answered or until we sense a spiritual breakthrough.
When Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, was still a teenager, his mother wrestled in prayer for his soul while she was away on a trip. After two days of crying out to God for her son’s salvation, she had a clear sense that her prayer had been answered. When she arrived home a few days later, she was overjoyed — but not surprised — to learn that he had given his life to Christ that same hour she had sensed spiritual breakthrough.
Some breakthroughs take longer than others. George Müller (the well-known missionary to the orphans of England) prayed daily, without fail, for the salvation of five of his friends. After several months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was finally saved. Müller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up believing that he would accept Christ. Not long after George Müller’s funeral, the last one was saved.
I believe we often miss out on experiencing God’s answers to our prayers simply because we give up too easily and abandon our requests too quickly. If we are praying for burdens that God has given us, if we are praying in accordance with His nature and Word, and if we are bringing our needs and cares to Him in importunate prayer, we can be confident that He is working on our behalf, even before we see any clear results in the natural realm. His timing is sometimes different from ours. But God is never indifferent or passive toward His children’s prayers. Persistent, wrestling prayer will bring God’s answers.
Prayer Principle #2
Remove Prayer Hindrances
Our prayers will fall flat unless we are willing to first get rid of any spiritual hindrances that are standing in the way of our intimacy with Christ. As Eric and I learned the art of wrestling prayer, we began to recognize the importance of removing things that were blocking our ability to truly connect with the King of all kings. This meant allowing God’s Spirit to show us areas of sin in our lives such as selfish habits, unforgiveness, worldly preoccupations, and so on. And it meant taking time to repent of those things, renounce them, and by God’s grace live differently in those areas. As Amy Carmichael said, “A single sin, no matter how trifling, a sin that we do not intend to renounce, is enough to render real prayer ineffective.”
Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”
Unconfessed sin is a barrier to effective prayer. If you are serious about your prayer life, I encourage you to take some time to let God’s Spirit gently shine His searchlight into your soul and show you any sinful pattern that needs to be uprooted and cleansed from your life. Repentance means recognizing your sin, confessing it to God, asking Him to forgive you, and then turning and walking the other direction — by God’s enabling grace. Once you have repented of sin, the enemy can no longer hold it against you, and it will no longer be a hindrance to your prayer life.
Eric and I have gotten into the habit of starting out every prayer time with confession of sin and making sure that we are not ignoring the still small voice of God’s conviction in any area of our lives. Making sure that our hearts are right before God is a huge key to experiencing God’s presence during our prayer times and receiving His answers to our prayer requests. Keeping our hearts right before God doesn’t mean being perfect and never stumbling or struggling. It simply means being open to His conviction and quick to make things right with Him, through the power of Jesus’ blood. If there is an area of your life that you know is not right before God, your prayer life will be stunted until you willingly choose obedience to Him.
Prayer Principle #3
Embrace the Two-Sided Ticket
When Corrie ten Boom and her family stood against the Nazis during the Second World War by hiding Jewish people in their home, Corrie prayed a very specific prayer: “Lord, You can send me anywhere, but please not to Germany.” She knew that if she was caught for the dangerous work she was doing, the Nazis would arrest her and put her in prison. She was willing to go to prison, but her biggest fear was being taken to a German concentration camp. And yet, God seemed to ignore her request and give her the opposite of what she had asked for. She and her sister Betsie were arrested and taken to one of the most notorious concentration camps in Germany, a horrific place of tremendous suffering where over 96,000 women died. At first she couldn’t comprehend why God hadn’t answered her prayer. But later, she understood.
Women in the camp who would have never heard the Gospel gave their lives to Christ because of Corrie and Betsie’s example, and many died with the name of Jesus on their lips. And just before Betsie died in the camp, she told Corrie, “… we must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here.”
Betsie’s words were proven true when Corrie was miraculously released from the concentration camp and shared her story with millions around the world — people such as refugees and prisoners who never would have taken her message of hope to heart unless they knew she could truly relate to their suffering.
When God seems to give us an answer that is the opposite of what we prayed for, it is not because He indifferent or uncaring — it is because He has an even greater plan in store than what we could ask for or imagine. Eric calls this a two-sided ticket. At first it feels like we are being handed a ticket from God that says, “No,” when we were expecting it to say, “Yes.” But if we turn the ticket over, we would see an even bigger “yes” from God — a “yes” that sponsors His very highest for our lives.
Prayer is never wasted, and God is never silent or indifferent to our cries. When He gives an answer that is different from what we expect, we simply need to realize that He has handed us a two-sided ticket — and His “yes” will always lead to something exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we could ask or think, even if we don’t see the full picture this side of Heaven. Our job is to keep trusting Him, no matter what.
As Amy Carmichael wrote, “In acceptance lies peace.” God’s ways are always perfect. He loves us more than we can comprehend. We can trust Him completely, because He cannot be anything but faithful. And He is writing a bigger and more beautiful story through our lives than we can imagine, as is captured in this poem that Corrie ten Boom often quoted:
My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.
Prayer Principle #4
Resist the Enemy
During Paul’s ministry, he talked about being “hindered” by Satan from a specific purpose he was attempting to accomplish. (See 1 Thessalonians 2:18.) This word “hindered” means to impede, to detain, or to cut into.
I have found that the enemy often sends hindrances my way when I am purposefully building my prayer life, taking steps of obedience, or cultivating a deeper walk with Christ. Whether it comes in the form of discouragement, distractions, discord in relationships, or flare-ups of sickness, I have learned to recognize the enemy’s many attempts to thwart me from true prayer.
Leonard Ravenhill once wrote, “Men [or women] of prayer must be men of steel, for they will be assaulted by Satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom.”
And Amy Carmichael said, “Our enemy is more aware than we are of the spiritual possibilities that depend upon obedience. We should never be surprised when he seeks by assault and if that fails, by undermining our defenses, to compel us to give way.”
If you find that your prayer times are continually being thrown off or delayed by odd distractions — whether mental, emotional, or physical — then it is likely that the enemy is trying to hinder you from entering into true prayer. The moment you recognize this happening, it is critical to resist his attacks in the authority and power of Jesus’ name.
God has not left us helpless against Satan’s attacks. He has given us the tools to push the enemy back. In James 4:7 He tells us, “…resist the devil and he will flee from you.” This doesn’t have to be a dramatic or complicated process. We can simply stand firmly in the authority of Christ and declare that the enemy cannot interfere in any way with our prayer times. I have found that it is important for me to take authority over the enemy’s interference every time that I am about to enter a purposeful prayer time to be sure that his hindrances and distractions are kept at bay.
It’s also important to realize that some of the challenges or struggles you are facing in your life may be the result of the enemy’s attacks. Oftentimes, the enemy will throw a bomb into our lives and then whisper to our soul, “Can you believe God did that to you?” His goal is to cause us to become disillusioned toward God and blame Him for attacks that were actually caused by Satan’s harassments. When we fall for this bait, it will immediately impair our prayer life because we no longer fully trust the One to Whom we are praying. When spiritual attacks hit us, instead of questioning God, we are called to resist Satan.
Taking some time to study the nature of God versus the nature of the enemy in Scripture can be very eye-opening and help you recognize enemy attacks in your life. Once you have identified areas in which the enemy has been harassing you, you can boldly stand in the authority of Christ and render the enemy’s work against you powerless.
I have also found it extremely helpful to declare the promises of God over my life while resisting the enemy’s lies. When I deliberately choose to agree with God’s reality instead of the enemy’s illusions, he has no power to thwart, distract, hinder, or disturb me. If you have never taken time to study God’s promises to His children in Scripture (and receive them as your own personal promises), this is a wonderful way to strengthen your prayer life as well as your ability to resist Satan’s attacks.
When we are persistent in standing against the enemy in the authority that Christ has given us, the Bible says that he must flee.
If you’d like to learn more about resisting the enemy, I encourage you to read my article “Be Strong in the Lord,” available at www.setapart.org.
Prayer Principle #5
Know that Prayer is Never Wasted
Robert A. Jaffray was a missionary to China and many other countries in the early 1900s. One of his lifelong burdens was to reach a specific valley of unreached people deep in the interior of New Guinea. During the latter years of his life, he and his fellow missionaries were stationed in New Guinea when the Second World War began. Even when the country was invaded by the Japanese and missionary work in the interior was impossible, Robert never stopped believing and trusting that he and his missionary team would be able to bring the Gospel to these remote tribal people.
Darlene Deibler, one of the women who worked with him in New Guinea, described a moment when she entered his study and saw a glimpse of the burdens God had put on his heart:
There before me sat the old man dreaming his dreams. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wasn’t sleeping. One hand rested on an open atlas, the other on the arm of the wing chair that had belonged to his father. I knew that by faith he and his Lord were moving down the great chain of islands known as the Netherlands East Indies.
Sensing my presence, Dr. Jaffray looked up and smiled — the smile of one who had had sweet communion with the Lord…
“Lassie, this is our task. These are the areas we must enter when this war is over.” When this war is over? It was but beginning…
With steady hand and the voice of one assured of victory, he traced upon the map our coming campaign [to reach lost souls] … the Wissel Lakes area … down either side of the Carstenez backbone — and at last his finger came to rest over the Grand Valley of the Baliem.
“This, Lassie, is our task. Listen — do you hear it? — the sound of … the marching army of young men and women whom God is preparing for the day of spiritual battle and occupation of these areas.”
I realized how little I knew of what makes a true missionary statesman; of a faith that never staggers at the promise of God, no matter how incredible to the natural man its fulfillment seems; of a trust in the Unchanging One, Who keeps the heart at rest and unperturbed in a changing world; of a burning love that counts not life dear unto itself, but is expendable for God; and of a vision that is never dimmed.
Here beside me was the man who had spied out the land and was with the first wave of troops to go ashore in Macassar to stake a claim for God. Once again the world was enveloped in sorrow and difficulties, but these dark days of war were to Dr. Robert Alexander Jaffray, the great missionary general, but days of retreat in which to plan the strategy of yet greater conquests.
I dropped my head on the arm of the chair and found that there were tears on my cheeks. That afternoon I reminded God that I was available, and never would I call my task common or mundane if it were a part of the culmination of the old man’s dream, for that afternoon I had seen a vision of the unfinished task.
But not long after this moment in Robert’s study, the Japanese imprisoned all of the missionaries, and over the course of the next few years most of them were killed or died because of the horrible conditions of war. Dr. Jaffray died in a Japanese work camp, never seeing the answer to his prayer to reach New Guinea’s interior. Darlene was one of the only missionaries left alive, but she was sickly and malnourished and had become a widow during the war. She weighed only 80 pounds when the war finally ended. Just before she was taken out of the country by American troops, she visited Dr. Jaffray’s grave and remembered his fervent prayers and faith for the unreached tribes. It seemed almost impossible, but she knew in her heart as she sailed for America that someday she would be back.
Years later, she and her second husband returned to New Guinea’s interior and pioneered the work that Robert Jaffray had begun with his faithful prayers. They spent nearly 40 years bringing the Gospel to the unreached tribes in the interior, and the Baliem Valley — the same place Robert Jaffray had traced on the atlas that day in his study — was radically won for Jesus Christ.
Though we do not always see the outcome of our prayers, they are never wasted. There are countless stories throughout Scripture and in Christian history that prove this statement from Martin Luther true, “God may delay, but He always comes.”
Not one moment spent in true prayer is ever spent in vain. When we pray, we are doing the work of Heaven — whether we see the final result in our lifetime or not. Prayer is one of the most valuable activities in which we could ever engage. Prayer is not only beneficial, it is the fulfillment of one of our primary callings as Christians.
Oswald Chambers said it well: “We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.” And, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work. … Patience is more than endurance. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer.”
If you are ready to step into powerful and purposeful praying, there is no better time to begin than right now. Don’t feel discouraged if you aren’t able to immediately enter into all-night prayer sessions or spend hours wrestling for God’s answers. Take small, steady steps towards a more robust prayer life, and let God continue to expand your vision and capacity for real prayer. Once you experience a taste of effectual, fervent prayer, it will naturally become a bigger and more significant part of your life.
It is exciting to realize that no matter our circumstances or limitations, we can be actively engaged in the work of Heaven — even from a sickbed or a prison cell — by entering God’s throne room of grace through prayer. Hudson Taylor summarized it well: “When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.”
This article was originally published in Issue 43.
For more content, explore our article collection.