After over 20 years of pastoring, I have met with many Christians and it does not take long to determine on a bar of 1 to 10, where their expectation level is with regards to their prayer life. Many are hopeless when they pray. Many have turned prayer into a discipline without an expectation that their prayer will be answered while others pray so little that you wonder if they have any active relationship with the Father in heaven who has invited His children to come to Him through the vehicle of prayer.
These are some of the postures Christians have when it comes to prayer:
- They believe that God does not always answer their prayer, but He picks and chooses which to answer.
- They believe that God answers the prayers of others (maybe more anointed ones) than He does theirs.
- They believe all they need to do is PRAY but do not expect an answer. At least, it would avoid the disappointment of unanswered prayer.
- They believe they don’t know how to PRAY so they will not bother.
- They believe that if they go to the mountain; or join a prayer group online; or do some sacrifices, their prayers might be answered.
Your expectation and faith must be that your prayers are guaranteed to be answered.
This should become our foundation when we engage God in prayer – we should be confident that our prayer will be answered. Without that confidence, we are out of faith.
We can refer to the story of the church praying for the release of Peter from prison because Herod kept him in prison. Let’s have peek at some verses in Acts 12:
“And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.” So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So, they said, “It is his angel.” Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.” (vv11-16)
The angel of the Lord had been dispatched by God based on the prayer of the saints for the deliverance of Peter held by Herod and the angel fulfilled his assignment. The answer to their prayers (Peter released) was at the door and Rhoda told them but they would not believe it was Peter. Why pray if you will not believe and expect that your prayer will be answered?
For all intent and purposes, Peter could have walked away to another house, and these brethren would still be praying for Peter to be released. Their answer came but they did not recognize it! To be point blank, they denied their answer that was at the door.
How is your expectation level when you pray?
