So much of the Christian life is living with unresolvable mysteries. God is three, yet He is one. Jesus is fully God and also fully human. God is sovereign, yet people are responsible. And prayer.
We pray with the confidence that God has a plan, is working that plan and nothing can stop His plan.
“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:11-12
But we also pray with boldness, asking for specific things, because Jesus told us to.
“And Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’”
Matthew 21:21-22
“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
John 16:23-24
We rightly say that prayer is powerful (James 5:16). But really it is God who is powerful and prayer simply connects us with the will and power of God. So prayer on the one hand is asking but first and foremost it is listening. And as we listen to God and know His heart we can increasingly pray with boldness as we pray what we know to be the will of God.
This is why praying Scripture is so helpful! When you pray Biblical prayers you can know with certainty that you are praying in line with the will of God and that God will delight to answer your prayers. Here are three examples of Bible prayers:
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Colossians 1:9-12
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Philippians 1:9-11
So pray with confident assurance in the wise and unstoppable plan of God. And pray with boldness, knowing that “God answers prayer because His children ask” (Richard Foster, A Celebration of Discipline.)