How to Pray on Purpose

Praying on purpose is beneficial to both you and the person, family, group, organization, or nation you are praying for. Oswald Chambers said “It is not so much that Prayer changes things as much as Prayer changes you and by that you change things.”

This is not a step-by-step of how to pray but rather a step-by-step on how to be effective in prayer. This article will relay the necessary parts of effective prayer and how to pray on purpose and is based on the premise that you have already secured your own salvation. Without salvation, God is under no obligation to hear or answer your prayer (Psalm 66:18).

REVIEW

In order to be effective in prayer, begin by envisioning the necessary conditions God will hear and respond to your prayers.

• Confess all known and unknown sin in your own life before God will hear you.  “If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.”

• Gather a method of recording or noting your prayers and God’s responses. Listing your prayers and noting God’s answers builds faith as you continue to pray. Seeing how He has responded to your prayers in the past will stir confidence in you and add to your knowledge of how God reacts to your prayers.

• Do a bible study of prayer in the bible. It is not necessary to complete an exhaustive study of prayer before you begin Praying on Purpose, but it will great focus your prayers if you read of prayer and become familiar with how God responds.

• Listen and become aware of how the Holy Spirit is directing you to pray. Praying on purpose is not effective if it becomes a ‘works’ oriented process. God’s will is that you pray effectively and He will provide you with what you need to pray. This removes you, your ideas, your knowledge and any accreditation to you in any way and becomes an offering of you to your Savior.

DEVOTION

While it may be important to you to set a certain time or place to pray, God does not operate in such a manner.  Having a specific time to prayer is beneficial only to provide you with structure. It is good to have this time, but God may ask you to pray at any time and it is important to be ready.   It is best to set aside time to devote in prayer to God, but always be ready at a moments notice to pray as He directs.

RECORD

At first, you may not see results of your prayers. It is important to remember that God has no time limitations. He may choose to answer your prayer immediately or not.  It may take years for some of your prayers to be answered.

For this reason, keeping a journal or list of your prayers with dates and notes will provide you with the knowledge of when you first began praying for a specific thing. It will also stir memories in you of how God directed you to list the prayer and how He answered.  After much time has passed, reading over your prayers and noted answers will give you confidence in the times when you feel God is not listening.

WALK IN IT

Praying on purpose is miracle and blessing in your life as well as those you are praying for. You will see miracles and your faith will be strengthened. You will be moved and broken at times as you continue to pray.  Your life will become far more blessed because in order to continue praying on purpose, you must continue examine your own life and confess sin for your prayers to be effective.

Praying on purpose is a great blessing to your life. You will walk much more confidently knowing you are in direct contact with God on a daily basis.

“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” – Isaiah 30:21 –