Prayer is not simple to understand. In one way it is talking to God about our difficulties and or seeking requests of Him. Yet, there is so much more to this gift from the Lord. For example, does prayer move God? If so, how is it that God can be moved? Yet, if prayer does not “move” the Lord how is it that prayer even makes a difference?
These questions are worth probing but I ask them to prime our minds for another prompting of the heart that makes specific prayers powerful. So far, we have said the that specific praying is prompted by a heart convinced of the love and faithfulness of God prompted by a kingdom advancing heart. Now, let’s consider a third prompting:
Specific Prayers Are Powerful When They Are Prompted by A Heart Convinced that God is Sovereign
What gave this servant in Genesis 24 the audacity to pray so specifically? So much had to happen for it to come to reality. There were matters of timing; when the women would come to the well. There were matters of wording; what she would say at the well. There were matters of acting; what she would say at the well to the servant. To some this may appear odd, a bit crazy and perhaps even a little reckless. None of this is the case, however. His request was neither of those things. It was, however, radical because he believed that the God of Abraham controlled all the elements of timing, speaking, and acting. Therefore, nothing was considered to be a hard ask because nothing is too hard for his Lord (Jeremiah 32:27). God, to the servant, was sovereign.
By sovereign I mean that God, as the Creator of all things, has control over all He created. He can split seas, cause rain to cease, make the sun stand still, cause rain to fall to flood the whole earth, command the stars, make a whale obey etc. He can do all of that and much more because the earth and all within it are His (Psalm 24:1). So, I ask you this: since our God can do all of those things and more, what request can you have that He cannot make happen? So why not pray specifically?
The reason why the sovereignty of God is important to believe is because of our inclination to fear. We hesitate being specific in our praying fearing that we may not get what they are seeking. This, we think, would create personal and theological issues we would rather not deal with: “Is something wrong with my faith?” and or “Does God not hear me?” Yet, the heartbeat of specific praying is that the one who prays this way believes that the Lord controls all things! They believe that He can successfully move and maneuver all of the pieces on the puzzle of life (timing, speaking, acting, etc.) such that our specific, dare I say impossible, prayer comes to reality. When one believes that God is sovereign one believes that nothing is outside of His control. So, we pray and boldly (Hebrews 4:14-16)
We need not fear that the Lord will not answer our specific request. He will. He always will! How He answers – yes, no, or wait – well, that is His business. Whatever the outcome it does not have to be a failure of faith, nor is it ever God's inability or lack of desire to give us good gifts (James 1:17). It is all His divine timing. Since we do not know His timing, we pray specifically in our own time and whatever the result we rejoice and trust because we know He is in control.
Since the Lord is sovereign, not only can we attempt hard things (Philippians 4:13) but we can ask for hard things (John 14:13, 14).