Have you ever seen sermon titles or articles with things like Pray Effective Prayers written over them? I’ve seen them plenty of times and, to be honest, I usually find them informative and effective! But today I sat down and thought to myself, what does it mean to pray an effective prayer? Is there a formula for a good prayer and a bad prayer? What does an ineffective prayer look like?

First, I want to say this article is not a diss or an insult to any Christian who has ever provided Biblical information on praying effective prayers. There is nothing wrong with that concept and it is true that there are effective and ineffective prayers. Today, I want to go over what those phrases really mean from a spiritual perspective.

The Bible says in James 5:16 NIV, The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

That means our prayers as a Believer should always be effective, right? Not necessarily.

Just look at the story of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 26:39-45, Jesus prays and asks God twice if He would take this cup from Him—meaning, allow Jesus to stay on earth instead of being sacrificed on the Cross. Now, we can all agree that Jesus is the most righteous of us all, right? So, then, why wasn’t His prayer to God effective?

First of all, we must learn to understand the term effective. Too many of us see that term through a black and white lens. Either your prayer was answered, or it wasn’t. It was godly or it wasn’t. It was a good prayer, or it was a bad prayer. That’s not how prayer works.

A quick search on Google will tell you the term effective means to be successful in producing a desired or intended result.

Jesus’ prayer asking God to remove His cup wasn’t His intended result. If you continue reading the passage from Matthew 26, you’ll see Christ ends His prayer by saying, May your will be done. No matter what Jesus asked for in His conversation with God, what He truly wanted was to be in alignment with the Will of God—which was for Him to carry out the assignment of the Cross.

So, my friends, an effective prayer isn’t one that gets answered quickly or a prayer that gets you everything you ever wanted. An effective prayer is a prayer that allows us to act in accordance with God’s Will for our lives.

Now that we know all this, how do we make the most of our prayer time? We learn to pray according to God’s Will. That sounds easier said than done—especially for those who may not even know what God’s will is in their lives. Don’t think of God’s will as His job for you to do. The Will of God is God’s intentions for you.

God intended for Jesus to sacrifice Himself so that we can have a chance to go to heaven. And God intends for us to honor that sacrifice by living righteously while we are here on earth.

So, don’t go searching for a job to do when you want to pray God’s will into your life. Staying focused on Christ is the will of God. Keeping Jesus in the center of your life, your business, your relationships, is the will of God. Forgiving others is the will of God. Friends, when you are living your life as Jesus lived His—led by the Holy Spirit—you are living according to the will of God.

We, as humans, have a natural instinct to desire explanation. We want to know God’s plan, God’s will, God’s purpose. But that isn’t our place. Yes, God can and will let you in on that information if you ask, but our place isn’t to know before we act. It is to simply believe. So, next time you feel so overwhelmed that you don’t even know what or how to pray. Just remember those simple words Christ said when He was on His knees, appealing to God.

May your will be done.

No matter what you are facing, God is on your side. He will not be overcome by the rising waters in your storm. He will not leave you nor forsake you. You don’t have to spend 40 hours in prayer and 2 days starving on a fast to get God to move in your life. Those things are certainly good and may very well impact your relationship with God. But don’t think of fasting and long prayers as a sneaky trick to get to God. All you need to do is stand in faith and allow His will to be done in your life.

I hope this helped those who were seeking it. You are all in my prayers as I hope I am also in yours. Let us stand strong in these end times and look forward to the coming of Christ. God bless!