Lunch: Be Specific in Your Requests

Prayer is a form of worship that I am still working on. One thing that I am learning is to make very specific prayer requests. In my breakfast post, I mentioned Ron Kincaid's sermon on Sunday entitled "Why Some Prayers Go Unanswered." One of Kincaid's suggestions was to make very specific prayer requests.I have often heard this same advice from my sister-in-law, Kimberly Levasa.

One of the reasons that Kincaid shared for making very specific requests, is that it will be much easier to know that God has answered. At the beginning of his newest book, The Prayer Dare, Kincaid writes,

"I believe that I'm qualified to issue this challenge because not only have I been a committed pray-er for all my Christian life, but I also have direct evidence—in the form of a 30-year-long prayer journal in which I've recorded over 40,000 answers to specific requests that I have made of God—that when one commits to praying, God shows up."

Wow! A personal log of 40,000 answered prayers! I will offer up only one in this post, but it is recent. During last week's united day of fasting and prayer (Breakfast: Praise God!), I wrote, "This morning, let's pray for Adam's ability and desire to speak. His mother, Cookie, arrived in Boston on Monday. She is anxious for Adam to speak to her. Pray that God would be gracious and grant Cookie with the opportunity to hear Adam talk to her."

The following day, at 2:21 p.m., I received a text message from my wife (who was traveling with Cookie) that read, "Cookie got to hear Adam talk out loud. He said, "Hi, I want my chair." Praise God for answered prayer! A later message simply stated, "Good day. Cookie is so happy." Good day, indeed! Thank you, Jesus!

Prayer Requests

You may have noticed that the prayer requests in this morning's breakfast post were specific. So are these. Amy asked that we pray for Adam's

    • memory to improve
    • ability to communicate when he needs to use the restroom
    • strength and endurance to improve

Of course, begin your prayer with praise. Praise God for all that He has done for Adam and his family, and praise Him for other good that He has done in your life.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

    Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.



We'll get back together at dinner time.