“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  (I John 5:14)  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (Mark 11:24) “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  (Psalms 37:4) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7 & 8)    

I learned a long time ago that God wants to bless us and meet our needs.  May I suggest if you are a Christian to do the following: write down on paper, things you would like God to do for you.  List them in the order of their priority. Maybe you need a car, a home, a financial need, marriage or a job.  Then throughout the day pray for each thing you listed asking God to help you obtain your desires.   Goals or desires may change.  If they do, omit them from the list and add a new want.  Keep in mind not to ask for anything you know would not be in God’s will.  If you put on your list you want to be a millionaire don’t expect that you will win the lottery in the next week.  That desire might take years to accomplish but it is probable and possible in a way you may never have expected.  May I suggest that your list contains items that are reasonable and you are asking with a humble heart?  Realize that God may ask you to do certain things to obtain your want.  You may be asked to prepare and become involved in working to reach your goal.

Chances are you will be skeptical, have doubts and not have adequate faith to believe that God wants to bless you.  I just wish I knew to do this, years ago.  But would I have had enough faith to believe all things are possible?  When an item on the list happens, don’t think: boy, am I lucky.  Start praising God and thanking Him.

I have had a tendency to believe that I earned everything I have.  The more I study God’s Word I have become aware that God has been involved in most everything my wife and I have.  Wouldn’t it have been more gratifying to realize that it was God blessing us when we paid off our home?

If you think this will not work, may I suggest you study your Bible and see all of what God promises.  One thing I have learned is God will not give us a blessing we cannot handle.  Unless He has a lesson He wants to teach us.  That ends up a real problem!  Some learned this when their home became underwater or they lost their home and maybe their job.

Now for some instructions that go with praying.  God is not a Santa Claus.  He is not going to answer every whim we may have.  However, Christ came that we might have a new life and have an abundant life.

What if your desire is to be financially independent?  Your prayer needs to be God help me to spend and save my money wisely.  God will help by taking away the desire that you need all of the things you think you must have.  Every month you must have money left over to have your prayer of financial independence answered.  That means you may have to treat your credit cards for emergency purposes only.  God will help you do it.

Maybe you are 35 and have never had a marriage proposal.  Are you five foot tall and weigh 350 pounds.  Do you have a personality that is negative and bossy?  Instead of prayer to God to send you a soul mate, pray that God will help you to become attractive to the opposite sex physically and mentally.

Maybe you are married to someone that turns out to be lazy.  Your prayer to God that they become more aggressive and get a good job may not get God to change them.  However, our prayer may need to be: God help me to encourage my mate.  Expect God to help you say what is needed to be said.

What if you are suffering from an illness?  If you are obese and have diabetes should you pray for God to heal you and that’s all?  We should pray for help to do the things that caused the problem.  We need help in restricting our diet and how we treat our bodies.  Do we pray that God will help us to have the discipline to exercise regularly?  There may be others things that the Holy Spirit will encourage you to do.

God will not give us more than we can handle.  However, I believe the Bible is very clear: God’s promise is that He will meet our needs and will give us anything we pray for according to His will.  That is why everyone is not healed. God expects us to do our part.   It is also the reason there are the rich as well as the poor. Have you tried to educate yourself in how to manage money better?  We live in a sinful world and God will be with us through every disaster that occurs in our life.   He will give us the comfort and the courage to battle through each negative encounter.