Your Petition to the King of Kings

When you are worried or stressed, do you pray more or less?  Sometimes the situation is so all-consuming that we don’t even remember to pray!  Other times we pray a lot but it seems like nothing is happening.


There are all kinds of reasons we should pray and there are all kinds of different prayers, but today let’s talk about that kind of prayer where you need something from God.  You have a petition for Him - you know, all those things you worry about. A petition is defined as “a formal written request addressed to a sovereign superior for a particular right or grace.”

I bet if you were writing a petition to an important government official you’d put some time into it, wouldn’t you?  You’d do some research on the subject matter and you’d have some reasons to explain why you think the official should grant your request.  You’d write or type it out on nice paper making sure it didn’t get wrinkled or spilled on. You’d take it seriously.

One of the awesome things about our relationship with God is that we can be pretty informal with Him.  But you might find it helpful to every once in a while, especially with the big things of life or those stresses that you just keep fighting over and over, to get a little more formal.  What if you were to sit down and write out a formal petition to the King of Kings?

1 John 5:14-15 “Since we have this confidence, we can also have great boldness before him, for if we present any request agreeable to his will, he will hear us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we also know that we have obtained the requests we ask of him.”

This Scripture helps us put a petition together that is sure to have our request granted.

1. Start with the Word.  Our request must be agreeable to His will.  That means we can’t ask Him to strike someone down with lightning, but we can pray for our child’s healing.    Make sure your request is according to His will before you go any further. A prayer of “if it is your will God…” is not a prayer of faith.  Faith can’t start until you know what God’s will is. What is God’s will for your situation? Find a Scripture that applies to your situation and make that the foundation of your petition.
   
   
2. Get the Holy Spirit involved.  How many times do we go off on our own and not get the Spirit involved?  Yes, even in a prayer of petition we’ll get His direction. We are one with God so we need Him involved in everything! Ask Him to reveal to you how you should be looking at this situation and even what to ask for.
   
   
3. Write your request based on His promises.   Write the promise or the answer.  A prayer that gets answered is not a worried, “if you can do anything about this” type of prayer.  It is a prayer of faith that declares the promise that gets answered.  On rare occasions, you can even say, “I don’t know what the answer to this problem is but you do God and I will trust in you based on your promise of love towards me.”  But most requests you have will have the answer for you in Scripture - the promise - for you to stand on.
   
   
4. Remind God of His Word.  Isaiah 43:26 “Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.”  God knows by doing this we convince ourselves. We strengthen our own faith. It is not that we really need to remind God or convince Him to do it.  You can say, “Based on 1 John 5:14-15, I have confidence in you God, that you have heard this prayer of petition and since you heard it I now have it, according to your Word.”
   
   
5. Thank Him for the answer.  If you really believe you have the answer, you would thank Him for it, wouldn’t you?  So, start doing that now and any time a worried thought like  "it isn’t happening," "it isn’t working," or "I better go to plan b and figure out what I'm going to do about this," tries to come.
   
   
6. Optional: You might want to put this petition on fancy paper or put a formal seal on it with wax and your initial.  The more formal and serious you make it, the more serious and real your covenant with God will become to you. Yep, you have a covenant with the very God of this universe who has invited you to ask Him anything! A covenant is pretty serious with God. We are the ones who have been taking it lightly.

RESULT: "And you will have the petition that you desire."

Maybe you are thinking, "I wish it was that easy."  Or, "that is a nice thought but it won’t work for me."  But I didn’t just tell you what my personal opinion is, I just told you what the very Word of God actually says!  If you are going to believe God’s Word for your whole entire future destination, won’t you believe Him today for this situation you are in too?  

God doesn’t want you worried or burdened by your cares.  He loves you tremendously and as your sovereign superior He will grant you the particular right or grace that you request if it is according to His will and you can know His will through Scripture (hint: it's always to empower, increase, bless you).  He is ever looking for ways to pour His grace out upon you more. Just believe and receive.

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