Is there anything more frustrating or discouraging than praying and not seeing anything happen? You pray and pray and pray…but God doesn’t seem to hear. You eventually conclude prayer isn’t working and give up. Or by virtue of the silence, you decide God’s answer is “no.”

Today, I’m going to begin a series on “Prayer God Always Answers.” And by “answers,” I mean answers with a “yes.” I can’t tell you how long the series will be. I don’t know yet. Maybe five posts. Maybe ten. We’ll see.

We know that God always answers prayer that is according to His will. 1 John 5:14-15 says:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

When and how God answers is up to Him, but we can be absolutely certain that if we pray according to His will, He will hear us and answer us.

This series will consist of prayers that you can pray for yourself. We’re not going to talk about prayer as much as we’re simply going to pray.

We’ll start the series with a prayer of surrender to God. If you pray it and mean it–you can have full confidence that God will take you at your word and answer you. Here goes:

Father, I want to thank you for being a God who is full of grace and mercy. You know I need it. Thank you for not treating me as my sins deserve. I am very grateful that You are so patient and kind and loving toward me. All the time. No matter what.

You know how easy it is for me to go my own way, to look to get my needs met apart from You. In essence, I often live my life like I know better than You do. I know that’s a foolish way to live. I know that choosing the ways of the world over Your ways really makes no sense and it grieves You and only harms me.

Lord, You have said that You oppose the proud, but give grace to the humble. I know I am most proud when I’m going my own way, directing my own life. And I am most humble when I am living in submission to You. I know that I was made for You and that You are jealous for me. I know that what makes the most sense is to live my life in submission to You. It’s the logical thing to do based on all You’ve done for me.

So Father, I once again offer myself to You as a living sacrifice. I understand that a sacrifice has no rights of its own and exists solely to please the One to whom the sacrifice is being made. I acknowledge that I exist for You and Your pleasure. I do not exist to please myself.

I do not want to conform to the pattern of this world—a pattern that always takes me away from You, a pattern that puts my wants before Yours. Instead, I want to be transformed, to be more like You, as I begin to think and believe differently. I want my thoughts to line up with Your thoughts. I want to know and believe the truth about You, about me and about this life. Help me to recognize quickly when I am believing a lie.

I want to delight myself in You so much that Your desires become my desires. Then I know You will give me the desires of my heart.

So Father, here I am. I belong to You. Do with me as You will. I hold nothing back. I exist for Your pleasure. I want to know You better. I want to know more of Your love and love You more return. I want to experience all You have for me. I want to be used to advance Your kingdom. I want You to be glorified in and through me.

I ask in the Name of Jesus and according to His will. Amen.

Did you pray it? And mean it? Then God heard you and will answer you. Believe it.

(This prayer is based on James 4:1-8, Romans 12:1-2 and Psalm 37:4.)