When our daughter was six, she prayed for a dress. Not just any dress. She asked God for a navy blue velvet dress, in her size, that cost less than $15 (because that’s all she had in her piggy bank).
That’s too specific, I thought. I worried that our daughter’s little soul would suffer great disappointment and that it might damage her faith when she didn’t find the dress she asked God for. While I wavered in doubt, she rested in simple faith and a big view of God.
Can you guess what happened? The next time we visited the local department store, the first rack featured a navy blue velvet dress in our daughter’s size, on sale for $13.99. As I stood there with my mouth gaping, our daughter calmly took her dress off the rack with a look that said, What’s wrong with you, Mom? This is exactly what I prayed for.
That experience changed how I pray.
For decades, my prayers had been vague requests, like “God, bless my family” or “Help us have a good day.” And those prayers were heartfelt, and God heard them. But it’s hard to recognize the answer to a prayer like that when it comes. After witnessing God’s clear provision for our daughter’s dress request, I began to pray more specifically.
How Praying Specifically Deepens Our Faith
Specificity in prayer is not a type of magic formula for getting what I want. But when I pray specifically, I can clearly see how he answers—and he always answers. In this way, praying specifically strengthens my faith and deepens my trust in him.
The apostle John identified praying according to God’s will as a key factor in receiving our requests. He wrote, “This is the confidence we have before [God]: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him (1 John 5:14–15 CSB).”
We don’t always know what God’s will is when we pray, but we can still pray specifically. When we were house-hunting, we prayed for a home with specific criteria. We didn’t boss God around or demand our own way. We were praying specifically, yet surrendering to and leaning on him. We asked and awaited his answer.
When our prayers are rooted in Scripture and aligned with God’s will, we can ask boldly—even specifically—and trust him to respond in his perfect wisdom and timing. When we pray humbly yet specifically, we can clearly see the pattern of God’s faithfulness in answering our prayers. As a result, we pray with growing faith in his loving replies and respond to him in heartfelt praise. Our prayers become more relational than transactional.
A Gentle Call to Action: Seeing God in the Details
Do you sometimes struggle to recognize God’s answers to your prayers? Consider praying more specifically. Here are a few steps to begin this practice:
- Humbly Ask: Think of a need in your life today. Instead of a general request, ask God to meet that specific need. Bring the details before him, just as a child would talk to her father.
- Pray About His Will: If you’re unsure whether your request aligns with his will, pray about that, too! You can simply ask, “Father, please make your will clear to me in this situation. Align my heart with yours.”
- Wait with an Open Heart: Wait for his response, ready to praise him for his faithfulness. He is sovereignly orchestrating the details of your life for your good and his glory, and praying specifically helps you tune your heart to see his beautiful work.
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 ESV).
