Is it okay to pray for things I want?
On this page we will think about praying for things we want. We will learn why God wants us to ask him for things. We will learn that it is good to pray for things we want and need.
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Is it okay to ask God for things?
What if I pray for the wrong thing?
Will God always say yes to my prayers?
What is a ‘please’ prayer?
‘Please’ prayers are prayers where we ask God for something. We can ask him to give us things we need or things we want. We can ask him to do good things for people we care about. When we find something hard or painful, we can ask God for help. These are all ‘please’ prayers.
There are other kinds of prayers too. We can thank God for what we have. We can say sorry for bad things we have done. And we can praise God for who he is. All these different prayers are important and good. Click here to learn about different kinds of prayers.
Is it okay to ask God for things?
God made the world, and he made us. He knows everything. And he can do anything. God loves us too. The Bible says he wants to help us. He loves to give us good things.
Here is something Jesus said about this in the Bible.
“If your son asks you for some bread, you would not give him a stone. If he asks you for a fish, you would not give him a snake. You may be bad, but even you know how to give good things to your children. Your Father in heaven knows much better than you do how to give good things to his children. He will give good things to everyone who asks him.”
This is why it is good to ask God for things. It shows we trust God. It shows we know we need his help. And it shows we know God loves us and wants to help us.
What if I pray for the wrong thing?
Some people worry about asking God for the wrong things. And it is true that sometimes we ask God for things that are bad for us or other people. We normally ask for things we think will make our lives easier or better. But we do not always know what is really best for us. We might ask God for lots of money. But having lots of money might not be the best thing for us. We might be praying for the wrong thing.
But it is still okay to pray for the things we want. Prayer is one of the ways we get closer to God and know him better. It is good to tell God what we are thinking and feeling. When we let God into our heart, he can change the parts of us that are not good. He can teach us to want better things.
God understands
Sometimes we want to ask God for the best thing, but we do not know what the best thing is. Life is confusing. We do not always know what to pray for. But God understands everything. He knows the best thing even when we do not.
That means we do not need to worry about making a mistake. God knows more than we do. That is why we pray! We can trust him to understand. We can trust him to do the best thing, even if it different from what we asked for.
The Bible says that when we do not know what to pray, the Holy Spirit prays for us.
God’s Spirit also helps us to do this. Because we are weak, we do not know how we ought to pray. But God’s Spirit himself prays for us. He cries to God on our behalf in a way that nobody could say with words.
Will God always say yes to my prayers?
God always listens to our prayers. He cares about how we feel. But he does not always say answer our prayers in the way we want. Sometimes the thing we are asking for would not be good for us. Sometimes we need to wait and keep asking. Sometimes it takes a long time for God to do what we asked for. Sometimes he does not do it at all. We do not always know why God says no to our prayers.
This can be very hard to understand. It might make us sad or angry. We cannot see everything God sees. We cannot understand why he would not give us something so good. We cannot understand why he would let something so bad happen. God wants us to talk to him about how we feel. And he wants to help us keep trusting him even when we do not understand.
The best ‘please’ prayer
We can ask God for all kinds of things. Click here to learn about some things we can pray for. But there is one prayer that is the best ‘please’ prayer of them all:
“God, please do what you want to do in my life.”
This should be our biggest prayer. It should be the thing we want most. Think of it as a big circle that all our other ‘please’ prayers fit inside of. When we pray, we should remember that God loves us. He knows what is best for us. We can trust him to give us good things, even if they are different from the things we want.
This was Jesus’s biggest prayer too. Jesus was God, but he was human too. So when Jesus was living on earth he had to pray to Father God just like we do. Click here to learn about Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Before Jesus was killed, he prayed 2 big prayers to Father God. First he prayed, “If it is possible, please stop this from happening to me.” But then he prayed, “But please do what you want, not what I want.” Jesus wanted to be saved from dying. But he knew he could trust Father God to do the right thing.
Father God did not save Jesus from dying. He did not make Jesus’s life easier. But because Jesus trusted him, Father God used his death to save the whole world. This was the thing Jesus wanted most.
We can always trust God to do what is best. And one day he will sort out everything that is bad in the world. He has promised to make everything good. One day, God will answer all our deepest prayers with a big “Yes!”
God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain.
Do you want to learn more about prayer?
Download our free Bible study worksheet series “All kinds of prayers”. Each session has a story and prayer from the Bible. There are also prompts to help you start writing your own prayers to God.
We have lots more free worksheets too! Click the button to see them all.
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Valley of Springs is the online home of Dan and Jo Acharya.
We write devotional blogs to help you grow in your faith and trust God in difficult times.
We also provide easy read Bible study and discipleship resources for Christians with learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities and special needs.
Jo is the author of ‘Refresh: a wellness devotional for the whole Christian life’ and ‘Living Well With God: easy read Bible lessons for people who find reading hard’.