²¹ And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. (Matthew 21:21 ESV)

We approach our prayers wrong. We approach them hoping God will answer instead of knowing that He will. We lack confidence in our faith. We lack truly knowing that God wants the best for us and will answer us, even if that answer is not what we expect.

The other aspect of this is that we often look to prayer as a new work that God will do. We do not necessarily expect Him to do an old work. And what, exactly, is an old work? Well, He may decide to work with our old mindset or with something we already have in order to fulfill His word and His promise to us. What we are hoping and praying for as a new work may be Him just answering it by working with something well known and well worn within our lives. Something we would never expect to be a part of His answer to our prayer.

But more than anything, we need to learn to make our petitions to God and walk away in confidence. Knowing that He will answer us even if it is not exactly the way we expect. Furthermore, our lack of faith that God will answer can also thwarts the outcome. God may be holding back an answer waiting for us to properly respond to Him. We end up waiting on each other but not moving.

Pray confidently then be expectant and excited to see what God will do.