@Landon Caeli,
Here are the verses and a little more about prayer:
Philippians 4:4-7
Philippians 4:4 ¶ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Philippians 4:5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So you should be praying with thankfulness.
James 1:5-8
James 1:5 ¶ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
James 1:8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
So you should be praying with sureness that you will receive and not with skepticism (take note those of you who want to pray to God but are unsure if He will hear you as you ought to pray with confidence).
And some things about prayer and faith from Jesus:
Luke 11:1-4
Luke 11:1 ¶ Now Jesus1 was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, gas John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
'Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread,
Luke 11:4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And plead us not into temptation.'"
Jesus doesn't tell His disciples to pray "lofty" prayers, just the basics, such as praying your needs are met and God's will to be done and to pray with a humble heart asking for forgiveness.
Notice that none of this prayer is a declaration except that God's kingdom come to the earth. This has implications of what is considered God's kingdom coming to earth, but suffice to say, it's the same thing as it is in James.
Matthew 17:20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Now the thing ALL of these passages assume is that you are "testing" the Spirit to see if what you are praying is from God, as it also says,
Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Revelation 2:11
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’
Revelation 2:17
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with pa new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Revelation 2:29
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Revelation 3:6
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Revelation 3:13
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
Revelation 3:22
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
And,
1 Thessalonians 5:21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
The biggest problem I see when people pray for a miracle, is that they don't even bother to stop and test if it is God's will to do a miracle at that point in time. They just pray for the miracle without testing the Spirit. Of course, knowing what to pray, if it is from God, is a matter of discernment, which is found in 1 Corinthians 12:10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to
distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
The distinguishing between Spirits is a gift from God. Rather than thinking about having it and not having it, think rather in terms of how much you have it. From there, pray in confidence based on how much discernment you have that God is going to answer your prayer.
Finally, one more passage about prayer:
Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So it is not about
if we should pray with confidence, because praying with faith is key. But in anything that you find yourself not really knowing if God wants to answer your prayer or not, then to either not pray for it, which is probably the more accurate thing to do, or to pray something like, "Lord, I pray for X, and if it is your will that you would do it."
So always pray in a way that you are humble, but confident that God will answer your prayer.
I'm also going to tag
@cvanwey here as he might learn something here about his problem with praying God would do something for him.
