I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon at this web site
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/spurgeon/web/ss-0028.html
It talks about the prayer of Daniel in Daniel 9 and was preached by Spurgeon on September 25, 1870. He brings up many good points of this prayer that are a good example to us. He mentions Daniels persistence, his humility and intensity. So many times people do not pray with any intensity. Daniel prayed after he studied the book of Jeremiah and realized that the time for the Jews to go back to the holy land was approaching. He realized that God was preparing to do something great and wanted to prepare for it.
I think God often uses delays at times in prayer to prepare us for what he wants to give us. If you have ever had a prayer list for things you have prayed for, you may notice that at times some things you pray for are answered almost immediately. There will also be things that will take months or years or even decades to see answers for. I think sometimes God delays because he is trying to build us into something. He is trying to build within us a commitment to pray whether we see answers or not. Are we going to take God at his word or are we only going to pray in the good times? Do we really believe that he hears us and is able to answer?
I don't think that most people really do believe much in the power of prayer. I think if we truly did then people would not use prayer as a method last of all. We try to do things in our own strength, then if it does not work we go to God in prayer. Maybe our first request should be that God would break a spirit of self-sufficiency in the church so that God can use us? Maybe when christians get tired of their pews being empty and their lives lost in their effectiveness to be any kind of witness at all then we will fall on our knees and really start getting serious about prayer. God has a right to withhold his blessings, but he is a good God who delights to answer us. The problem is not at his end!
One thing that we should do is what Daniel did and prepare ourselves for God to do something. Jesus told the people to repent for the kingdom of God was at hand. Repentance was also key in every revival since then of the church. The church had to be in a position where it could receive, with humility, what God wanted to give. So, when people repent they work on getting into a right relationship with God and with others. It is impossible to do one without the other. So, not only would people get right with God, but then they would go to people who they hated or had spoken against or lied to and made things right. They would confess their sins to each other and make things right. They would pay back debts that they owed, they would give back what was stolen much like Zaccheus (Luke 19:8) did when he came down from the tree after seeing Jesus. He had stolen from people, but after seeing Jesus he gave back with interest. It was proof that God had indeed touched his heart. So, our first step in seeing God do something great is to get right with each other and to repent.
". . .to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. . ." Eph 3:20
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7
Other references: Luke 18:1-8; Luke 11:5-13; John 14:14; John 15:7; John 17
