Pray Specifically

I'm far from the world's leading expert in prayer, but I'm learning. 

For most of my life, my prayers have been vague, broad, expansive "Lord, help the world" kinds of prayers. Even when they're more specific than "help the world," I tend to find myself praying "blessings" for people and "provision" for people and for "guidance" in situations. Then I find myself frustrated because I so infrequently see specific answers to my prayers. 

Why do we expect God to give specific answers to non-specific prayers? And even more, how would I know if He did give specific answers to the vague, broad prayers I pray so often? 

I'm learning to pray more specific prayers. Rather than praying general, broad, vague prayers, I'm asking God for specifically what I hope he will do. It takes more time and a lot more focus, but I'm finding it helps my prayer life quite a bit. When I ask for specific things, I receive specific answers, and prayer gets a whole lot more exciting.

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