In these troubled and uneasy days of economic uncertainty, there are many people who need help. More people are praying and asking God to help them than ever before. That is often the case when there is a crisis. Here are three simple prayer keys.

Sometimes people get frustrated because they are expecting God to answer their prayer the way that they think that He should answer it. Some people get disappointed and loose their confidence in God because it hasn't happened exactly the way think it should have.

The problem is that too often, we try to figure out God's job. We decide and determine exactly how He is supposed to answer our prayers. But, in doing that, we will many times miss the blessings that He wants us to have.

When I was laid off from the radio announcing job I had for over sixteen years, my prayer was to have my income replaced. Rather than keep my focus exclusively in the radio industry, I chose to keep my eyes open and consider all possibilities. If I hadn't, I would have never considered taking the bookkeeping job that was offered to me.

The Bible is full of verses that talk about praying to God for help. It talks about asking and requesting; it talks about casting all our cares on Him. It talks about coming to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Three simple keys are to pray and ask for His help, believe and have confidence that He will help, and, then, look for and expect His answer.

I do not believe that God will put you in a situation that you do not want to be in just to "test your faith." But I do believe that there are times when God opens a door that we may not quite understand, or, see how it will ultimately benefit our lives greatly.

But to make it easy, let's go back to those simple keys again. First we pray and ask for His help. Next, we believe Him and have confidence that He will indeed help us. Third, we look for and expect an answer. It is this third key that we could get a lot better at.

Are we really looking for and expecting an answer when we pray? We aren't if we are thinking and talking about what we lack. Talking about lack indicates we don't really believe that He will answer.

When you have confidence in God to answer your prayer, you look for and expect with great anticipation, His answer. And, because you are allowing God to be God, you are open to all possibilities. You are not telling God how He needs to do His job.

And here's the exciting part. God has solutions that you and I have never even dreamed of. He has possibilities no one has ever thought about. The Bible is full of examples in which God brings solutions. God can always make a way where there is no way.

As we are looking for and expecting an answer, there may some things that come your way that are not an answer from God. The way you find out is to not be afraid to look at it. Consider it, and then ask God, "Is this it?"

How can you know? When God brings something into our lives, even if it is different or something we would have never thought about, like me and bookkeeping, the process will be smooth. Open doors from God are never a struggle.

In my life there have been a few times when I tried to push a door open and it always ended up badly. So, if the door opens smoothly, keep pursuing and asking God for His quiet direction. He wants to answer our prayers, so we should allow Him to be God and bring it to pass the way He sees fit.

Pray and ask for His help; believe and have confidence that He will help; and, then, look for and expect an answer.