Hello!
Thank you for the excellent question.
Boldness is a state of the heart. It is having complete confidence in something where the outcome may not occur with certainty. For example, if you know that 1+1=2, would you speak with confidence? Yes, you would, since you know this is a clear fact. However, it is not necessarily communicating with boldness because the outcome of the addition is an expected outcome.
Boldness can perhaps be analogous to leading a war. There are many outcomes for any conflict, but the leader would boldly declare and execute it.
Since the outcome of boldness is not known, boldness is always a matter of faith. As we know from the following verse:
Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
Faith is having a belief or confidence that something whose outcome we cannot see will happen.
So, your question of a bold prayer is the same as asking how we can pray with unshaken faith.
Now, let's look at a passage where David declared his words to be bold prayers.
2Samuel 7:27 (NLT)
"O LORD of Heaven's Armies, God of Israel, I have been bold enough to pray this prayer to you because you have revealed all this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you—a dynasty of kings!'
David calls his prayer bold. When you read from the beginning of the chapter, you will see David asking God if he can build a temple for God. God responds that David would have an eternal dynasty.
David knows that he cannot control even his future, let alone his children's future. It is an uncertain outcome. A person who does not have faith in God would have probably waived this as a nice wishful idea and not believe it may come true. Yet, David called his prayer bold because he believed in God and trusted whatever He said. It is good that David had bold faith because we know many centuries later that King David's eternal dynasty is accomplished through our eternal King, Jesus Christ!
So, how can you pray boldly? With great faith. How can you have great confidence in what you pray? Have the heart of God (1Corinthians 2:16), which means to remain in a close relationship with Him (John 15). Just like David, when God speaks to us, believe what we have heard and speak it boldly with great faith (See Romans 10:9-11).
Other passages tell us that praying bold prayers because of our unshaken faith in Jesus is the norm for believers. For example:
Ephesians 3:12 (NLT)
Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God's presence.
Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
Hebrews 10:19 (NLT)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
1John 3:19-22 (NLT)
19Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. 20Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
It is because we believe in God that we can be bold. How can we believe in God when our faith can be easily shaken? Because of Jesus Christ who forgives us of all wrongdoings and enables us to start over in our faith even when we fail. How can we know the heart of God that we can pray boldly? It is because Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and speaks God's heart to us. When we hear God speak, we can declare what He said with certainty, and that is what we call a bold prayer.
Many blessings to you. May your prayers be filled with boldness!
Des Moines, IA
