Faith
Devotions:
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24 KJV
The key to answered prayer is to believe you have received the answer before you see it manifest. You do think you have the answer just because you see something beginning to happen. If you base your thinking that God is answering based on seeing something happening you are not in faith. Satan will manipulate the circumstances to get your natural hope up that you might get an answer and then shut the circumstances down so that your natural hope takes a nose dive and crashes. This is not faith! Without faith it is impossible to receive from God. (God will sometimes sovereignty move out of mercy.) But when we stand in faith God will move every time.
Faith begins where the will of God is known. His word is His will. God's word is a revelation of His love. So His revealed will is a revelation of His love for us.
To then have a successful prayer life you must build your prayers on His word. God cannot lie! Then make a decision to believe what God has said. Then be unwavering in your stance on His word. If you do not see an answer in a reasonable time ask God what you need to change. God's word is sure and He does not change but to see the answer something needs to change or sometimes you need to just keep praising that you believe you have received the answer.