Acts 4:23-31 (ESV)
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Peter and John were imprisoned overnight by the chief priests, then released and told not to preach about Jesus.

They went back to their friends and immediately began to pray together – corporate prayer.

1. They first praised God
2. They then prayed scripture – from Psalm 2
3. They acknowledged that what happened to Jesus was God’s will.
4. Their petition was not something that would have been expected. They prayed for boldness, not for protection.
5. God’s answer was dramatic.

This seems to be an effective model prayer.  If we want dramatic responses from God when we pray, should we focus on what God wants to accomplish rather than how it might impact us?