You may ask anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:14
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3
Is claiming a promise the same as praying in faith? Possibly, but usually not. I fear that some people try to use the wonderful promises in the Bible to obligate God to do what they want. They are like litigants that go to court to enforce the terms of a contract. While it is true that great men of the Bible found grounds for their praying in God's covenant or prophecies (e.g., Acts 4:25-26; Daniel 9:2; 2 Samuel 23:5), that approach is not the same as hearing (in our spirit) God respond to our plea with a word of assurance. Besides, no mortal could ever force the Almighty to do anything. Such an approach goes beyond confidence to arrogance.
So why did God give us promises if we are not to use them to remind Him to act? The promises are reminders to us that our heavenly Father delights to hear from us and to help us. They are clues to His character, evidence of His generosity. He encourages us to come to Him with our needs that He may display His glory by His provision. We should not be like the fisherman caught in a storm who though he had neglected his relationship with God nevertheless prayed, "God, you know I've never bothered you before, and if You'll help me just this once, I'll never bother You again." No, God promises to answer prayer so that we will come to Him repeatedly.
There are times when a prayer promise may become a word from the Lord that enables to pray the prayer of faith. I have heard Tom Elliff teach about prayer and getting a word from the Lord. He has many wonderful testimonies of times that he has prayed about matters and the Spirit led him to a verse of Scripture as confirmation that his prayer had been heard and would be answered. The Spirit would "quicken" a phrase or verse from the Bible, make it come alive in a way that made him aware that God was speaking specifically to him at that moment. On a few occasions, I have had the same experience. But there is a great difference in the Lord's using His word to assure us of an answer and our using His word to obligate Him to answer.
Prayer and Scripture go together to build our faith. We should allow the promises of answered prayer to do what they were intended to do--get us to pray more often and more confidently because they assure us of God's willingness to hear and to answer. We may even find that the words of Scripture help us articulate what our heart longs for. The more steeped in Scripture we are, the more we will find ourselves praying God's word back to Him. After all, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Let us pray. We should never allow thoughts of inadequacy to hinder us. Teaching on prayer may lead to the concern that we don't really know how to pray or that we are not doing it right. The promises should encourage us. Let's just do it.
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