Will God Answer MY Prayers?

For those who do know him and rely on him, Jesus seems to be wildly generous in his offer: Then they're able to ask him whatever they want.

Here is another qualifier: And if we know that he hears us -- whatever we ask -- we know that we have what we asked of him. Where we trip up is assuming we know God's will, because a certain thing makes sense to us! We assume that there is only one right "answer" to a specific prayer, assuming certainly THAT would be God's will. And this is where it gets tough. We live within the limits of time and limits of knowledge.

How Does Prayer Work?

We have only limited information about a situation and the implications of future action on that situation. God's understanding is unlimited. How an event plays out in the course of life or history is only something he knows. And he may have purposes far beyond what we could even imagine. So, God is not going to do something simply because we determine that it must be his will.

Pages and pages could be filled about God's intentions toward us. The entire Bible is a description of the kind of relationship God wants us to experience with him and the kind of life he wants to give us. Here are just a few examples:. He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for [trust] him! Like someone rising out of his chair to come to your help, "He rises to show you compassion.

He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. However, God's greatest display of his love and commitment to you is this: Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," 10 which is what Jesus did for us. And so, "If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?

Certainly people get sick, even die; financial problems are real, and all sorts of very difficult situations can come up. God tells us to give our concerns to him. Even as the situation remains dismal, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. When the whole world seems to be falling apart, God can keep us together.

This is when a person can be very grateful that they know God. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Probably any Christian could list examples like this in their own lives. But if the circumstances do not improve, God can still give us his peace in the midst of it. Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. It is at this point when circumstances are still tough that God asks us to continue to trust him -- to "walk by faith, not by sight" the Bible says. But it's not blind faith. It is based on the very character of God. Why at times does it appear that God ignores us when we pray to Him.

What is the serenity prayer? Even when we feel that God is not answering our prayers, you can always know God is a God of love. The Bible tells us He loves us:. God created us and knows infinitely more than we know. He knows what is best for us, and what would not be good for us. If you have children, when they were very small, sometimes they asked for things that would not be good for them, or would harm them. For good reasons sometimes parents do not always give their children what they ask for, when they ask for it.

Parents give them what is best for them. It is the same way in our prayers to God. God gives us what is best for us. Our lives must be right with God before He can answer our prayers. God has certain conditions that must be met before our prayers can be answered. One of the first, is we feel our need of help from Him.

One cannot pour water into a cup that is already full. If we have cherished sins in our lives, and refuse to give them up, or if we are doing things we should not be doing, and are disobeying Him, we cannot expect Him to answer our prayers.

He cannot answer our prayers if we have sins in our lives that are unconfessed or if we are hanging on to cherished sins. Also, if we refuse to forgive others who have wronged us, God cannot hear us.

Recently On Prayer

Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Skip to main content. January 30 Day In the passages for today we see examples of all three types of response from God. In a way it must have been obvious what they wanted in the second instance they were blind, so they must have wanted to see , but God wants us to be actively involved.

It may seem an obvious point, but the starting point of answered prayer is actually asking. This response also stemmed from compassion. Her request was for glory, power and promotion for her boys. He points out that she does not seem to understand all the implications of her request. Shockingly, Jesus speaks of drinking this cup himself. This is the clearest example in the whole New Testament of Jesus explaining his death in terms of substitution.

Behind the requests here lay different motives. Both requests were to do with lordship. The request of the blind men came from the recognition that Jesus is Lord , and a desire for something good Matthew