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GOD’S PROMISE AND CONDITIONS TO ANSWER PRAYER Selected Scriptures |
I. THE LORD HAS MOST ASSUREDLY PROMISED TO ANSWER PRAYER.
Following are twelve passages of Scripture in which the Lord tells us that He wants us to pray to Him and that He wants to answer our prayers:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7)
“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)
“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)
“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)
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13)
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)
“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” (John 16:23)
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” (Romans 10:12)
“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18)
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. . (Hebrews 10:19)
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
These passages from God’s word tell us there can be no question that God wants us to pray and that He promises to answer our prayers.
However, does this mean that God will answer our every prayer and that He is at our beckon and call to answer our requests? I think a lot of people have that idea and never consider that God has placed very specific restrictions or limits on how He answers us. If you preach one without the other you will mislead people. Lots of people wonder why their prayers are not answered and they think God does not hear them. Some even wonder if God is real. The problem with unanswered prayer does not lie with God but with us. Let’s look at what God has to say about this.
II. GOD ALSO INSTRUCTS US THERE ARE CONDITIONS ON HIM ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS.
A. God’s promise is not a blanket promise to give us our every whim because He will not honor or reward unfaithfulness.
B. There are prohibitions or conditions on having our prayers answered.
First a person must be a child of God. God only hears one prayer from a lost man and that is the prayer of faith when an unsaved person asks for forgiveness and receives Christ as their Savior. God does not answer the prayers of those that reject Him as they Lord and Savior.
“Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth” (John 9:31).
1. We cannot come to God without belief or faith in God.
During Jesus’ ministry they brought to him a child that had a evil spirit. Jesus ask the boy’s father, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).
In Hebrews 11, which is called the Bible’s Hall of Faith, the Lord says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
We must come to the Lord with unwavering faith in Him.
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:5-7)
2. Must come in Jesus’s name.
“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) The person who does not accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, is not believing, or having saving trust in God’s promise of salvation and forgiveness for sin.
This does not mean that using the name of Jesus gives us some magical power. Jesus in Matthew 6:9, instructs us to address our prayers to God the Father. Therefore it is not the saying of the name of Jesus or addressing our prayer to Him that is the point here, but praying as a believer in Jesus Christ. It means that we come to God redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, not in our own name or in our own power or strength, but come in faith in the spirit of dependence on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
3. We cannot expect the Lord to answer prayer if we have unconfessed sin in our lives.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Psalms 66:18)
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
READ PROVERBS 1:23-33
4. Cannot expect the Lord to answer prayer when we are not living for the Lord.
“One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9) These are very strong words and make the point that we do not come to God in disobedience. The prayers of the disobedient are an abomination to God.
“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight”. (1 John 3:22) If we obey God then He will answer our prayers.
What are some clear commandments of God that we are to obey?
Prayer, Bible study, witnessing, Christian leadership in the Home, teaching children, being an example, being faithful in attending church, tithing, confessing sin, and putting Christ first in your life.
All these are clear commandments. One who is not faithful in these things are being disobedient and they will not be blessed of God.
5. Cannot expect God to answer prayer if we are not doing His will.
This involves more than just keeping the written commandments of the Lord. It involves doing what God wants us to do in our lives.
“Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.” (John 9:31)
This involves living a godly life and following God leadership. It is God’s expressed will for us to be reading and studying His word as 2 Tim. 2:15-18 days.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some”
God’s will for us is to be studying His word and to be doctrinally sound in our beliefs. A church or individual who believes and practices false doctrine is out of God’s will and their prayers will not be answered.
Hebrews 10:25 tells us God’s will is for us to attend church.
God tell us: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:22-25).
Lots of people take comfort in the fact that Christians are not under the Law and we do not have to keep the Sabbath. But before the Law God set a principle in place that one day of the week was set aside to worship Him and for rest. Israel paid a high price for ignoring God’s Law concerning worshiping Him. Believers will too.
Clearly God’s will is for His child to be faithful to the house of God. The context is in uplifting each other in the Lord. There is nothing more discouraging than the church member who is unfaithful in their attendance. Everyone knows we all should worship the Lord on Sunday, and it hurts us to see our brothers and sisters in Christ disobeying God. You cannot be an encouragement to others when you are not faithful yourself. You want to kill a church, hinder or stop the work of God, keep souls from being saved, then just stop attending church.
Colossians 1:18, tells us that “. . .he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
It is God’s will that the Lord Jesus Christ be first in our lives before all else. Folks putting Christ first is the best thing we can do. That means before our pleasures whatever they might be.
For some it might be some special service. Is God leading you in a particular thing, to do? Has God given you the privilege to do some job at church and are you faith in it. Are we willingly doing it?
6. God does not answer the prayers of those who are not at peace with each other. We need to be a peace with one another to have our prayers answered.
“Likewise you husbands, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Peter 3:7)
Family problems can surely cause our prayers not to be answered. Arguing, bickering, fighting in the home will destroy it. It will rob a home of peace and joy. It will destroy the peace and security of the marriage. I have seen so many families destroyed and children lives messed up because the husband and wife would not get along. Notice I did not say it was because the husband and wife could not get along….the true is they can and it is sinful not too. The wonderful thing is, that in Christ Jesus marriage problems can be overcome….that is if the husband and wife want to.
Do you realize the prayers that fathers and mothers for their children are not answered when they do not dwell in peace and honor one another. The husband might say, “Well, my wife is the problem she is always fighting with me. Or the wife might say, “Its my husband’s fault.” Well, we do not have to fight back, and rarely is there not blame on both sides. The cure is to turn the matter over to the Lord, confessing first one’s sins and then making the commitment to live for the Lord. If one partner does this….it will surely end at least half the problem and will make the way for reconciliation.
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19)
The principle is one of harmony. Model prayer “For give us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).
Harmony in the church family, each doing their share, plus helping others, seeking one another’s well being. God will honor that.
7. We need to come boldly.
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
8. We must be persistent in our prayers.
In the parallel account of the Lord teaching the Model prayer in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus followed it with a parable:
“And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:5-9).
Clearly the Lord is teaching us that we should be persistent in our prayers. There have been things that Christians have prayed for, for years and God in His time answered. It is not that God does not want to answer and that He wants to withhold the answer to our prayers, but God knows the time when it is best. Our persistent shows our faith in God and His promise to answer prayer. I like what Barnes says in his commentary on this passage:
“This is to be applied to God in no other sense than that he often hears prayers and grants blessings even long after they appear to be unanswered or withheld. He leaves them to persevere for months or years, until they feel entirely their dependence on him, until they see that they can obtain the blessing in no other way, and until they are prepared to receive it. Often they are not prepared to receive it when they ask it at first. They may be proud, or have no just sense of their dependence, or they would not value the blessing, or it may at that time not be best for them to obtain it. But let no one despair. If the thing is for our good, and if it is proper that it should be granted, God will give it. Let us first ask aright; let us see that our minds are in a proper state; let us feel our need of the blessing; let us inquire whether God has promised such a blessing, and then let us persevere until God gives it. (Barnes Commentary of Luke)
CONCLUSION:
1. Isaiah speaking to disobedient Israel gave them the promise of God.
“It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24)
2. The promise of God.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Do you believe that? What ever the past….the future is clean. We can decide this very morning to live as God would have us too that we might have God’s blessings on all we do.
If there is sin and unfaithfulness in your life, now is the time to confess it to the Lord and have Him cleanse you from it. God is the God of new beginnings. Thank the Lord He loves us so much he does not scold and promises to give his help to us liberally….if we ask in faith.