The prayer God answers
Does God Answer Prayer?
Luke 11-15
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (11:9).
How can we pray effectively so that we know God will hear and answer our prayers? This is a question we all struggle to understand. We believe in God and believe that he answers prayer, yet when it comes to “my” prayer, it seems as if heaven is silent. We hear the testimony of others and how God miraculously answered their prayers, but it seems we never experience such miracles in our own lives. So, like the disciples, we wonder if it is because we do not know how to pray. We read James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your own pleasures,” and wonder if the problem is our lack of faith or improper motives. Even worse, we begin to question the legitimacy of the promise. We wonder if God is holding a carrot out, only to snatch it away when we reach for it.
As we read through the promise of God to answer prayer in Luke 11, we often miss an important statement. We often pray for our physical needs, our health, and the struggles we face in life. It seems the harder we pray about these things, the more silent heaven becomes. As a result, the promise of Christ that God will answer our prayers can feel like a wish rather than a promise. However, there is an important statement he makes in verse 13 that reorients everything. The most important answer we need is not deliverance from our adversity, but the strength to maintain our faith and our witness in the midst of our struggles. God bestows the presence of his Holy Spirit so that we might be empowered to obtain his salvation and the realization of God’s kingdom in our lives. It is through the Holy Spirit’s empowerment that we can endure all circumstances and live with the hope of eternity, despite the present circumstances. This is far greater than deliverance from the present, for the present will ultimately pass. But what is most important is the hope we have for the future. It is this hope that enables us to see beyond the present struggles of life and see God’s hand in all circumstances, so that we know that “All this works to the good for those who trust God” (Romans 8:28). This is the prayer that God richly answers. God’s greatest gift is perspective and the assurance that our eternity is secure. Heaven may seem silent, but heaven is never indifferent. In the midst of our struggles, God deeply cares and gives us the one thing we need most: Hope, assurance, and the promise of eternal life. What we need most is not the change of circumstance, but the change in our perception of our circumstances and that is the prayer God answers whenever we cry out to him.
Luke 11-15
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (11:9).
How can we pray effectively so that we know God will hear and answer our prayers? This is a question we all struggle to understand. We believe in God and believe that he answers prayer, yet when it comes to “my” prayer, it seems as if heaven is silent. We hear the testimony of others and how God miraculously answered their prayers, but it seems we never experience such miracles in our own lives. So, like the disciples, we wonder if it is because we do not know how to pray. We read James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your own pleasures,” and wonder if the problem is our lack of faith or improper motives. Even worse, we begin to question the legitimacy of the promise. We wonder if God is holding a carrot out, only to snatch it away when we reach for it.
As we read through the promise of God to answer prayer in Luke 11, we often miss an important statement. We often pray for our physical needs, our health, and the struggles we face in life. It seems the harder we pray about these things, the more silent heaven becomes. As a result, the promise of Christ that God will answer our prayers can feel like a wish rather than a promise. However, there is an important statement he makes in verse 13 that reorients everything. The most important answer we need is not deliverance from our adversity, but the strength to maintain our faith and our witness in the midst of our struggles. God bestows the presence of his Holy Spirit so that we might be empowered to obtain his salvation and the realization of God’s kingdom in our lives. It is through the Holy Spirit’s empowerment that we can endure all circumstances and live with the hope of eternity, despite the present circumstances. This is far greater than deliverance from the present, for the present will ultimately pass. But what is most important is the hope we have for the future. It is this hope that enables us to see beyond the present struggles of life and see God’s hand in all circumstances, so that we know that “All this works to the good for those who trust God” (Romans 8:28). This is the prayer that God richly answers. God’s greatest gift is perspective and the assurance that our eternity is secure. Heaven may seem silent, but heaven is never indifferent. In the midst of our struggles, God deeply cares and gives us the one thing we need most: Hope, assurance, and the promise of eternal life. What we need most is not the change of circumstance, but the change in our perception of our circumstances and that is the prayer God answers whenever we cry out to him.
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