Is your prayer answered?

James 5:16-17 says, “…pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” John 15:7 also says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” 1 John 3:22 reflects the same thing too.

If prayers were futile, Jesus would never have told us these things. But He did.

But just because we say God answers prayers, we do not mean to say that we can ask just whatever we want. When we pray and that prayer is not answered according to our wishes, then, does that mean it is useless?

Psalm 66:18 tells us, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” James is more direct, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”

James 1:6-8 is even more terse about how we should pray, “Ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

Additionally, when we see what John 15:7 had to say, we see that there is a prerequisite: “If you abide in me and my word abide in you.” We have seen the same thing in James 1:6-8 above, the importance of having faith, an undoubting faith.

Look at Abraham. God promised him that he will be blessed, he will be given land, and that his offspring will be numerous as the stars above. But, in reality, Abraham barely managed (a little bit of exaggeration here, or is it?) to have a son. He did not have any land, besides the one he purchased for his wife Sarah at Macpelah (Gen. 23:17-18). Where are all the offspring promised to him then?

Would this mean that the promises to Abraham were false promises? Were Abraham’s prayers unanswered? He did not own land and he had ONE son.

Look at Abraham now. He had been given a land, the promised land. His offspring? They are now as numerous as the stars above. You and I are also of Abraham, through faith in Jesus Christ.

And so, we can see that God answers all prayers, but not necessarily in accordance with all our specifications and time limits. Therefore, the prayers of the church today do have meaning, and are heard by God. God answers prayers in His own time and in His own way.

When we pray today, without proper faith and without abiding to the words of the Lord, we already have set answers and ways in our minds for God to answer them, isn’t it? And when they do not happen according to our desires, we say, “God does not answer prayers.” Isn’t this too hypocritical?

Yes, God answers prayers. He has, He does and He will. But not necessarily according to our wishes.

There will be times when He says “Yes” (Gen. 25:21; Jn. 14:13; 1 Sam. 1-2); there will be times when He says “No” (1 Sam. 8:18; 2 Sam. 7; 1 Kings 19; Jn. 11); and there will be times when He says “Wait, not yet” (Sam 46:10; Rom 8:25; 12:12; Phil. 4:6).