Foundation Topic

Does God Answer Prayer?

Yes, he does—sometimes immediately, sometimes after many years, sometimes in ways we don't expect, and sometimes after our lifetime. But God would not command and welcome us to pray if he did not intend to do wonderful things with the requests we make of him. God wants us to trust him. Prayer is not a transaction; it's part of a relationship.

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Our Listening God

Does God answer prayer? We all want to know.

Maybe you’ve heard stories of miracles, and envy such experiences. Maybe you’ve been hoping for one, exhausted because nothing has happened.

When we open the Bible, what answers do we find to our question?

First, we find that the God we read about in the Bible is a listening God (Genesis 30:17; Judges 13:9; 1 Kings 8:28). He hears. He’s not deaf or disinterested in us, as we often think.

In fact, God is the only Listener in your life who has authority over every one of your concerns and circumstances.

When you pray, whether you recognize it or not, you’re exercising faith in a listening God. You’re also believing that the Great Listener can do something about your requests. God has also told us that he’s in charge, and able to answer your prayers (Psalm 103:19; Jeremiah 32:27).

We have confidence to pray because God has told us he’s listening. We have motivation to pray because God has told us he’s active.

God’s love doesn’t stop with hearing us. He wants to help—to answer, and he’s the only one who can address each situation in our lives with perfect wisdom.

The most basic observation we can make about prayer from the Bible is that God tells us to do it (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18). This truth actually helps us to answer our question. God commands us to pray because he wants to listen. God is good—why would he tell us to pray if he didn’t intend to answer us?

God’s mandate to pray, repeated all over the Bible, is his eager invitation for you to see him exercise his power and to know him through his recognizable intervention in your life.

God has revealed himself as a listener who loves to answer prayer.

You may wonder if this is an exclusive offer for only some people. Maybe you’re asking, but will God answer my prayers?

The answer to that question depends on your relationship with God. Is he your Father? Have you come to him through believing in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? This is the only way that he has prescribed we can come to him (Acts 4:12).

If you’re his child through faith in Jesus, then he delights to hear and help you (1 John 3:1).

However, if you’re not in a good relationship with God through Jesus, God says that his ears are closed to you (Proverbs 28:9), because our sinfulness makes it impossible for us to draw near to his perfect goodness without consequences.

But God’s Son willingly laid down his life so that we might approach him with confidence, despite our sinfulness—he didn’t want us to remain distant from him (Hebrews 10:19-22). The second you come to God through the way he has provided (faith in Jesus), he’s ready to receive you (John 6:37; Romans 10:13).

One of the perks of that relationship is the privilege of constant communication through prayer. Just think about how amazing this is! Surely we couldn’t approach God and set an expectation for him to listen to us as if we’re in charge (Psalm 8:4).

But in the Bible, we discover that God created us with the intention of communicating with us. Despite our rebellion against him, he has made a way to re-open that communication. For anyone who trusts in him, he delights to listen to them.

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14 ESV).

by Bibles.net

OPEN YOUR BIBLE

Theme Verse

What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

DEUTERONOMY 4:7 NIV

Why Do We Pray?
Article: 6 Min

Why We Pray:
Prayer Transforms Us

by Bibles.net
Messages: 47 Min

Pray First

by Stephen Kendrick

Quote

Perseverance in Prayer

It is very apparent from the Word of God that he often tries the faith and patience of his people, when they are crying to him for some great and important mercy, by withholding the mercy sought for a season; and not only so, but at first he may cause an increase of dark appearances. And yet he, without fail, at last prospers those who continue urgently in prayer with all perseverance and “will not let him go except he blesses."
by Jonathan Edwards
Image

The prayer of
a righteous
person 
is powerful and effective.

James 5:16 NIV
Quote

God goes public
with his power and goodness
when he answers prayer. 

Image

Until now
you have asked nothing
in my name.
Ask, and you will receive,
that your joy may be full.

John 16:24 ESV
Verse
James 5:17-18 ESV

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Does Prayer Work?
Messages: 39 Min

The God Who Answers Prayer

by H.B. Charles Jr.

Verse
Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Quote

The greatest tragedy
of life is not
unanswered prayer,

but unoffered prayer.

Image

If you believe,
you will receive
whatever
you ask for
in prayer.

Matthew 21:22 ESV
Verse
James 5:13-16 ESV

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Quote

The prayer of his
people is one of the
means God uses to
bring things to pass
in this world.

Article: 5 Min

Does Prayer Change God’s Mind?

by R.C. Sproul at Ligonier Ministries

How To Pray With Faith
Verse
Hebrews 11:6 NIV

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Messages: 40 Min

The Characteristics of God

by David Platt

Article: 8 Min

Seven Ways to Sabotage Your Prayer Life

by Greg Morse at Desiring God

Verse
Luke 18:1-8 ESV

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”

And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

READ MORE
Messages: 44 Min

Praying with Faith

by Nabeel Qureshi

Image

Then Jesus
came to them
and said,
“All authority in
heaven and on earth
has been given
to me."

Matthew 28:18 NIV
Verse
Mark 11:23-24 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Article: 10 Min

Five Marks of Effective Prayer

Three of the Gospel books in the Bible record the miracle of Jesus healing a leper. Mark 1:40, recording the leper's simple request, teaches us five things about effective prayer.

by H.B. Charles Jr. at his blog

Books
Books