What more could we hope for? What a comfort it is to have God’s promise that when we seek, we shall find. What a joy it is to know that our gracious God will listen to the prayers of His people, and He will answer those prayers.

Here is the beauty of true Christian prayer: because of Je­sus, we can pray with confidence. We can pray with assurance.

Don’t Pray with False Confi­dence⤒🔗

This amazing assurance must never be confused with a false assurance. Our assurance must not be that of the Pharisee, who thought he was so much better than the publican.

Our confidence must not be in ourselves. Our confidence must not be based on a false belief that God will certainly listen to us, because while everyone else is so rotten, we are not. The charismatics, the liberals, the struggling seeker, they’ve got nothing on us. Thankfully we are not like them.

It’s easy to be looking down on other people, even when we pray. But in fact, prayer should give us no opportunity to look down on oth­ers, because we should be spend­ing the whole time looking up to God.

Still, while we need to acknowl­edge this danger, we shouldn’t al­low the danger of this false confidence to take away from the fact that we can have true confidence.

Don’t Pray with No Confidence←⤒🔗

It would be easy, in trying to avoid false confidence, to go to the oppo­site extreme. We approach the whole matter of prayer, in effect, from a perspective of unbelief. We are so humble, we are so aware of how we don’t deserve to have our prayers heard. And so, assurance is too much to ask for.

Of course we don’t deserve to have our prayers heard. None of us do. But does that mean our prayers are not heard? Absolutely not!

Not only are the prayers of those who are self-confident false, but also false are the prayers of those who refuse to have confi­dence in the grace and mercy and love of God.

Wrong are the prayers of those who do not believe that when they ask, they will receive. Wrong are the prayers of those who do not expect anything to be opened when they knock.

When we pray, we do not ap­proach a God who says, “I may or I may not listen to your prayers.” That is not the faithful covenant God of Scripture.

Instead, the God to whom we pray is the God who has said to us in John 14:14 — “You may ask any­thing in my name, and I will do it.” You may ask anything in the name of Jesus Christ, and he will do it. That’s His promise.

Pray to the True God←⤒🔗

But now, hold on. Anything? Ask for anything and it will be given to us?

Of course, when we say this, we are making several important assumptions.

For one thing, we assume that we are praying to the right God. We cannot pray to some falsified image of God we have made up in our own minds.

This is how the world prays. In difficult times you’ll sometimes hear folks calling on people of faith to pray. But it doesn’t seem to matter to them who you pray to.

Maybe the expectation is that perhaps if everyone prays to differ­ent gods, somewhere out there might be someone who’s praying to the real God. More likely, the thinking is that it doesn’t matter what your religion is, they all lead to God. Or maybe it doesn’t even really matter whether there’s a God out there, because prayers will still have some positive ‘spiritual’ bene­fit.

That’s not what true asking, seeking and knocking is all about. If you’re not praying to the true God of the Bible, then don’t expect anything to be opened when you knock.

The Christian knows how we must pray to the God who has re­vealed Himself to be the creator of heaven and earth, the ruler and sustainer of all things. The be­liever knows that we must pray to the God who has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Without God’s Word, we would not have a clear idea as to who this God is. We would only have our own sinful thinking to lean on. Thus, we would invariably end up praying to false gods that we have set up in our own minds.

Pray the Right Prayer←⤒🔗

Another assumption: we need to be asking the right God for the right things. We need to be praying for that which He has com­manded us to pray for.

We can’t just ask for anything. Rather, the very requests we make must be in conformity with the will of God.

If we were to use the privilege of prayer for the purpose of, say, asking that we would get rich, then we have missed the boat. Does the Bible command us to ask for material wealth? No. It does command that we ask for our daily bread. Our physical con­cerns are a legitimate focus for our prayers. But there is a big difference between daily bread and abounding wealth.

Another example, does the Bible command that we pray for victory in sports? No. But it is certainly legitimate to pray that in all our endeavors, athletic or oth­erwise, that in everything we do, it may be clear who it is that we serve.

Pray with Humility←⤒🔗

Another assumption: we also need to pray with the right atti­tude. This needs to be further emphasized.

We need to confess our need and misery, hiding nothing. We need to humble ourselves in the majestic presence of our great King. This is so very important if we are to have our prayers heard and answered by God.

If we are to have this attitude of humility, then it stands to rea­son that we would first believe that we are in fact sinful.

If you don’t recognize this, then you can’t expect to ask and have anything given to you. You can’t expect to find anything when you seek.

Are Prayers Always An­swered?←⤒🔗

So, the Christian who prays to the one true God who has re­vealed Himself in Scripture, who prays for that which God com­mands him to pray, the Christian who prays recognizing his sin and misery, such a Christian can know that when he asks, he will receive.

How is this possible? Again, we need to go back to the one who told us that if we knock, it will be opened to us. We need to go back to Jesus Christ.

God will surely listen to our prayers because of Christ our Lord. Because of Jesus Christ our Savior, because his blood was shed to pay for our sins, be­cause of how He now reigns at the right hand of God, we can know the sure promise of God. We can put our trust in his promise: “you may ask anything in my name, and I will do it.”

But there is still a problem here, isn’t there? This doesn’t seem to fit in with our experiences. We may ask anything, and it will be given? Does this always happen?

There are times when events transpire that seem to be an obvious answer to prayer. A rebellious loved one changes his ways. A sick friend gets better. We rejoice when such prayers are answered.

And yet, it seems that there are also many times when our prayers are not answered.

For instance, there may be some particular sin in your life that you know is against God’s will. You pray that God may remove that sin from your life. You pray that He may give you the strength to fight that sin. And yet, so often, it seems you go on failing. Why? Isn’t God supposed to answer your prayers?

There are a couple of things we still need to keep in mind. For one thing, Matthew 7 talks about asking, seeking, and knocking. This implies a certain diligence in our prayers (see Luke 11:5-10). The idea here is that we are not talking about a one-shot deal, that you get every­thing you want as soon as you ask for it. God is not some drive-thru operator to whom we can make our requests, and then expect to be able to drive off with our order a few min­utes later. Prayer to God demands diligence. It demands persever­ance.

Plus, this idea of asking, seeking and knocking also implies that we do not just simply lift up our prayers and then leave it at that. Diligence demands that we strive hard after that which we seek. Praying can never be just a matter of putting in our request and sitting back, waiting for the results. It demands all of our efforts, while praying, but also after praying.

“Your Will Be Done”←⤒🔗

And yet, it may still appear to us that in spite of all our best efforts to pray diligently, to pray biblically, to strive after seeking, nevertheless it still may appear to us that our prayers are not being answered as we would hope. Does this mean that there is something wrong with us and our prayers? Or even worse, does this mean that God’s promises have failed us?

This is a very real struggle for the believer. And in no way should we belittle this struggle. Nor should we suggest that if only our faith were strong enough, then we would truly get what we ask for.

When it comes right down to it, we have to remind ourselves that we don’t always know what the will of God is for each and every one of our circumstances. We don’t al­ways understand the complexities of God’s will and how they will all apply in each and every situation we are faced with. So there are going to be times when, from our limited per­spective, our prayers are going un­answered.

But remember this: His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are deeper than our thoughts, and so sometimes we have to leave things in His hands.

And this gets back to the atti­tude we need to have when pray­ing. Our prayers must always be shaped by the perspective ex­pressed in the petition: “not my will be done, O Lord, but your will be done.”

That’s not trying to give God an easy way out, so that in effect we end up saying that He doesn’t really have to answer our prayers. Nor does this make light of the struggles we go through in all of this.

But remember this: you still have the promise that God will send his Spirit to be with you, even when you do not know what you ought to pray for. As Romans 8:26 says,

the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be ut­tered.

The Spirit prays on our behalf in such a powerful way, helping us in our weakness. With this sort of help, how could our prayers not be heard? How could our prayers not be answered? Oh, they may be answered in ways we aren’t even aware of, or in ways we might not expect, or even in ways we might not like. But nonetheless, they are answered.