God has three answers to prayers: "Yes," "Not Yet," and "I Have Something Better In Mind." When we ask for something, we are asking the wisest being that ever existed to answer our prayers. He knows what is best for us. He knows what we need and want. Sometimes, He is ready to bless us and is just waiting for us to pray for it. Other times, He is preparing you or what you are asking for, so He will not give us when we need or want before we are ready for it. The rest of the time, God is wiser than us and knows that we do not need what we ask for, or that He already has something better in store because His plan is perfect. Prayer is a powerful tool, but we must be prepared for more answers than just "yes."
When we pray, God sometimes says yes. He knows what we need and want and He loves us deeply. Luke 11:13 says, "if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" Our Father in Heaven loves us deeply and wants to pour out more blessings than a life time could handle. Romans 10:12 says, "for there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him." He will not hold back from some do to their race or background. Once you are a child of God, He will begin to pour blessing after blessing on us. 1 John 5:14-15 says, "this is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him." When we come to God, asking in prayer for something of His will, pray knowing that it will be done in His timing. When you pray, be bold! Not disrespectful as if God was some kind of genie; but knowing that we you pray in unity to His word, He will grant it without hesitation. God wants us to pray and He wants to answer our prayers!
Sometimes, God says, "not yet." There are many reasons why that can be broken down into three reasons: 1) we are not ready to handle what we are asking for yet, 2) He is still preparing it or us, or 3) we have not met the conditions of prayer. Yes, there are conditions of prayer. What are these conditions? Well, the first condition is coming to God in faith. We cannot come to God in prayer without faith. We cannot ask Him if we do not expect Him to be there listening. James 1:5-7 says, "if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord." Until we come in faith, we will receive nothing. Not only that, but our faith must be bold (Hebrews 4:16). The second requirement is that we must come in the name of Jesus. We cannot come in our own name because we will ask for worldly, flesh things. We must come in the name of Jesus, because then we are in line with the word and when we ask will be able to be answered. In John 14:13, Jesus says, "and I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorifies by the Son." We must come as redeemed children of God through the blood of Christ, not in our own powers or strengths. We do not have what it takes to be heard. Only Jesus does. The last requirement is that we cannot expect our prayers to be answered if we have not confessed our sins in our hearts. If we come before God with unconfessed sins in our hearts, just as Psalms 66:18 says, "if i regard inequity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." Over in Isaiah 59:2, it says, "but your inequities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear you." We must confess our sins so that we may be truly Heard by God. This is broken down into so much more. We cannot expect God to answer our prayers if we are not living for the Lord ( John 3:22, Proverbs 28:9) or if we are not doing His will (John 9:31). We cannot expect God to answer our prayers if we are not at peace with those that we are praying with (Matthew 18:19). Last, but not least, we must persist in our prayers (Luke 11:5-9) Continuing to ask shows God how important the prayer is to you. All of these requirements are just a longer way of saying "praying in the Spirit." When you pray allowing the Spirit to move you, He does all of this for you. It seems like a long lift, but all it is saying is "confess your sins to God, be in line with the word, and pray to Him like you know He will do it."
Sometimes, God even says "No." But, remember, His plan is perfect and He is wiser than us. When He says "No," it is because He has something greater in store for us. But wait, doesn't God say that if we humble ourselves and pray in the Spirit, we will have our prayers answered? Why would God say no? Well, to be honest, we are not nearly as smart as we think that we are. We cannot see clearly. We only see the past and our present. We do not know what is going on around us the way God does. We could be asking for a wife to be made from our current girl friend when God is preparing a bride for you across the country; but all we see is a relationship going bad that we do not want to leave out of fear of being alone. We may ask God for a car to help us get to and from church, but God may be having us commute to meet someone who will change your life forever, or you may change their life and even save their soul; but all we see is getting up at six in the morning to catch a ride all around town. We may be praying a friend into salvation but we only see their life of sin getting worse and we wonder where God is; but God sees the hearts and He knows when someone is ready for salvation and what they need to get there. To us, it may look like the person is getting worse with God; but for all we know, they could be getting closer to an experience that sends them running into God's arms for good. We do not know the future or anything outside of ourselves. We do not know God's plan so we must be patient and accept His answer. Yes, be promises to answer our prayers, but "no" is also an answer. We must be prepared to hear that answer as well and trust God to do His work because His plan is so much greater than ours.
None of this means to stop praying, God asks us to pray. We must know that there are more answers than "yes" and "yes, here is some more." There are also "no's" and "not now's" but we have to be willing to submit to God's will and let Him do whatever He desires to do because He knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows everything. He does not need to run His plan past us to get our approval. We must be willing to walk in the Spirit, knowing that God is in control, even when our eyes show chaos and struggle. Know that God is sovereign and has the perfect plan. His plan will always be better than ours.
-D
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