Hello Friend, our warmest greetings to you. May the fullness of God’s grace abound towards you today, and may you daily increase in favor with Him and with all people.
God Is Committed To Answering Prayers
We rejoice that more and more people are recognizing that serious prayers are extremely important to their living effective and successful lives. The expectation of every praying person is that God answers them. Truly, God has committed Himself to answering our prayers (John. 14:14, Matthew. 7:7). But, He does set basic conditions that determine whether He will answer or not. In this issue, let us re-examine those basic principles that facilitate effective prayers, and draw answers from God.
Key #1. Be Forgiven & Be Forgiving:
The scripture declares: “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous”, Proverbs. 15:29. Also, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). What these mean is that God does not hear the prayer of a sinner (the wicked) because his sins separate him from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). All humans are sinners until God forgives and saves them. But God will not save any person until and unless that person believes in Jesus Christ, the only One who paid for the sins of all people with His own life. After the forgiveness and salvation, God may then answer his or her prayers. Likewise, we ourselves must forgive others who wrong us. If we don’t, God will not forgive us and will not answer our prayers either. (Mark. 11:25-26)
Key #2. Abide In God, And Let His Words Abide In You:
Jesus says: “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Here, God promises to give us whatever we ask of Him, if we abide in Him and let His words abide in us. To abide in God means to become so loyal or so obedient to Him that we virtually live in Him. For the words of God to abide in us means that we absorb the words of God deeply into us to the extent that the words live in our heart and guide us in everything that we do in life. Put another way, Jesus is saying that, we should be bonded to Him through loyalty and obedience, and to let His words be deeply established in us. If we do so, then whatever we ask of Him, He will give to us.
Key #3. Do God’s Will And Bear Tangible Fruit:
This is one condition that most people fail woefully to fulfill, and the one that brings the most serious trials to Christians. The primary will of God is that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance and be saved (2 Peter 3:9). God is saying this to every Christian: “Go and teach my words to my lost children in the world so that they may return to Me. I have given to each of you a specific responsibility in this mission and a measure of faith to enable you carry out that responsibility. If you are successful in this mission, then My Father will answer all your prayers. Do you know what responsibility God has given to you? Are you now doing it? How much of it have you achieved compared to the measure of faith given you? If your answers indicate that you are not doing well, you “need to do something about this so that it does not hinder God from answering your prayers.
Key #4. Pray With Active Faith:
Jesus declares: “Have faith in God…. I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:22-24). We learned earlier that once we have decided to seek God on a particular matter, we must know that HE IS and that He will unfailingly reward us if we diligently seek Him. Based on this assurance, we should therefore believe absolutely that we are receiving what we
are asking for while still in prayers. If we do so, Jesus says that we will get what we asked for.
Key #5. Seek God With All Your Heart:
Again Jesus declares: “…You will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Also, “….he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarding of those who diligently seek Him”, (Hebrew 11:6). When you pray, you are seeking God concerning the purpose of your prayer. The phrase ‘diligently seek Him’ has a similar meaning to `search for Me with all your heart.’ Therefore, these two scriptures are saying the same thing. They are saying this: “If you truly believe in the Living God who is more than able to supply all your needs, then patiently and persistently pray to Him from the depths of your heart, and He will surely reward you. Examples on this are found in Matthew 15:22-28, Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 8:43-48.
Key #6. Know & Seek The Holy Spirit:
In all aspects of Christianity, the Holy Spirit is our Helper and Teacher. Through fellowship, we interact with Him and learn how to yield to Him so that He may lead and teach us. In the area of prayers, we cannot get any of our prayers answered without His help. For the scriptures declare: “Likewise 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 groaning which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
We have a very limited understanding of God and His ways. As such, we rarely know what we should be praying for and how we should pray to ensure God’s answer. The Holy Spirit knows how, and He helps us by kindling our heart to say the right prayers according to God’s will, and also intercede for us on His own in His own language. The Holy Spirit also imparts fervency unto our prayers to make them effective (James 5:16) so that it can draw answers from God.