Does God promise to give us anything we ask of him? It sure sounds like it. Some verses make it sound like all we need is enough faith when we ask. Even Jesus said it:
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21:22)
Wouldn’t that be amazing?
We looked previously in Luke 11, and in that chapter, right after Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer and tells us the story of the sleepy neighbor, he says this:
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)
Keep on asking God, keep on seeking, keep on knocking at the door, like the man knocking on the door of his sleepy neighbor, and you’ll get what you want. Jesus must be saying here that if we’ll just be persistent, he’ll eventually give in to us, right?
When we read verses like this, we must also remember a very important part of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, when he said, “your will be done” (Matthew 6:10).
That changes things dramatically.
The Apostle John, who heard everything Jesus taught about prayer, wrote these words:
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14:15)
“According to his will.” Our faith that God will answer our prayers is tied directly to our requests being made in God’s will. How he answers will always be according to his will, his plan. God knows exactly what we need, even when we don’t. He knows exactly what we should ask for, even if we ask for something different.
This is why I have a problem with people who teach us to “name it and claim it.” If we ask for something in faith and claim it, they say, God will provide it. To those that teach such things, I’d like to respond with a highly theological term, “Bull turkey.”
If there was anyone in the New Testament who had faith, it was Paul. He trusted God and obeyed God at great personal cost. His obedience eventually cost him his life. Paul wrote about a problem he had, he called it a “thorn,” and he pleaded with God to remove this problem. But God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s answer to Paul was “no.”
Sometimes you pray with all the faith you have, and you pray over and over again, and God doesn’t respond the way you want. God loves us so much that he sometimes says “no” or “not yet.”
Let’s go back to what Jesus said in Luke 11:
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13)
If a child asks his dad for a fish to eat, what dad would instead throw his son a live rattlesnake? If a good father would give his son what he needs, how much more will our Heavenly Father give us what we need?
But sometimes, we ask for the snake! We’re asking for something that isn’t best for us, and we don’t even know it. It seems right to us, it’s what we want, it’s what we think we need. We plead with God for healing or provision or protection, and when none of these things happen our worlds fall apart. But our Father knows we don’t need the snake, we need the fish.
That’s why we must always pray, “your will be done.”
The Westminster Shorter Catechism has this definition of prayer: “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will.” That puts the focus of prayer squarely on God and his will, not on our requests.
I’ve learned that sometimes I need more faith in God’s ability. I’ve learned that I need to pray and pray and never give up. But I’ve also learned to say, “God, these are the things I’m asking for. You know I want them. You know what’s in my heart, so you already know my desires. But, Father, I want you to know that I surrender completely to your will. I want these things, but more than anything in the world I want your will to be done. But Father, there will be times when it’s going to be impossible for me in my strength to accept your will. So please, when those times come, help me surrender to you.”
As you live close to Christ, as you read your Bible, as you talk to him in prayer, as you worship and serve him, you come to know and love him more and more. And the more you know God, the more you trust his will. And whatever answer he gives, that is the answer you want.
“The important thing for us to know,” Charles Allen wrote, “is that God’s will is always the best way for us. If we can believe that, our prayers will always be answered.”