Praying Answerable Prayers
Matthew 7:7-11 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
Praying and getting results from the prayers we pray was never meant to be a laborious, disappointing and futile adventure. Even though there are factors and conditions that govern how and when God answers prayer, it is not meant for us to be in the state of wonderment that we so often are.
If the scriptures are true, without exception, every prayer we pray should be answered somewhere and at some time, providing it is not prayed amiss. Prayer is God’s idea. God would never give us something to use that works so sporadically, is so mysterious, or is subject to a myriad of “if, ands, buts and peradventures.”
By design, it is through the means of this verbal expression heavenward that the will of God and the manner of Heaven be brought to the earth (Matthew 6:10). Praying is what Jesus commanded man to do so that God is invited into man’s sphere of dominion. Since an invitation is what God wants in the first place, and we are complying by extending one, our prayers should be answered one after the other. It is through prayer that Heaven and earth can agree (Matthew 18:18).
Whether it be to avert Him sentencing earth to pestilence to withholding rain to destroying entire cities or an intercession to convince God to change His mind from punishing a perverse people, God has always desired to hear from an influential believer (II Chronicles 7; Deuteronomy 9). In another place, the Lord prescribed that we could consult Him and actually command Him concerning the works of His hands (Isaiah 45:11). Indeed, God has provided that prayer would be a reliable tool to unlock the heavens.
Surely the text before us qualifies for one of what Peter referred to as the exceeding great and precious promises in 2 Peter 1:4. The promises of Matthew 7:7-8 are so extensive and almost so impossible sounding, that only God could make them and keep them - and He does. Unfortunately, God and His will have, over time, become so mysterious to us, and because we have “missed Him” a time or two, we think He eludes us. “Iffiness” has almost swallowed us, and prayer, for us, is far from being the means that men like Abraham and the prophets used to effectively command God’s attention. We have instead assumed the “maybe He will, maybe He won’t, but I’ll ask Him” posture because our sense of absoluteness has been greatly diminished.
We have become so accustomed to our fate of semi-answered and unanswered prayers that we have become proficient at inventing a plethora of spiritual-sounding excuses for God’s unresponsiveness in order to dull our pain. The truth is that, since the confidence that we are truly being heard has left us, so has the joy of praying, thus causing a breach. Prayers are not just prayed; they are made (Acts. 12:5). They must be presented at the right time and in the right manner or they become unanswerable (Mark 11:24).
To prepare our hearts for the possibility of not getting our prayers answered, we inject our spirits with an anesthesia of praying to God with reservation and vagueness. When we utter the famous overused “if it be Thy will,” we unconsciously offer Him the option of disappointing us. That way, if God then does not give us the preferred first option, we can pseudo-accept the second option. Either way things happen to turn out, we call it His will. God is neither amused nor complimented and the philosophy works against us in the end. He knew from the beginning that we did not believe Him for the first option.
Observe the fish vs. serpent, bread vs. stone analogy Jesus used in Matthew 7:9-10 in reference to earthly fathers and sons, and we learn something else about “fail clause” praying. It is simply this: if God does not want us to have a fish, then He must want us to have a serpent. And if we are uncertain that He wants us to have bread, then we surely are saying that He would prefer a stone for us. If we aren’t confident that the good thing we ask Him for is His will for us, we are in effect saying that our faith is inclined toward the opposites: stone instead of bread or serpents instead of fish, death instead of life, making us sicker rather than to make us whole. Such a manner of prayer assumes that God desires the worst for us.
Our God is not so sadistic as to enjoy us begging Him for anything. Nor is He inclined to give us the opposite of what we ask. That would be cruel, insensitive and condescending. Jesus alluded that not even an “evil” earthly father would do such a thing. He then followed those words by asking, “…how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? God is not an unfit parent.
Surely it pains Him to see us beg and to hear so many of our prayers injected with an overabundance of “if it is Your will(s).” We are His offspring, but we don’t seem to know Him well enough to know His will. For the most part, we should never ask God for anything on which we don’t already know His position. If we are not sure where God is on a matter, it is best that we find out - and then pray an answerable prayer.
Beloved, if we approach God with the least feeling of intimidation, guilt, reservation or unworthiness, we may well not get our prayers answered (James 1:7). Only confident prayers are consistently answerable. We have to take a position - as in one position.
Jesus said “…every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” “Why,” we secretly ask, “aren’t everyone’s prayers being answered, then?” The answer is simple. Everyone is not everyone in an arbitrary sense. Not everyone can ask what they will and receive it. All such promises are conditional (John 15:7). If God commands us not to give our best to just anyone (Matthew 7:6), why wouldn’t He be just as discriminating?
The exceeding precious promises of Matthew 7:7-8, noting specifically the suffix “Eth” which means “to continue,” are contingent on one thing: relationship. The entire context has to do with the most intimately related: earthly fathers, sons and relentless worshippers who are in hot pursuit of Jesus.
A knock on Jesus’ door should not merely be to request that He open a door to bless us, but that we have an opportunity to enter, be welcomed to the dinner table and on into the secret place (Revelation 3:20). How is Jesus to feel about someone who only knocks, seeks or asks for something to be handed OUT to them - end of story? Like a child who trick or treats, our voice and knock is strange. Only consistent fellowship keeps “sure” from becoming “maybe” (Psalm 91:1-3).
People who frequent the inner court of His abode never doubt that the door will be opened to them because He knows their knock. They knock at the door. They enter. And they sit at the table frequently. They know that He is not bothered by them. He responds to them and they seldom, if ever, pray prayers that are outside of His will.
With the exception of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, He didn’t pray “if it be thy will” prayers. He always prayed with intelligence and assurance, and He never even entertained the possibility of His prayers not getting answered. Even when Jesus prayed in that manner, He knew the will of the Father and that it could not fulfill all righteousness if the cup of suffering passed from Him. It is no wonder that every prayer Jesus prayed was heard (John 11:42).
I John 5:14-15 informs us that if God hears a prayer, He answers a prayer. If God can refuse to release good things to His dear children, He diminishes Himself to heartless human status. He loves us and will not withhold good things from us if we please Him (Ps 84:11). Nor does He hold back the good for Himself, because He doesn’t need one thing we pray to Him about.
From this day forward, go to God in confidence. Ask - don’t hint. Seek - don’t merely hope to be discovered. Knock - don’t tap. The only people who are afraid to knock on a door are people who question their relationship with the person on the other side of the door.
When we pray, we need to be very conscious that we have a God who absolutely delights in showing Himself strong on our behalf (2 Chronicles 16:9). And so anxious is He to answer our prayer that, according to Isaiah 65:24, He will answer our prayers before we pray them and seize our words almost as quickly as they drop from our lips. Believe God and His promises. They are yea and amen.
God is excited to hear and answer your answerable prayers. Even now He is saying, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jer. 33:3).
The great and mighty things that we know not should be the only mysteries attached to prayer.