1. “Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find” (Luke 11:9).
If we ask, the Lord promised that it shall be given to us. Therefore, our prayers are answered, not because we cry until the Lord softens His heart and responds. Rather, He answers us because of His promise. His promise is the basis for our prayer.
2. “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do” (John 14:13).
The Lord’s promise concerning prayer is very broad. As long as we are abiding in the Lord and praying in His name, He will do whatever we ask.
3. “You will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jer. 29:12).
If we call upon God and pray to Him, He will listen to us. This is His word of promise. We should be full of faith, boldly call upon Him, and pray to Him because of His promise.
4. “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psa. 81:10).
This great promise speaks of God’s desire for us to pray. According to His promise, He will fill our mouth if we open it wide. This should cause us to pray to God in great measure with assurance.
All of these verses show that God promises to answer our prayers. Since He has given us such promises, it is easy for our prayers to be answered.
1. “To Him who is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us” (Eph. 3:20).
God answers our prayer by His power. God’s power is two-sided. One side is according to His life; the other side is according to His arm. The power of His life is within us, accomplishing our prayers concerning spiritual matters of life. The power of His arm is outside of us, accomplishing our prayers concerning environmental matters and things. His two-sided power is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think.
1. “Before they call, I will answer; / Even while they are speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).
Sometimes God answers us before we pray, and He hears us while we are praying.
2. “From the first day that you set your heart to understand this matter...your words were heard” (Dan. 10:12).
On the first day that Daniel prayed, his prayer was heard by God, but he did not know of God’s answer until twenty-one days later, because the angel coming with the answer met with resistance from Satan’s angel. This shows that sometimes God’s answer to our prayer can be delayed by Satan. Like Daniel, we should endure in prayer to overcome obstacles from Satan so that we may see God’s answer.
3. “He remained...for two days” (John 11:6, see also vv. 3, 21).
When Lazarus was sick, Martha and Mary, his sisters, sent some to tell the Lord. When the Lord heard about Lazarus, He remained for two days before He came. Consequently, the two sisters felt that the Lord had come too late, that He had done something wrong. However, the Lord waited for two days because He had His own plan. He wanted to wait until Lazarus had died and was buried so that He would have an opportunity to express His resurrection power. Therefore, the Lord’s answer to prayer, whether early or late, is always according to His plan.
4. “Will not God...carry out the avenging of His chosen ones, who cry to Him day and night, though He is long-suffering over them?” (Luke 18:7).
Sometimes God waits a long time before answering our prayer. While we are waiting, it seems as if He is ignoring our prayer, but eventually He gives us an answer. The time that He takes to answer our prayer is in His hands. If He thinks that it is better to be quick, He will answer quickly. If He thinks that it is better to be slow, He will answer slowly.
1. “What man is there among you who, when his son asks him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or also when he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?...How much more will your Father who is in the heavens give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matt. 7:9-11).
God’s wisdom means that He is never wrong when He answers our prayers. Sometimes we ask wrongly, but He still answers correctly. Sometimes we think a stone is bread and a serpent is a fish, and so we ask for them. But God still gives us bread and fish. He gives us the correct things, the good things. A brother who was going from a Western country to Africa to preach the gospel asked the Lord to give him a healthy body so that he could suffer in Africa. One day he fell and broke his leg. The break was so bad that it could not heal; eventually, he was given a wooden leg. He did not understand why the Lord allowed this to happen, but when he was in Africa, some natives saw him and wanted to eat him. When he could not escape their pursuit, he gave them his wooden leg to eat. When they tasted it, they let him go. Then he understood that God had answered his prayer by giving him a wooden leg that would save his life. Sometimes God’s answers to our prayer do not seem appropriate. We even think that He is wrong, but the subsequent facts prove that His answers are indeed appropriate and correct. Thank God, we may be wrong, but He is never wrong. We may ask wrongly, but He never gives the wrong thing.
2. “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup which I am about to drink?” (Matt. 20:22).
The mother of James and John asked the Lord for thrones for her sons. The Lord instead said that He would give them a cup of suffering. We often do not know what we are asking. But the Lord in His wisdom knows what we need, so He gives according to our need. We ask for patience, but He gives us suffering. He knows that sufferings bring in endurance. He does not answer our prayers according to our concept but according to His wisdom.