The Three Answers to Prayer
There are different ways to pray. Sometimes, we close our eyes and make a quick request to the Lord. Other times, we get on our knees and have a long talk with our heavenly Father.
But regardless of how or when we pray, God hears our prayers. And the sovereign God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, always answers his children’s prayers. Every single time. There is no such thing as an “unanswered prayer.”
God has three basic answers for us, and they’re all good.
The first answer is, “Yes”
We bring our heartache, concern, hope, or desire to the Lord, and he blesses us with a positive answer. Sometimes this happens quickly. When it does, we often stand amazed. And we should be. To think that the Holy, Magnificent, and Wonderful God of all the universe would take mercy on one pitiful soul and give a blessing should fill us with a sense of incredible awe.
The second answer is, “No”
This is a hard one, of course. And there’s a reason it is difficult. As humans, we tend to bring prayers to the Lord with the “correct” answer already in mind. For example, if we pray for healing, our mindset may be that this is a good thing. Therefore, God will allow it. Also, we might expect the answer to come exactly as we requested.
However, look back on your life. Think about something you prayed for earnestly. Perhaps you even shed tears as you brought your petition to the Lord. And the answer came back, “No.”
You didn’t understand how that could be the answer. But looking back, you can see why the Lord didn’t answer the prayer in the way you thought it should be done. As one pastor said, “Sometimes ‘no’ is the best answer we can receive because God is omniscient, and he alone knows what is best for us.”
The third answer is “not yet”
This can be the most difficult, especially when we believe we seek God’s will for our lives. Perhaps we are trying to do something we think will point people to Jesus. Or maybe we are trying to share the Gospel with a loved one. We try, we pray, and God says, “Not yet.” That answer is hard to accept because it can cause us to give up on a good path. If we’re trying to point people to Jesus, God will honor it. But we may see a lot of dead trees before we see fruit growing.
To hear “not yet” can be a challenge. It could be God saying he needs more from you. Perhaps he’s putting you in a position that will allow you to thrive at a time down the road — when your efforts will be more fruitful. Or it’s possible your efforts won’t bear the best fruit until you’ve been called home.
Rest assured your prayers do not give information to God. He knows what you need before you pray it. Psalm 139:1-4 says,
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
And Jesus emphasized it in Matthew 6:8.
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
When we pray, we aren’t changing God. Instead, he uses our communication with him to change us.
And here is another beautiful thing about prayer. Consider Jesus’ words in John 14:14,
“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
Also, 1 John 5:14-15 tells us that if we ask anything according to his will, we have a positive answer.
“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.”
If we pray and God reveals the answer of “no,” we know that it is not within his will for it to happen. But if we pray and God reveals the answer of “yes,” we can rejoice twofold. We are blessed with the answer to the prayer, and we also know our prayer fits within God’s will for our lives. Praise Jesus!
Great truth