Top Bible Questions: How can I get my prayers answered?

This question is preloaded with lots of assumptions about God and prayer. Let’s start with a simple fact: If one is a believer in Christ Jesus, God hears your prayer and he does answer. He might answer with a yes, no, or not yet. We may not like the answer we get, but it is an answer, nonetheless. 

In James, there were followers that were not getting their prayers answered and James addresses this problem, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” They weren’t always asking God for things but when they were they were always answered with no. And why? James tells them they asked with wrong motives, they weren’t asking from a place of heart, they were asking from a place of selfish ambition. If we are asking for things from a selfish standpoint, chances are God will not grant us our desires. 

So how are we to ask God for things? 1 John 5:14 tells us, “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 ask God for things according to his will, he hears us and answers with a yes. Now what’s the condition? We are asking if it is in God’s will, then we shall receive what we ask for. Meaning that when we ask God for something, we are not selfishly motivated but motivated by God’s will. We still might get a ‘no’ answer but all that means is it wasn’t God’s will and it is better that way anyway. We should also have confidence when we pray. Not a boastful attitude that we deserve what we’re asking for but a confidence that God hears us and that is capable of providing what we need. 

Praying for things is something we need to be doing all the time. Praying for things in God’s will is something we need to add to our lists that we give God not just to get answers but so our heart is right when we pray.