God Answers Prayers
“But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”— Psalm 66:19, ESV
In Matthew 6, we see the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus gives them a model for prayer, and then in Matthew 7 He offers assurance that God hears and responds to prayer:
“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. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
— Matthew 7:7–11
Over the years, I have learned that God rarely answers prayer in the way we expect. Let me share an example.
God put it in my spirit to go to the shopping mall and pray. When He first told me this, I was skeptical, but I obeyed—and now we have a prayer booth set up at the mall. After several months, however, very few people came to request prayer. I became discouraged and asked God, “Why do You have me here praying when hardly anyone is coming?”
I didn’t hear an immediate answer, so I assumed God hadn’t responded. But then things started happening that I didn’t understand. On two separate occasions, the mall administration assigned me to a different location than usual. Each time, the vendor who normally occupied that spot—first Jehovah’s Witnesses and then Muslims—approached me and said I was sitting at their table. I apologized and explained that mall administration had placed me there. Sure enough, security would arrive, check my paperwork, and apologize for the mistake before moving me again.
After the last move, when I was finally seated back at my original location, I asked God, “Why does this keep happening?” He answered: “You see, there is false religion set up all over this mall, but My church is not here. I need you here because people need to see My church and know that I am here.”
In that moment, God helped me understand that it wasn’t about me—or even about how many people came for prayer. My job was simply to be present for Him. When I asked God why so few people were coming, I expected Him to answer in my spirit or send more people. Instead, He answered in a way I never expected.
Many times, when we ask God for something, it may seem like He hasn’t answered. But often the problem is that we’re looking for the answer in the wrong place. Scripture says, “Ask, and it will be given to you.” God is not a man that He should lie. If He said it, He will do it. Sometimes our perspective simply needs to change.
If you’ve asked God for something and feel He hasn’t answered, go back and ask again—and ask Him to open your spiritual eyes so you can see the answer revealed. Because Scripture assures us: God listens, and He attends to the voice of our prayers.
Key Takeaways
God is not a man that He should lie; what He says, He will do.
We must ask God to open our eyes so we can see the answers to our prayers from His perspective.
God hears every prayer of the righteous, and He answers.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19; Isaiah 55:11
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