Does the Lord answer all prayers?

Grace and peace from our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you!

Welcome to the column of our «Daily word for spiritual strength».

Today´s topic is “does the Lord answer all prayers”?

«If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.» (John 15:7).

There is a God´s promise in this scripture: «whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.» Which one of you had prayed for something but it was not given to you? I guess many of you had, so where is the problem? We often read in the Bible that people prayed and received the answer to their prayers. God Himself told us to pray, and He promised to answer our prayers.

«Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.» (Jeremiah 33:3).

These two verses from Scripture provide us with two conditions to meet in order to have your prayer answered.

Condition nr.1 — if you remain in the Lord. What does it mean to remain in Him? Unless we understand this, no answer to our prayers is guaranteed. To remain in Him means staying in His will whatever it costs. You do not remain in Him if you do not remain in God´s will. I do not do my will while remaining in Him and His will leads me. Jesus proved it with His life on Earth when prayed on the Mount of Olives saying,

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42).

Denying His own will and choosing Father´s will He Jesus remained in Him.

Condition nr.2 — if the God´s word remains in us. And what does this mean in turn? It means, we are filled with and led by the Word of God. When the word of God remains in you, your life and your actions are based on this word. Once a person remains in Christ and God´s word remains in him – such person will always pray according to the God´s will and only ask for the things mentioned in the Bible. His or her prayer will neither be selfish nor proud. Such person is not looking for his own benefits but seeking things that would glorify God instead. Does God reply to all prayers? If we meet those two conditions above, the answer is “Yes”. Only prayers expressed according to His will and by the right person will be answered.

There are two reasons why sometimes there is no answer to our prayers. 1) We pray the wrong way. This kind of prayer is oriented on your own pleasures.

«You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.» (James 4:3).

2) Prayer is said by the wrong person. Wrong person is a person without close relationships with God, person seeking his own pleasure. God answers all prayers when we remain in Him, fill ourselves with His word and let the Word lead us in our life. Tomorrow we are going to discuss how God answers our prayers.

Be blessed in the name of God!

We´ll meet tomorrow!

Rufus Adjiboye, pastor