This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, A Praying Church.
If you could ask the Lord Jesus Christ for anything you wanted, what would you ask?
The disciples asked: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Listen to the Lord’s answer.
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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
The greatest problem you have in your life is not unanswered prayer; it is unoffered prayer. “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2b).
Not to pray is not only to miss a blessing; it is rebellious. Our Lord has commanded us to pray. (See Luke 18:1; Mark 14:38.)
There is no substitute for prayer—not enthusiasm, not eloquence, not energy. The reason why many of us are poverty-stricken in our spiritual lives is that we have never learned to pray.
Isn’t God good? Doesn’t God want to do good things? And doesn’t God know everything? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8b).
That begs the question: why should we ask?
We do not pray to impress God. Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).
We do not pray to inform God. There is nothing you can tell God that He does not already know.
We do not pray to instruct God. Prayer is not some way of bending God’s will to fit yours.
We pray to invite God—so that we can delight ourselves in the Lord. God gives us the privilege of participating in His kingdom work, through prayer.
God can work without our prayers, but we cannot work without God. Prayer causes us to depend upon Him. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7).
The devil cannot keep God from answering. So, he will endeavor to keep you from asking. He will distract or discourage you to stunt your prayer life.
If you have a desire in your heart:
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
The Bible never divides life between the sacred and the secular. With God, every task is a holy task, every day is a holy day. “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
What kind of prayer, what kind of desire, pleases God? A good test as to whether you should desire it is, can you ask God to do it through you? Whatever you desire, tell God.
“What if I want the wrong thing?” Tell Him. Lord, I want the wrong thing. Fix my want-er. You cannot hide it from God—so pray about everything. The responsibility for asking is ours. The responsibility for giving is God’s.
Sometimes we ask God for things that are not His will. Why did Jesus say, “Seek”?
God’s ways are unknown to us. Sometimes we are asking for one thing, and we need to be seeking another thing, so we keep asking and seeking until God directs or redirects our prayer to His will.
Have you ever thanked God for unanswered prayer?
Sometimes the answers to prayer are direct. But sometimes the answers are different.
The Apostle Paul had a spiritual thorn in the flesh. “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9a).
God said, “No. I have something better for you.”
Sometimes we are asking in the will of God. We are asking with specificity for what God wants to give us—but we give up too easily.
In the original Greek language, the word for “knock” in Matthew 7:7 means, “knock and keep on knocking.” Sometimes God’s answers are delayed. We have sought God, but the door is closed. Why would God tell us to keep knocking?
And [Jesus] said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Word in brackets added)
Jesus is not talking here about a light rattle on the doorknob. He is saying that if an unconcerned neighbor will do what is asked because he is pestered, how much more will God hear us if we continue to ask!
In Matthew 15 there is a story. “And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed’” (Matthew 15:22).
Do you know what Jesus said to her? “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel….It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Matthew 15:24,26).
You might think, “Some caring Messiah!”
Do you know what that woman did? “She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table’” (Matthew 15:27). Lord, you described me perfectly. But I am a dog under Your table, and I’m going to stay there until I get a crumb from You.
Jesus was not being cruel to that woman; He was teaching her to persist.
Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
If God does not answer your prayer, keep on praying.
That brings up a question.
Knock until you have the answer in your hand, or in your heart, or until God says, “No.”
Why does God say, “No”? Because He does not love us? No—because He does love us. Three of God’s greatest prophets in the Bible asked God to kill them. God said, “No.” I am not going to do that. That is not what you need.
You ask. You seek. You knock. The answer may be direct, or different, or delayed. But God answers prayer.
Matthew 6:7-8, 7:7-8, 11:24, 15:22-28; James 4:2; Luke 11:5-9, 18:1; Mark 14:38; John 15:7; Psalm 37:4; 2 Corinthians 12:8-9
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
