HOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS
1. Yes
A. God may say yes to our prayer requests just as we thought He would.
1. Ps 18:6
2. Ps 118:5
3. Ps 138
B. He will be more likely to answer our prayers when we are putting Him first in our lives.
1. Matt 6:33
C. Conditions for God to say Yes
2. Yes, but not yet.
A. In His time
2. Luke 18:7
B. When we do ask God for something and His answer appears to be “yes, but wait”……
1. We need to have patience
A. Heb 6:10-12
2. We must continue to ask, continue to knock, and continue to seek
3. Yes, but not as you think
A. Sometimes He answers our prayers in a different way than we expected.
1. Is 55:8, 9
2. For example
A. We might ask for strength and steadfastness…
1. And He might give us trials and tribulations to bear.
2. Which in turn develops the qualities we prayed for
B. We could do this for each quality we may pray for
1. Faith, brotherly kindness, love and the answer to our prayer might be difficult situations that grow these qualities.
B. Do not think that we can limit God’s options.
1. If we pray and are looking for a certain answer, we are not handcuffing God.
A. Eph 3:20, 21
2. We do not even always know how to pray, so how can we expect to always know how God will answer
A. Rom 8:26
3. If we limit the how and why, we might limit the result.
A. For example, when praying for the sick, if we ask that God be with the doctors, aren’t we limiting God to just that method through our prayer?
B. We should just pray for God to heal the sick, and leave the how and why to Him.
4. No
A. There are times where God denies our requests.
1. James 4:3
2. Heb 12:5-11
B. What we can do when God says “no.”
1. We must trust in God anyways
A. Hab 3:17-19
2. Just because God says no, that does not mean He has abandoned us
A. 1 Cor 12:13
B. 2 Cor 12:7-9
C. Sometimes God will say no as any good parent will have to do, and have to do frequently.
From: http://www.granbychurchofchrist.org/Sermons/pages/2014/how-god-answers-prayer.htm