Friday Night Message: Prayer - Part XX

Feb. 2, 2024

Good evening brethren,

During the past few months we have addressed numerous questions regarding prayer:
WHAT IS PRAYER?
WHO SHOULD PRAY?
WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?
HOW SHOULD WE PRAY?
WHAT SHOULD WE PRAY ABOUT?
HOW DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER?

Tonight, we continue to consider HOW DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER? and thus finally
finish all of the aspects of prayer that we have considered in this series of Friday Night
Messages.

DOES GOD ALWAYS ANSWER OUR PRAYERS?

Tonight, we will again consider the ways that God may answer our prayers. For two weeks
we mentioned some obstacles that may hinder the effectiveness of our prayers…

• Obstacles to having prayers answered.

There are a number of things that may “get in the way” of having a more effective and
meaningful prayer life, in other words… obstacles to your prayers being answered. Here
we review/list four such hinderance’s, and then we will finalize this series on prayer by
mentioning how God may answer.

► Sin
► Asking for the wrong things
► Lack of faith
► Pride

So if we have removed all the barriers, that is if we are not continually or habitually
sinning, if we have genuine faith, if we are not asking for the wrong things, if we are humbly
approaching God … then, will God not answer all of our prayers?

Quite simply – YES, God always does answer our prayers. However, when many of us hear
the question “Does God always answer prayer?”, in our minds we are often really asking a
different question altogether – “Does God always answer our prayers with the answer
that we want or expect?”

God does answer our prayers, but He doesn’t always respond with a quick and automatic
YES to our every petition. He answers us according to His will and what He knows to be
best for us in the long run.

► How can God answer prayer?

YES

NO

Last Friday we mentioned YES and NO as possible answers to our prayers to God. Tonight
we will consider a few more ways that God can answer prayer, other than a simple YES or
NO.

MAYBE

Here is another possibility. Even though He has all wisdom and knowledge (that is all the
knowledge that can be had up to this point in time), God may not Himself immediately determine how our prayer would be best answered. He may want to think about it for a while before making a final decision. I believe that God is still learning more and more each day about how to most effectively deal with men
and women.

WAIT

God also may think that the prayer should be answered with a YES, but only after a certain
period of time has passed. It may be better for us to receive a YES to our request later
rather than immediately. Another possible response that is closely related to wait is …

IT DEPENDS

God probably answers quite a few prayers with “It all depends.”. This is perhaps the main
reason God frequently answers WAIT. Prayer by itself is often insufficient to resolve
problems or adequately address situations. In certain circumstances, there is something
that we need to do as well, in addition to prayer.
A phrase that I think is sometimes over-used in God’s church is this …. “Well, I’m just leaving
it in God’s hands”. The problems is that it is too often said in a manner that evades the
responsibility that we have in the situation.
We can often affect the results as much as God can, and we need to do our part if we ever
expect God to do that which we can’t accomplish on our own. God can bless our efforts, but
there has to be something there in the first place to bless.
There is an old Russian proverb – “Pray to God, but row for the shore.” So it may be that
frequently the answer to prayer is “It depends … it depends on YOU.”.

CONCLUSION

Dear Brethren… I really hope that this series of messages has truly been helpful. The subject of prayer is multi-faceted, and this series included 20 messages. So there is a lot of issues to ponder. Again, please remember .. there is no quick and easy, “one size fits all” or fool-proof formula to effective prayer. Each of us must work hard at finding out what works best for us, and then work hard to continually improve our prayers.

Prayer is our vital communications link to God Almighty. If we expect to know His will, if we expect Him to know our feelings, if we want Him to supply our needs, if we want Him to really be a vital part of our life – if we really want a strong and close and loving relationship with that great Being above, then we are going to have to pray, and pray effectively!

Beginning today, do your very best at revitalizing your prayer life. Think about all we considered, and try to incorporate some of it into your own prayer life.

Don’t be overly anxious about the formalities of prayer. Focus upon having the right attitude in prayer – realize the tremendous gift and privilege that it is, and come to appreciate the phenomenal value and power that prayer can have in your life, in the lives of others, and in furthering the will of God forever.

Brethren, we need to be like KingDavid … a man who was “given to prayer”. We need to be
men, and women, and children… given to prayer.

Have a wonderful Sabbath,
Fred