Daniel 9:20-23 Prayers God Answers

Intro

What kind of prayers does God answer?

Or let me ask it another way: How should we pray?

That is a crucial question because Prayer is absolutely fundamental to following Jesus and the Christian life.

It is one of the fundamental spiritual disciplines that strengthens our faith and our grows our walk with Christ.

If you had to narrow it down to a top three list, the most important spiritual disciplines for a Christian would be:

Gathering with the Saints; that’s going to church.

Studying the Word; man shall not live by bread alone (Mt. 4:4).

And…Prayer.

So how do you pray? And not only that. How do you pray strong prayers? How do you have a strong prayer life?

How do you pray prayers God will always answer?

That’s the question we are going to be answering today from Daniel 9:20-23.

And we need to answer it.

Not only do we all want a stronger prayer life.

But prayer is essential for the times we find ourselves living in today.

In the book of Daniel we’ve been talking about the idea of Living in Babylon.

Of staying faithful to God in a pagan land.

And if we want to stay faithful in our own day, in our own Babylon...

And if we want to see the gospel flood out from the church and overtake the world in a new, fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival...

We need prayer.

And specifically, we need the kind of prayer God answers. So what is that?

We have three points today.

First: God Answers Spiritual Prayers

Second: God Answers Persistent Prayers

And Third: God Answers His Children’s Prayers.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. God Answers Spiritual Prayers

Daniel 9:20-23 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, “O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.”

To remind you of the context, Daniel has been spending all of chapter 9, praying to God and confessing the sins of Israel.

They have been ripped out of the Promised Land and taken into exile because they broke the Covenant and disobeyed God’s Law.

And his whole prayer has been resting on God’s grace and mercy.

To you O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame (Daniel 9:7).

Verse 18: We do not present our please before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not (Daniel 9:18-19).

Forgive our sins and Bring us back into the Promise Land. Rebuild the city and the Temple so that we can worship you and live in the blessings of your Kingdom.

And look how God answers.

While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God…while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel…came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.

Evening Sacrifice

As a note the evening sacrifice was probably around 3 or 4pm.

But here’s why this is a significant detail.

When Daniel’s praying this, the Temple’s been destroyed. The whole city of Jerusalem was laid waste about 50 (47; 486-539BC) years earlier, and yet, Daniel is still organizing his life, down to how he counts the minutes of the day, around the worship of God.

He lives to worship God and all of His glory every minute of every day.

The question is: Do we? Do we worship God with all that we are and all that we have with every moment?

Is our life a life of worship? That’s a question worth asking.

God’s Answer

But here’s what I really want you to see.

Daniel emphasizes two times that while he was still speaking, still praying, still confessing Israel’s sins to God, God answered him.

No sooner had the words come out of his mouth that the angel Gabriel was tapping him on the shoulder ready to answer his prayer.

And look what Gabriel says: O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out.

And from that word, Gabriel came to Daniel in swift flight. He got there as fast as he possibly could.

Like God says in Isaiah 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

Look how fast God answered Daniel.

And look how fast especially when you consider how Israel was under judgment and their sins were beyond excessive, and yet, Daniel prayed and God heard him.

What made God answer Daniels prayer so swiftly?

Well the passage tells us and we will get into it a little bit later. Gabriel says, I have come to tell it to you, I have come to tell you the word that went out right when you began praying, for you are greatly loved.

But there’s more. God answered Daniel’s prayer because Daniel was praying according to God’s Word.

Look up at verse 2.

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years (Daniel 9:2).

Reading from the prophet Jeremiah Daniel saw that the seventy years of exile were about to come to an end.

So what does he do? Verse 3.

Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes (Daniel 9:3).

He prays that God would make it happen. Daniel prays according to God’s own Word.

This sets for us a very important pattern for the kinds of prayers God answers.

We, like Daniel, should pray according to God’s Word.

Now am I saying you shouldn’t be praying for a new house, a new job, or for grandma?

Of course not. Its not bad to pray for those things.

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

But we need to balance that with....

James 4:2-3 You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

There is a spiritual way to pray and a carnal way to pray.

A carnal way to prays for our will. Things we want.

Carnal prayers come to God like a vending machine and our prayers are the dollar bills.

Spiritual prayers pray according to God’s Word.

They have a spiritual focus. A spiritual bent.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t ever pray for physical things.

We are going to see just a little bit later, Jesus tells us to.

But Spiritual prayers pray for God’s will and God’s glory in everything. That’s the difference.

They aren’t so much concerned with our passions or desires.

Their aim is for the glory of God and for God’s will to work itself out in our lives according to His Word.

House Example

Let me give you an example.

Take buying a new house.

The housing market’s crazy right now. If you are trying to buy a home or buy land its absolutely nuts.

Is it bad to pray for God to help you find a house and to help you find a good deal on a house?

No. Not at all!

But don’t stop there. Pray for that house according to God’s Word.

God give us wisdom in purchasing a home. Our money is yours. Help us to spend only what you have set out for us and to not go beyond our means.

Help us to find a home we can be hospitable in. That we can share our lives and the good news of the gospel with other people.

And until then, help us be faithful now in the home we have, and to be content in what you have given in your will and providence.

Help us say with the Psalmist the Lord has given me a good portion.

Do you see the difference?

And we don’t pray like this to try to trick God to giving us what we want.

As if praying for spiritual things forces God’s hand.

Its not a cover where we can still pray for our passions and desires while sounding really pious doing so.

We pray spiritual prayers too conform our lives to God and His will.

To align our passions and desires with God and His glory.

Here’s really the question.

Do we just pray for carnal things? Natural things?

Or do our prayers ever reach higher and pray the things of God?

So for the Christian, if we want to pray prayers that God will answer, in everything we pray for, we need to...

Pray God’s word.

That’s how we know we are always praying for God’s will and for God’s glory.

That’s how we know He will always answer us.

Well how do we do that? There’s really two ways.

One: Spiritual Prayers Pray the Word Generally.

And Two: Spiritual Prayers Pray the Word Specifically by praying the Lord’s Prayer.

Praying the Word Generally

You might call praying the Word generally just praying the Bible.

If prayer is speaking to God and God has spoken to us in His Word, then it would make sense that we should pray to God in the same language.

After all. We are Reformed. Sola Scriptura.

Scripture Alone is our highest authority and absolute standard for all things in life and godliness.

And that has to mean something even in our prayer life.

So yes, we should pray for a new house, new job, and grandma. We should pray for all the things that concern us.

But we should also pray for things that God’s Word says should concern us.

Things like:

Holiness. Faith. Strength and perseverance.

Hatred of sin. A deeper knowledge of Christ and the truth.

The work of the gospel in our lives and in the world.

We should pray for our church. For it to be pure and doctrinally sound. For it to be a place where the love of God is manifested in our life together.

Whenever you read the Bible or listen to a sermon, or however you feed on the Word, don’t just passively listen, actively pray what the Word says.

Take a passage, any passage, and pray God make your Word a reality in my life.

When you read about Nadab and Abihu, the two son’s of Aaron who were burned alive by God because they offered strange fire to the Lord, pray that you would honor God’s holiness (Leviticus 10:1-3).

That God would help you worship Him rightly and according to His Word. Pray that for our church.

Luther advised people to pray the 10 Commandments. (Sproul, 5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, 56–57.

To praise God for the goodness of His holiness and the righteousness of His commands and confess all the ways we’ve fallen short and broken them.

If you regularly confess the 10 Commandments, there is not one sin that will be left unturned in your life.

Or let me give you one of my favorite passages to pray for myself, my family, and our church.

Colossians 1:9-12 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

This is Paul’s prayer. An Apostle’s prayer for a church. What more could we pray for?

God thank you for saving us in Christ.

Fill us with the knowledge of your will. Show us how to live for and glorify you and give us all spiritual wisdom and understanding to actually live that out.

Help us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work and growing more and more in the knowledge of God.

And fill us with the strength and power of the Holy Spirit so that we might endure all things with patience and joy.

Do you think God will answer that prayer? Its His own prayer! Its His own Word!

Here’s the big idea. Pray the Word.

Reach higher than your own wants and desires.

Whatever you see in Scripture pray that, and God will always answer your prayer.

Praying the Word by Praying the Lord’s Prayer

But not only do we need to pray the Word generally.

Spiritual prayers also pray the Word specifically by following Christ’s own pattern of prayer in the Lord’s prayer.

Matthew 6:9-13 Pray then like this: “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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Its important to remember that when Jesus taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, He was answering their question: Lord, teach us to pray (Luke 11:1).

And Jesus said Pray then like this. He didn’t say pray this prayer. He didn’t say pray these words. He said pray like this.

The Lord’s Prayer is Christ’s own pattern for how we should pray.

That doesn’t mean its wrong to pray the words themselves. That’s a good thing. And after all, how are you going to pray them as a pattern if you don’t know them in the first place.

But there is a difference between praying the Lord’s Prayer and praying through the Lord’s Prayer.

Praying through the Lord’s prayer focuses our attention on one petition at a time so that our prayer is not rote religion but a spiritual longing and pleading with God on high.

When we pray through the Lord’s Prayer, we want our heart to pray with our words.

So how do we pray?

Father

First we come to God as Father.

He’s our Dad. He loves us. He loves us to pray to Him. To talk to Him.

Think about your own kids. They are talking nonsense but you still love to hear it. Why? Because you love them.

We don’t have to come to God and pray the exact right words.

Right before this in verse 7, Jesus said Don’t be like the Gentiles. Don’t heap up a bunch of empty words.

Don’t be afraid to come to God thinking He won’t hear you unless you say exactly the right words.

And we don’t use prayer as a way to manipulate God into giving us what we want.

Prayer is a relationship with God our Father.

We don’t have to convince God to hear us or answer us because verse 8, He is our Father. He loves us. And he knows what we need before we even ask Him.

Hallowed

Next we pray Hallowed be your Name.

To Hallow something is to lift it up as holy. Magnify it. Glorify it. Honor it.

We want God to be high and lifted up and exalted.

Recognized and worshiped as the Sovereign and Holy Creator of the whole universe.

And that starts with us.

God’s Name being Holy is the first thing Jesus tells us to pray, because if we recognize God has Holy it changes everything.

All our marriages, work, parenting, relationships, ministry, money…you name it…if God is Holy then all things consecrated and given over to Him.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

So when we pray God Hallowed be your Name, we are asking God to make His Name holy, high and lifted up, first in our own lives and then everywhere in the world.

We are praying that all Creation would worship God has holy.

God’s holiness should be the obsession of the Church.

In everything, our top priority should be to see that God’s name is kept holy, and if that’s what we prayed for earnestly and often, that’s the kind of prayer that invites God to pour out a revival.

Kingdom/Will

Next Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is connected to Hallowed be your Name.

God’s Kingdom is His universal rule over ever area of life. That in all things God is obeyed and God is glorified.

And what we are praying here is that God would recognized and celebrated as King and that His will would be done, that His commands would be obeyed, on earth in the same way as it is in Heaven.

That everywhere in the world Christ would be worshiped as King and that His invisible Kingdom, His universal reign, would become visible.

That in everything, families, churches, governments, economics, education, food, art…everything Christ would be obeyed and worshiped as King.

That His Kingdom would grow like a mustard seed, slowly but surely, and like leaven, permeating every area of life with the gospel (Mt. 13:31-33).

Listen to what Calvin As the kingdom of God is continually growing and advancing to the end of the world, we must pray every day that it may come: for to whatever extent iniquity abounds in the world to such an extent the kingdom of God, which brings along with it perfect righteousness, is not yet come. Murray, Puritan Hope, 92.

What we are praying when we pray Thy Kingdom come is for the gospel to take over the world because Jesus said no one can even see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3).

We are praying that God would save sinners, and build Christ’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

That He would Psalm 110:2 send forth Christ’s mighty scepter and that Jesus would rule in the midst of His enemies.

Listen to how R.C. Sproul described how Luther would pray for this Kingdom.

We asking that the Lord’s name would be hallowed, that the world would be rid of idols, that the singular majesty of God would be so visible that there would be no other gods competing with Him.

R. C. Sproul, 5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, 56–57.

Sounds a little Postmil. But why would Christ tell us to pray if He didn’t intend to answer?

Are we praying for the gospel ministry here in our church? That the Word would be proclaimed, sinners saved, and that God would use us to spark a revival in Northwest Arkansas?

What’s stopping us?

Give us

And finally the personal petitions.

Verses 11-13: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

We ask for God to provide all our physical needs, forgive our sins and failings, and to help us live holy and obedient lives.

In these three petitions we cast all of our lives on Him.

And Calvin says we pray this every day for two reasons.

First, we pray for these things as a way of recognizing that everything we have comes from God.

This humbles us and encourages us to walk with Him because we owe our lives to Him.

And second, when God answers our needs, we give Him glory which is the highest duty of the Christian.

Sproul, Does Prayer Change Things?, 8–10.

Amen

And then whenever you pray, you say, Amen.

Have you ever wondered why we say that?

Amen is a word that means truly or surely. Its like saying Let it be!

So when we say Amen! We are expressing our faith in God.

God has heard us and God will answer us.

As Jesus said Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to sit down and pray through all the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in one sitting.

Some times you might only get through one or two.

But Jesus clearly shows us that these are the things we should pray.

They are spiritual prayers offered to God in accordance with His Word.

So Pray the Word.

And if we pray the Word we know God will answer us because we are not offering carnal prayers to spend them on our own passions and desires.

We offer Spiritual prayers that aim for God’s glory and God’s will everywhere in our life.

God answers spiritual prayers.

Number 2, Not only does God answer Spiritual Prayers, He also answers Persistent Prayers...

II. God Answers Persistent Prayers

Daniel 9:20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God.

Daniel was praying for the holy hill of my God.

This is Mount Zion. Jerusalem. The Kingdom of God on earth.

And Daniel is praying that God would forgive Israel and bring them out of exile and back to Jerusalem.

That He would, verse 16, turn way his anger and wrath from the city and make his face shine again on the sanctuary. On the Temple.

And restore them again so that God’s people might worship Him.

And here’s what’s interesting.

Gabriel was sent from the very beginning of Daniel’s prayer. We already saw that.

And in the passage this is obviously God answering Daniel’s prayer.

But this is in 539 BC.

The Temple wasn’t rebuilt under Ezra until 516, and the walls of Jerusalem weren’t completed until 445 nearly 100 years later.

That’s a long time.

But God answers persistent prayer.

Daniel was a man of prayer. In chapter 6 He would pray three times a day. Did he ever stop?

There’s nothing in the Bible to ever tell you he did.

And so even after Gabriel brought Him the vision, Daniel probably kept praying.

And faithful Israel who would’ve read Daniel would have also kept praying and asking God to bring about His promises.

The idea here is just because our prayers are not immediately answered in the way we think they should be, doesn’t mean we stop praying.

We pray patiently. Faithfully. Trusting God’s providence ever step of the way knowing He is doing exactly what is best...

When God does not answer immediately, we don’t grumble or accuse God of being unfair.

We trust Him. Knowing He will give it in due time.

But we don’t stop praying. We pray persistently, begging God for His promises until they flow out of His hand.

Jesus gave us a parable and this parable comes right after the Lord’s Prayer and the disciples asking Jesus Lord teach us how to pray.

Luke 11:5-10 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

Look what happens in the story.

A man goes to His friend in the middle of the night to ask to borrow some food for some unexpected guests.

He knocks on the door, wakes the whole house and the friend says Are you crazy? What are you doing banging on my door in the middle of the night? They’re your friends, not mine! Get out of here!

But the man doesn’t take no for an answer and he keeps pounding on the door.

And Jesus says that his friend eventually helped him, not because he was his friend, but because of his impudence.

The friend answered this man’s prayers because he was absolutely shameless and was not going to stop until he got what he wanted.

And Jesus says if you want your prayers answered, you need to pray like that.

You need to pray so persistently so fervently, that its like God will not answer you otherwise.

Now wait a second? Does this mean that God doesn’t want to answer our prayers or that He’s bothered to do so?

Not at all.

This passage is not describing God’s side of prayer. God’s side comes in verses 11-13 which we are going to look at in the next point of this sermon.

This passage is just talking about our side of prayer.

And Jesus’ point is persistent prayer is the prayer that God answer, not because He is reluctant to do so, but because persistent prayers are how we draw near to God with faith.

God there is no where else to go. All my life, all my hope, everything rests on you.

Jesus says...

And I tell you, 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.”

These are all continuous verbs. So its like Jesus is saying if you ask and keep on asking, you will receive.

If you seek, and keep on seeking you will find.

And if you knock and keep on knocking it will be opened.

Again whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Mt. 21:22).

Your impudence in prayer, your persistence to go to God and keep going to God over and over again when He delays in answering you according to His own perfect wisdom, is how you cast all your faith, all your trust, all your hope on Him, and Him alone.

Persistent prayers are prayers of faith. They keep going to God saying, I know He will here me and I know He will give me what I ask in due time. In the perfect time.

And so persistent prayers are the prayers that are answered by God.

Spurgeon said it best...

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. LXI Daniel: A Pattern for Pleaders (No. 3,484)

Cold prayers ask God to deny them: only importunate prayers will be replied to. When the Church of God cannot take “No” for an answer, she shall not have “No” for an answer.

C. H. Spurgeon, “Daniel: A Pattern for Pleaders,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 61 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1915), 521.

God answers prayers.

God answers Spiritual Prayers.

God answers Persistent Prayers

And finally point number 3...

III. God Answers His Children’s Prayers

Daniel 9:23 At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.

Notice why Gabriel says God sent him to answer Daniels prayer from the beginning of his pleas for mercy.

For you are greatly loved.

The word loved carries the idea of being accepted. Reconciled to God.

Instead of being under God’s righteous wrath and judgment, being one of God’s own beloved.

God answers the prayers of His beloved children because He loves them.

Ephesians 1:4-8 In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.

This is why we are able to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father who art in Heaven.

In Christ God adopts us as beloved sons and daughters.

He forgives all of our sins, not by sweeping them under the rug. But by laying them on Christ.

The eternal Son of God became a man in Jesus Christ.

He lived a perfect and sinless life, and died on the cross in our place for our sins.

He was our propitiation. A substitutionary sacrifice that satisfied the wrath God had against us.

Jesus bore our curse. He paid our debt. He died the death we deserved to die, and rose again from the grave three days later so that now, that through faith in Him, we might have eternal life.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

If you want God to hear and answer your prayers, the only way is through Jesus Christ.

He is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).

Unholy sinners cannot come near a holy God.

You must repent of your sin and believe in Christ.

Draw near to God through the blood of the Lamb.

You will be washed, you will be cleaned. And best of all you will be loved.

Pray your first prayer today that God will finally hear.

Pray God. Will you forgive me of all my sin? Will you let Christ pay my debt? Will you save me and make me clean and give me the grace that is only found in Him?

Put all your faith in Christ, trust in Him alone and I will promise you God will answer your prayer.

He will forgive, cleanse you and adopt you as one of His beloved sons and daughters too.

And for every Christian, because of that great and marvelous adoption that God freely gives us in Christ we can come to God with great confidence because God’s love doesn’t rest on us. It rests on Christ.

We are beloved in Him.

And because we are beloved, all because of Jesus, God will answer our prayers.

And so you see even our prayers proclaim the good news of the gospel.

But lets go to Luke 11 , after the Lord’s Prayer, and after the parable of the persistent man to see what Jesus promises to all of God’s children when they pray.

Luke 11:10-13 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

So earlier we looked at our side. This is God’s side, and Jesus asks a simple question.

What father among you would give your child a poisonous snake for a fish or deadly scorpion for an egg if the asked?

The answer, of course, is no one.

None of us would ever give our children anything that could harm them.

This is one of the reasons, by the way, God doesn’t just give us everything we ask. We aren’t spoiled children who get whatever we want.

God is a better Father than that.

Some things would actually hurt us. We might not know it, but sometimes we are asking God to give us the idols of our own heart. Spending our prayers on worldly passions.

But sometimes, God doesn’t give us something because its not what’s best for us in that moment.

For example, say we are suffering under some great trial or hardship, something horrible like sickness, cancer or the death of a loved one, and we are asking God to take it away.

Sometimes God delays in delivering us according to His own perfect wisdom, because at the end of the day He knows what’s best for us.

What if that suffering is producing in us steadfastness to give us greater endurance for the road ahead, or maybe God is letting us feel the weight and the pain so that when He does answer, His grace is that much sweeter, and He gets more and more glory.

Part of faith is resting under the bitter providence of God, like Job, to say that God is still worthy of all our glory and praise.

But on the other hand, God is also good Father who loves to give his children good gifts.

If evil fathers know how to, how much more does our perfectly heavenly Father know how to give us the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

How much more does God know how to answer all of our spiritual prayers for life and godliness through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, working powerfully within us to make us more and more like Christ to the praise of His glorious grace.

The exact kind of spiritual prayers we are supposed to be praying.

But in the parallel passage of Matthew 7:11, Jesus doesn’t say the Holy Spirit, He just says good gifts.

God also knows how to give physical blessings and graces.

Just good things to bless us, and He does why?

So that in everything, in all the good things that God gives spiritually or physically, our homes, families, spouses, children, dinner tables, jobs, wealth, holiness, obedience, love, peace and assurance, in everything, we might offer them back to God in praise.

Because God is a good Dad, and He always answers the prayers of His children that are infinitely beloved in Christ.

And I want to reiterate that point because that’s really what this is all about.

Yes. Its great when God answers our prayers.

It is amazing and fills us with joy and love for His amazing grace.

But the glory of prayer is not what God gives. Its what God has given.

The reason God answers our prayers, the reason we are beloved the reason why God gives us the Holy Spirit and every good gift, is because God first gave us His Son.

When we come to God in prayer, its not so much about what we are praying for, its about the fact that God invites us to pray in the first place.

That is grace.

And that grace testifies every time we bow our heads and close our eyes, we have been forgiven once and for all in Jesus Christ.

And really, what more could we ask for than that?

Conclusion

What kind of prayers does God answer?

God answers Spiritual Prayers.

Prayers that are for His glory and His will and not our own selfish passions.

So Pray the Word. Pray the Word all the time and you will always pray prayers God will answer.

God answers Persistent Prayer.

Prayer is the means God uses in our lives to keep us near Him. To keep us anchored to Him alone.

Persistent Prayer is the fruit of persistent faith.

And even when God delays in answering us, we keep praying knowing all of our life and everything we have only comes from Him.

He is infinitely wise, and he will give us what seems good to Him in His own time according to His own divine providence.

And finally, God answers His children’s prayer.

More than anything else, prayer ultimately tells us that God has forgiven us in Christ.

We were far off, but He has brought us near and adopted us as His own beloved children.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

1 Thes 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.