The Key to Answered Prayer

I’ve entitled tonight’s message, The Key to Answered Prayer”, but have you ever noticed how much easier to have prayers go unanswered?

I think we’re all experienced in that area, so tonight I want to help you with some practical truths regarding the key to answered prayer. Read with me in Matthew 7:7-11

Matthew 7:7–11 KJV 1900

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Jesus gives us three keys to answered prayer, and attached to each key is a promise for us to claim. vThe first key, according to Jesus is to...

Ask

Surely it can’t be that simple! I said, “There MUST be some deeper meaning here.” This led me to look at the word “ask” in the Greek. Here is what I found. The Word in the Greek is “aiteo/ah -teh -ow” and it means, are you ready for this? It means to “ask.”

The promise attached to this key that when we ask… “it shall be given unto you.” That is our prayers will be answerd.

A good example of this is found in James 1:5

James 1:5 KJV 1900

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

This verse in James is proof that God wants to answer our prayer, why then do so many of our prayers go unanswered? We find that answer in the same book, James 4:2-3

James 4:2–3 KJV 1900

2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Very often our prayers go unanswered because we are not asking, and all too often when we do ask, we are asking for the wrong reasons, we are asking selfishly instead of asking “Are my requests in line with the will of God?”

1 John 5:14 KJV 1900

14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

What Jesus is saying is that anything we ask, within the parameters of the will of God, He will give us! Listen my friend, God is not going to let you go hungry, not going to let you do without, not going to harm you in anyway! How do we know this? Becasue we know what we would do if our own children asked anything of us! Read verse 9-11...

God will never answer a pray unprayed. So the first key to answered prayer is to “ask”, the second key is to...

Seek

To seek means to “desire after” something or to endeavor to achieve something. If the first key to ask, and if the condition of asking is asking in accordance to God’s will, then to seek is to diligently search for God’s guidance.

When a need arises in your life, part of the process of having the need met is seeking after God’s wisdom on just how He desires to meet this need. James says we don’t receive because we don’t ask - how many times have you witheld form asking God becasue you thought you could do it yoruself? How many times have you had to ask for forgiveness in that situation?

James says too that often we ask amiss - that is we ask in a wrong way or for the wrong reason. This is where the step of seeking is needed. Friends it would do us all well if we were to sit down and patiently seek God’s guidance on how we should ask, what we should ask for. To seek is to seek God’s guidance.

The keys to answers prayer are, first, to ask, then to seek, and lastly to...

Knock

Asking is to make your request, seeking is to make your requests in the way God intends, and knocking is to request God’s help.

Waiting for prayer to be answered is a process and through this process God is stretching your faith. I cannot help but wonder, when we get to heaven, will God show us just how close we were to an answered prayer when we gave up? When we stopped praying.

There is something else I must point out about these keys before we move on. The words “ask, seek, and knock” do have one thing significant about them in the original writings: they are in the present tense, which implies an ongoing action. We could read these words this way: “Ask, and continue asking. Seek, and continue seeking. Knock and keep on knocking until the answer comes!

Jesus in Luke’s gospel gives two practical examples of these principles:

Luke 11:5–7 KJV 1900

5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

Luke 18:1–7 KJV 1900

1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Conclusion: The real key is to never stop praying until answer comes!

Remember, attached to these keys are the promises of God: When you ask, He will give, when you seek, He will help, and when you knock, He will open. The question is: are you willing to ask properly? Are you willing to change your request? Are you willing to wait for the door to be opened? Or are you going to quit?