The Certainty of the Answer to Prayer
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“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.
For the second time in our recent history the Lord clearly and distinctly invited us to ask, saying He would do it.
In our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount He spoke in Ch. 6 of
the Father who is to be found in secret, and rewards openly
And, He gave us a pattern for prayer.
In the same sermon He returns to the subject of prayer. Here he wants to teach us what in all scripture is considered the chief thing in prayer; The assurance that prayer will be heard and answered.
Notice how He uses words which mean almost the same thing, and each time, repeats the promise so distinctly:
“Ye shall receive”
“Ye shall find,”
“It shall be opened unto you;”
And then gives us the the grounds for such assurance, the law of the Kingdom:
“He that asketh, receiveth;”
“He that seeketh, findeth;”
“To him that knocketh, it shall be opened”
One cannot help but feel how deeply He wants to impress upon our minds this one truth, that we may and must most confidently expect an answer to our prayer.
One of the most important lessons you will ever learn is this: “Every one that asketh, receiveth.”
Ask -> Seek -> Knock
ASK refers to the gifts we pray for… but, we could ask and receive the gift without the Giver.
SEEK is our quest to find Him… but, it is not enough to merely find God in time of need. We must come to abide in Him and He in us.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
KNOCK is something you do when you are ready to come in and dwell with Him in abiding fellowship.
ASKing and receiving gifts from God would lead us to SEEKING and finding the Giver, and this would lead us to KNOCKING and opening the door of His home and love.
One thing is sure: the Lord wants us to count on it, that ASKING, SEEKING, and KNOCKING cannot be in vain!
Receiving an answer
Finding God
The Opened heart and home of God,
Are the certain fruit of prayer!
He would not have thought it needful to repeat in so many different ways this truth if it was not deeply important.
It proves He knows our heart...
How doubt and distrust come so natural for us.
How easily we are inclined to rest in prayer as just religious work, without an answer.
How easily we believe prayer that lays hold of promises , is something for the super-spiritual, and is too high and difficult for us.
He wants to lodge this truth deep into our hearts:
Prayer does avail much
Ask and ye shall receive
Every one that asketh receiveth.
This is the fixed eternal law of the kingdom;
if you ask and receive not, it must be because there is something amiss or lacking in the prayer.
Hold on;
Let the Word and the Spirit teach you to pray aright,
Do not let go the confidence He seeks to awaken: Every one that asketh, receiveth.
“Ask, and it shall be given you.”
In mathematics we have to prove a sum to be correct.
The proof that we have prayed correctly, is the answer.
If we ask and receive not, it is because we have not learned how to pray correctly.
Let us take the Master at His word: Every one that asketh, receiveth.
He had good reasons for speaking so unconditionally.
He had good reasons for speaking so unconditionally.
Let us beware of weakening the Word with our human wisdom.
When He tells us heavenly things, let us believe Him;
His word will explain itself to the one who believes it fully.
If questions and difficulties arise, let us not seek to have them settled before we accept the Word.
No; let us trust it all to Him
It is His to solve.
Our work is first and fully to accept and hold fast His promise.
Every one that asketh, receiveth.
Prayer consists of two sides:
Human - is asking
Divine - is giving
Two halves that make up the whole.
It is as if He is telling us not to rest until the answer comes,
Because it is the will of God,
the rule in the Father’s family;
Every childlike, believing petition is granted.
If no answer comes, we are not to sit down and resign ourselves to the suppose that it is not God’s will to give an answer.
No, there must be something in the prayer that is not as God would have it. We must seek for grace to pray so that the answer may come!
It is far easier for the flesh to accept no answer than it is to yield ourselves to be purified by the Spirit, until we have learned to pray the prayer of faith.
There are so many willing to rest content without the experience of answered prayer!
They pray daily,
They ask for many things,
They trust that some of them will be heard,
But know little of direct, definite answers to prayer.
This is how the saints of old learned to know God as the Living One, and were stirred to praise and Love Him.
(Psalm 34)
But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications.
The Lord waits to imprint this on our minds.
Prayer and the answer
The child asking and the father giving
There may be times when the answer is no, because the request is not according to God’s Word.
Like when Moses asked to enter Canaan.
But still, there was an answer; God did not leave His servant in uncertainty as to His will.
The gods of the heathen are dumb and cannot speak.
Our Father lets His children know when He cannot give them what they ask. And we withdraw our requests.
That’s what the Son did in Gethsemane.
Both Moses and the Son of God knew that what they asked was not according to what the Lord had spoken;
their prayer was the humble prayer,
asking whether or not it was possible for the decision to be changed.
God will teach those who are teachable and those who will give Him time.
He will teach them by His Spirit and by His Word whether the request is according to His will or not.
Let us learn to withdraw the request, if it is not according to His mind...
Or, persevere till the answer comes.
Prayer is appointed to obtain the answer!
How far from God we sometimes must be, that we find it so hard to grasp such promises.
Spiritually weak, our capacity for God’s thoughts is so feeble.
Let us not make the feeble experiences of our unbelief the measure of what our faith can expect!
Let us seek to hold on to this joyful assurance!
man’s prayer on earth
God’s answer in heaven
Are meant for each other.
Let’s trust the Lord to teach us to so pray that the answer can come!
Ask, and ye shall receive!
