Prayer Sure to Be Answered

There is one sure way to know that we will receive what we pray for.  The Bible clearly tells us:  This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15).  When we ask God for what He already wants to give us, getting it is a sure thing.  When we request that He do what He already intends to do, what could be more certain?

Before you dismiss this truth as a rhetorical gimmick, consider the fact that God knows better than we do what our needs are (Matthew 6:8).  He is far wiser than we are in knowing what needs to happen.  He is far more loving, wanting to give us the best, than we can imagine.  As the old saying goes, "God gives His best to those who leave the choice to Him."  So why wouldn't our chief desire be to pray according to His will?

But how are we to know what His will is?  Just to ask for something and then say "if it be Thy will" is not praying in faith (another requirement for answered prayer according to James 1:6-7).  One way to know God's will is with the aid of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:27).  I believe another way is when God puts the same burden independently on more than one person's heart (Matthew 18:19).  But the most common way to know God's will is through His word.  We know what His will is because He tells us.

As I have written in a previous series of posts (for example "All the World in All the Word"), the Bible shows us that God's chief aim is to extend His glory to all the nations.  Scripture clearly says that it is not God's will that any should perish but that all should be saved (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4).  God's commands, the Great Commission for instance, show us that His purpose is to reach the nations with the gospel.  Nothing about God's will could be clearer.  Nothing about prayer could be surer.

However, just because it is God's will does not mean that a simple request will automatically come to pass.  There are several reasons why we must persist in prayer, but that issue will require another posting.  Nevertheless, when we pray for the salvation of lost individuals, lost nations, or lost people groups, we can pray with confidence that someway, sometime our prayer will be answered.  George Mueller reportedly prayed more than 60 years for the salvation of two men before they were saved, one of them after Mueller's death.  But his prayer was answered; it was God's will.

Let's pray today with assurance, even boldness, for the salvation of the nations.