Biblical Answer

Does God Always Answer Prayer?

God always answers our prayers, but the answer is not always yes. In fact, the answer can be no or wait. We tend to insult God's intelligence when He doesn't answer our prayers the way we ask Him to by failing to consider the no as an answer. The Bible says, "Everyone who asks receives" (Matthew 7:8), yet we often say, "But... , but...". We may not always understand why God answers our prayers the way He does, but He is always listening and does answer all of our prayers.

The reason God sometimes doesn't answer our prayers is not because He doesn't hear them, but because we don't always believe that He will answer. We may not be fully trusting in His sovereignty and goodness. We may be seeking answers from God, but not seeking Him Himself. The Bible says, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7-8). However, we need to be careful not to just ask for things, but to ask in faith and trust that God will answer according to His will.

We should have great confidence that God will answer our prayer when we ask Him for something that accords with a specific promise or command of Scripture. In such cases, we know what God's will is, because He has told us, and we simply need to ask Him in faith. However, we often don't know what God's will is, and in such cases, we should ask Him for deeper understanding and then pray for what seems best to us, giving reasons to the Lord why, in our present understanding, we think that is what He wants. The Bible says, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" (2 Chronicles 20:12). We should have confidence that God will answer our prayers, but also humility to acknowledge that we don't always know what His will is.