Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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?
— Matthew 7:7-11
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
— 1 John 5:14-15
And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
— 1 John 3:22
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
— James 5:15-18
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.
— Matthew 26:42
Prayer, by Arthur W. Pink.
What things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them
— Mark 11:24
By the words ‘believe that ye receive them’: we understand, expect God to give them to you. But it is at this point that so many of God’s people fail oftenest in their prayer lives. There are three chief things to be attended to in prayer.
First, make sure that you are asking for something that is in accordance with God’s Word: see 1 John 5:14. But right here, the devil will foil you unless you are upon your guard. He will come as an angel of light and preach a sermon to you on God’s holy will. O yes, the devil is quite capable even of that! It is our privilege and duty to know what God’s will is! ‘Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is’ Eph. 5:17. It is the revealed will of God which is in view in these passages, for with His ‘secret’ will, we have nothing to do; that is none of our business.
God’s revealed will is made known in His Word. Fix this in your mind; never allow Satan inject a thought Eph. 4:27 to shake you thereon, that everything God has commanded you to do, every precept and exhortation addressed to you, is ‘God’s will’ for you, and is to be turned into prayer for enabling grace. It is God’s will that you should be ‘sanctified’ 1 Thess. 4:2, that you should ‘rejoice’ Phil. 4:4, that you should ‘make your calling and election sure’ 2 Peter 1:10, that you should ‘grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord’ 2 Peter 3:18.
Second, having made sure that what you are praying for is according to God’s revealed will, then plead His promises, such as Matt. 7:7, Phil. 4:19, etc. Plead them in the name of Christ, asking God to give you the ‘desires of thine heart’ Psalm 37:4 for Christ’s sake, that He may be honoured in and by a Godly walk from you, and that His people may be helped and encouraged by your example. Those are pleas which God cannot deny.
Third, and this is what we would earnestly and lovingly press upon the Christian reader: EXPECT God to do what you have asked. Unless there is an expectancy, faith is not fully in exercise. It is this expecting from Him which honours and pleases God, and which always draws down from Him answers of peace. There may be some difficulty, problem, trial, looming ahead of you, which assumes the proportions of a mountain. Never mind that: do not let it depress, discourage, or dismay you. Praise God it stands written in the eternal Word of Truth, ‘Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith and doubt not…ye shall say unto this mountain be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; It shall be done’Matt. 21:21. Notice carefully, it is not ‘If thou doubt not and have faith, ‘but if ye have faith’ and then while you are awaiting God’s answer ‘doubt not’, but continue the fulfillment of His promise. When you first get down on your knees, beg God in the name of Christ and for His own glory’s sake, to work in you by His Spirit that expectancy of faith which will not take ‘NO’ from Him; which reverently, but confidently says, ‘I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me’ Gen. 32:26. That is what honours God, that is what pleases Him, that is what obtains answers from Him.
‘A friend at court!’ No doubt that expression is more or less familiar to the older readers, but it has almost dropped out of use in this generation. It denoted that one had a friend possessing influence with another in authority, and using it on my behalf. How unspeakably blessed to know that the Christian has a friend at court, the Court of Heaven; ‘A friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’ He has the ear of God, for on earth He declared ‘Thou hearest me always’ John 11:42. Then, make use of Him, and ask Him to present them to His Father and your Father, accompanied by His own all-prevailing merits; and, if they are for God’s glory and thy real good, be fully assured that they shall be granted. Thus will Christ be honoured and your faith strengthened.
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