Intro
Unanswered prayer is an issue we all face at one time or another. What do we do when we have prayed and prayed about something, and seemingly there are no results? I have a couple of situations like that going on in my life right now. Some of you may be dealing with the same thing in your life. I don’t know any Christian that has never faced this issue. Paul faced it in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. What do we do with unanswered prayer? Do we just keep praying? Do we commit the matter to the Lord and move on to something more productive? The way we respond to unanswered prayer has profound implications, first in our own lives but also for the lives of those we are praying for. I want to examine Jesus’s teaching about prayer in Luke 11 in search of some answers to these questions. Our text is in Luke 11.
Luke 11:1 gives the setting in which Jesus gave this instruction: “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’”i I expected the verse to say “they” were praying, but the scripture says “He” was praying. That strikes me as a bit strange. Why weren’t the disciples praying with him? Were they just watching him pray? Perhaps Jesus wanted the solitude with the Father. We don’t know. But we do know that prayer is mostly learned in the doing. It is certainly valid to receive instruction on the subject. It was a wise thing to ask Jesus for that instruction. The instruction we will receive from this passage will help us pray more effectively. But to get the full benefits of that instruction, we will have to develop a lifestyle of prayer. Instruction must be applied for it to yield maximum results. Learning to pray is like learning to ride a bicycle; Doing it is essential to the learning process.
James told some Christians: “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2 NIV). The lack of prayer is the first obstacle we must overcome. In Isaiah 56:7, God declared his house to be a “house of prayer.” Churches across America are getting into trouble because they have made God’s house a “house of entertainment”: a lovely song that does not disturb the conscience but simply tickles the ears of lukewarm Christians.ii Many in the audience may not even born again. Some churches have become a “house of commerce,” as was the case with the money changers in Jesus’s day (Matt. 21:12-13).
How many of our problems would be resolved if we would just get back to being a house of prayer, rather than a house of entertainment? Jesus told Peter, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Mark 14:38). Some of the church scandals that are in the news today, might have been avoided if the leaders were praying and the people were praying for them. When we make the church a “house of entertainment” rather than a “house of prayer,” we are bound to get into trouble.iii
In Luke 11, the disciples had watched Jesus pray, and they had seen the results of his prayers. The results were so good, they wanted to know how to pray the way Jesus prayed. We have the same heart. That is why we are studying this passage today. How do we pray effectively? How do we pray in a way that gets results? There is no greater motivation toward prayer than results. When our praying is ineffectual, we lose motivation to continue in prayer. If it is doing no good, why do it? The answer to that question is to learn to do it effectively.
In response to the disciples’ request, Jesus gave them what we typically refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. The first passage every Christian ought to memorize is the Lord’s Prayer. I use it often as a guideline for personal time with the Lord. It is packed with instruction on how to pray effectively. Using the Lord’s Prayer, I want to process FIVE CONDITONS FOR ANSWERED PRAYER.
In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus cautioned against ineffective praying. He said in Matthew 6:7: “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.” They think answered prayer is a matter of volume: You ask it enough times, and God will finally relent and answer the prayer. Many Christians have this mentality about prayer. They just keep repeating the same prayer over and over, hoping that if they ask enough times the answer will finally come. One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.iv Perseverance in prayer is a biblical principle, and we will talk about that some today. But prayer is a relational interaction with God. When we find ourselves somewhat mindlessly repeating the same prayer over and over, we should pause and ask ourselves some serious questions: questions that revolve around these five conditions for answered prayer. Before we get into the five conditions, I want to ensure we have a biblical perspective on prayer.
Answered prayer should be the NORM for every Christian. Because we often pray ineffectively, we can develop a mindset that answered prayer is the exception rather than the rule. We should not be surprised when God answers prayer. We should be surprised when the answer does not come. Jesus established this principle in verses Luke 11:9-13: “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
The principle in verse 9 is “Ask and Receive.” That is the relationship between the child of God and his heavenly Father. We have that modeled in our natural families. Parents love their children, and children ask for their needs to be met, never thinking the parent would not grant their request. The parent would not give them something harmful. But they would freely give them everything they need. It would simply be the child’s way of life: “Ask Mommy and Daddy and receive.”v This is the mentality of faith that we should operate in. Answered prayer should be the norm in our lives—so much so that we explore unanswered prayer with the question: What is hindering the answer in this situation?
In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus taught the importance of expectation: “So Jesus answered and said to them [the disciples], ‘Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’”
If we are praying vain requests with no expectation of an answer, we need to pause and ask why we don’t expect the Father to answer our request. Sometimes, people conclude their prayer by saying, “if it be thy will,” with a tone of unbelief. It is said to provide an easy out if there are no results. The phrase is biblical, and people often use it with the right mindset.vi Certainly, praying in the will of God is a core factor for answered prayer. But the usual pattern of prayer should be: We learn the will of God from Scripture and the Holy Spirit, then we pray the will of God with expectancy. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul began asking for something that he thought was the will of God. In that passage, he discovered the will of God while praying. That does happen at times. But most of the time, we simply pray what we know to be God’s will, and we ask with confidence that God will answer.
So, before we explore these five conditions for answered prayer, we want to embrace the principle that Jesus established in Luke 11:9: “Ask, and it will be given to you.” That should be our foundational mindset. Answered prayer is the norm for the child of God.
Condition 1: RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
This first condition is set forth in Luke 11:2: “So He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.’”
We must know God as our Father. The word “Father” indicates an intimate relationship. Some people believe there is a God who created the heavens and the earth. But for them, he is a distant sovereign. They pray to a God somewhere out there in the far away space, but they cannot call him Father.
Jesus has made a way for people to know God in a far more personal way. Our sinfulness is a major barrier between us and God. It is a wall too high for any human being to climb over.vii But God in his mercy has broken down that wall at the cross. Jesus has made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and changed from the defiled rebels we naturally are into transformed children of God.viii We could never earn our way into that relationship. But we can receive it as a gift from God (Eph. 2:8).
That happens through the new birth that Jesus talked about in John 3. The man he was speaking with was a member of the Sanhedrin, His name was Nicodemus. He was a religious man, but religion is not enough.ix Jesus told him, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). Have you been born again? Have you bowed to the authority of God and opened your hearts to his transforming influence. Only those who have been born anew by his Spirit can truly say to the great Creator, “our Father.” And that is the first step toward effectiveness in prayer. The Good News is that this transformation is available to anyone who will receive it. If you have not been born again, mediate on John 3 and ask God to grant you that transformation by his grace. Effective prayer is based on approaching God as our heavenly Father.
In conjunction with that, we approach God with the respect appropriate to who he is. We say, “Hallowed be Your name.” Hallowed is a rather archaic term. In this context, the Greek means to “regard as sacred.”x Although we enjoy an intimate relationship with God as our Father, we never forget that he is God, and we are not. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Our attitude toward God is one of deep respect. We never lose that sense of awe about who he is even though we enjoy an intimate relationship with him as our Father.xi Mounce translates the phrase: “May your name be held in honor.”xii
So, the first condition for answered prayer is right relationship with God. In his kindness and mercy, God sometimes answers a prayer for the sinner to reveal his love and goodness. But it is not the norm. It is the norm for his children to ask and receive. So, when prayer is not being answered, we must ask this first question: Am I in right relationship with God?
Condition 2: PRAYING IN THE WILL OF GOD
This condition is also found in Luke 11:2: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” We approach God with an absolute commitment to his will. Prayer is not me persuading God to agree with my will. Prayer is discerning and committing myself to God’s will. It is absurd to think we should pray and get God to come around to our will. We don’t have the wisdom to run our own lives, let alone the universe. So, we come to God desiring his will concerning any matter. We recognize there is no better solution than the one he desires.xiii
James gives us insight on this aspect of prayer when he says: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Motives matter in prayer. When prayer is not being answered, it is a good time to make sure our motives are right. Am I asking for something contrary to God’s will for my life? If so, I hope God will not grant the request.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul asked God to do something that seemed to be according to his will. Paul was being severely harassed by a problem he identified as “a thorn in the flesh . . . a messenger of Satan” that was buffeting him (2 Cor. 12:7). The Greek word translated buffet in that passage is kolaphizo. Its basic meaning is to strike or beat with the fist.xiv Something was repeatedly beating Paul up. There are various theories as to what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Since it is described as a messenger of Satan, I personally think it was the harsh demonic opposition he encountered over and over in his ministry. It is reasonable to think that it would be the will of God to remove a “messenger of Satan” for one’s life. Surely Paul thought this would be God’s will when he began praying about the matter.
Paul said he prayed three times that it would be removed. I’m convinced those prayers were passionate and intense, given the severity of the problem. But those prayers were unanswered. Instead, God revealed to Paul why they were not being answered. It was not God’s will to remove that problem from Paul’s life. Instead, God chose to use it as a protection against pride. The amazing revelations and the ministry results could have puffed Paul up. If it came too easy, he could have become prideful. That was certainly not in Paul’s best interest.
So, in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul shares with us what the Lord showed him in answer to his prayers. “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
That may not have been the answer Paul wanted to hear. But when God revealed his will, Paul changed the way he prayed. He did not just keep praying the same prayer he had been praying. He got in alignment with the revealed will of God and gave thanks that God was protecting him in that way. Sometimes, our prayer is not being answered because God has a higher purpose in mind (Isa. 55:8-9). We should not just assume that. We should seek God until he shows us how we should pray about the matter.
At times, an answer is not coming because God is being longsuffering toward a stubborn soul.xv God has committed himself to free will. When he created man, he gave us the right to choose between good and evil. No matter how long and how hard I pray, God will not violate the person’s free will. In answer to prayer, he will deal with the individual and give that person ample opportunity to choose godliness. I do believe our prayers open the door for God’s work in that soul. But that work is a wooing, a persuading by the Holy Spirit, not an absolute forcing of a positive response. God gave the person a free will, and he does not take it back.
In those cases, we will need to persevere in prayer for the person. We do not have time in this teaching to deal with the necessity of perseverance. There are other passages that focus on that which we have preached on at other times.xvi Certainly, perseverance is an important principle in prayer. But there is a difference between perseverance in prayer and simply repeating vain repetitions. In perseverance, we are interacting with God on the matter the way Paul did in 2 Corinthians 12.
So, we pray with an attitude of heart that says: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” We make our request to God with a faith that trusts the love and wisdom of our heavenly Father. Therefore, we desire his will above all else. The second condition for answered prayer is praying in the will of God. The apostle John wrote, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).xvii
When prayer is going unanswered, we ask the question: Am I praying according to the will of God?
Condition 3: PRAYING FOR LEGITIMATE NEEDS
In Luke 11:3, Jesus taught us to pray: “Give us day by day our daily bread.” God has promised to meet our daily needs. Instead of worrying about those, we pray and receive (Phil. 4:6). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that God takes care of the birds in the air and lilies in the field. How much more will God meet our basic needs (Matt. 6:25-31). So, we can pray for those things with great confidence.
We must be more cautious when praying for things we don’t need but just want. I have found that God graciously gives us some of those things as well. But we ask for those extras more tentatively. In 1 Timothy 6, Paul warns about the temptations that often come with wealth. In verse 8 he counsels us: “And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” It is not wrong to have wealth; it is just tricky. So, from a foundation of godliness with contentment, we ask for the extras, and God often grants the request.
I have found that praying for the resources we need to do the assignment he has given us is very effective. No general would send his troops into the battlefield and deny them food or ammunition. If we are doing what God tells us to do, then we can pray with confidence for the resources to do the job. As a pastor, I have never had to beg for money for the ministry. God has a way of providing it through people who hear his voice and give as he directs.
You will notice throughout the Lord’s Prayer an attitude of dependence. We don’t pray for next year’s need. We pray for our daily needs. We stay in a dependent mode in ongoing communication with the Lord: daily receiving forgiveness, daily receiving strength to overcome temptation, and daily receiving provision. “Give us day by day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3). So, when prayer is unanswered, we ask the question: Is this something I really need, or is it something that could be a distraction from God’s plan for my life?
Condition 4: LIVING IN RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS
Luke 11:4 says, “And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, additional instruction is given in Matthew 6:14-15: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Unforgiveness in the heart obstructs the effectiveness of prayer. Broken relationships must be mended whether we are the offender or the offended. We cannot just ignore those matters because God does not ignore them.
Reconciliation requires the right response by both parties. Forgiveness does not depend on the other party’s response.xviii Therefore, there is never an excuse for unforgiveness. Efforts toward reconciliation must be initiated by both parties. Waiting on the other party to initiate a reconciliation is not acceptable. Matthew 18 tells the offended party to initiate reconciliation. Matthew 5:23-24 commands the offender to seek reconciliation: “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
The degree in which a relationship can be restored depends on repentance and the establishment of trust between the parties. The closer a relationship is, the more trust is necessary. So, the level of intimacy that can be restored depends on the trustworthiness of both parties. We do not have time to explore that further. What we must know is that our attitudes and relationships with other people affect the power of our prayers.xix
Too often, both parties think they can just ask God for forgiveness, and all is well. But according to Scripture, the effort must be made to reconcile. Otherwise, your prayers are hindered. Peter instructs husbands: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7).xx
When our prayers go unanswered, we must ask ourselves this question: Is there any relationship in my life that needs attending so that my prayers will not be hindered? Ignoring this issue and just increasing the quantity of repeated prayers will not work.
Condition 5: SINCERELY SEEKING TO LIVE PLEASING TO THE LORD
Luke 11:4: “And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” This request depicts a humble dependence on the Lord for grace to live a godly life. We know our own vulnerabilities, and we are asking the Lord to protect us from any temptation that might trip us up and lead to sin.
But notice also that this petition indicates a sincere desire to live a godly life. We cannot cherish sin in our hearts and expect to enjoy the ongoing benefits of answered prayer. The Psalmist wrote, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Ps. 66:18). It is not just the prayer that should be right, but the person saying the prayer must also be right. We must be living in submission to the Father. Am I regarding some iniquity in my heart? Am I cherishing some behavior that grieves the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30)?
To cherish iniquity in the heart is to love some sin so that you have no intention of turning from it even though you know it grieves the heart of God. That is different than a struggle against a sin or even a failure. We daily ask God for forgiveness because we often fail in some respect (1 John 1:8).xxi Our desire is to live godly, but we do not always live up to that desire. So, we ask God, “And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”
James uses Elijah as an example of someone who prayed effectively In James 5:16-18 he wrote: “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
The prayer itself was passionate and fervent. It was not a casual request. But according to James, something else mattered. It was the effective, fervent prayer “of a righteous man.” Elijah was right with God. He was aligned with God in his heart and in his lifestyle. Prayer has much more to do with our alignment with God than the volume of requests. King Ahab or Queen Jezebel could have prayed just as passionately, but God would not have answered their prayers.xxii Their hearts and their lives were not aligned with the Lord.
So, when my prayers are not being answered, I must take an honest inventory of my lifestyle. I must be living in submission to the Lord to the best of my ability. I must not cherish sin in my heart. Therefore, I ask myself the question: Is there anything going on in my life that grieves the Holy Spirit and should be repented of? Then I let the Holy Spirit point out anything that needs to be addressed and deal with that before I proceed.xxiii
Conclusion
There is much about prayer that we do not have time to process in this message. Perseverance is important, but it must be done with wisdom. The main thing we want to see today is that answered prayer depends on the conditions Jesus sets forth in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is not just giving a religious ritual in which we mindlessly repeat the words over and over. He cautions us not to just repeat prayers without considering some of the principles taught in the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew 6:7, he warned, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
If the prayer is going unanswered, we may just need to persevere. But we should consider these five questions to ensure our praying is not in vain.
1. Am I in right relationship with God?
2. Am I praying according to the will of God?
3. Is this something I really need, or is it something that could be a distraction from God’s plan for my life?
4. Is there any relationship in my life that needs attending so that my prayers will not be hindered?
5. Is there anything going on in my life that grieves the Holy Spirit and should be repented of?
Take a few moments and process this checklist against any prayer you have prayed repeatedly without an answer. Which of these five conditions is the Holy Spirit directing you to address?
ENDNOTES:
i All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
ii Cf. Ezek. 33:32; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; Rev. 3:14-22. “For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold” (2 Tim. 4:3 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition).
iii Jesus drove out the money changers because they had made God’s house into a house of commerce. They were getting rich off of religion. When we make God’s house something other than a house of prayer, we provoke the anger of God (Matt. 21.:12-13).
iv The quotation, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is often misapplied to Albert Einstein. Aislinn Murphy, “FACT CHECK: Did Albert Einstein Coin This Saying On The ‘Definition Of Insanity’?” CHECKYOURFACT. Accessed at https://checkyourfact.com/2019/06/26/fact-check-albert-einstein-definition-instanity-same-thing-over-different-results/.
v We should operate in child-like faith (Luke 18:17). A five-year-old child flips a switch in the house with full expectancy that the lights will come on. He does not know all that must happen behind the scenes for that to happen. Coal must be mined out of the ground and transported to a power plant. At that power plant the coal must be converted to electrical energy which must be transported to the home. Lights must be installed in the home, and the
parents must pay their electric bill. The child does not worry about all that. He simply flips the switch and there is light in the room. We have no idea all that God must do to answer our prayers. But in simply faith, we simply ask and our heavenly Father answers.
vi Cf. Luke 22:42.
vii Cf. Rom. 3:20.
viii Cf. Eph. 2:1-7; Col. 1:20-21; 2:13-14.
ix Whether the person is a Jew, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, or any other religion, that alone does not qualify the individual for heaven. Salvation is only experienced through personal faith in Christ and his redemptive work on the cross (Acts 4:12).
x “Hagiazo,” UBS Lexicon.
xi Because of God’s amazing grace we can come boldly to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). We can come with confidence that he hears us because of the favor we have through Christ. But we never come with any sense of arrogant disrespect.
xii Mounce Reverse Interlinear New Testament. Accessed at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2011%3A2&version=NIV,MOUNCE. Living to bring honor to God is the right posture for effective prayer.
xiii Because God loves us (1 John 4:16), he always seeks our best interest. Because his wisdom is infinite, he always has the way to fulfill that. Therefore, we should trust his guidance without reservation.
xiv See Louw-Nida Lexicon.
xv Cf. 2 Pet. 3:9.
xvi Luke 18:1-8 is an example of this.
xvii For an exposition of 1 John 5:14-15, see Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John (Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press, 2019), 372-378.
xviii In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus likens an offense to a financial debt. Forgiveness is simply saying, “You do not owe me for the past offenses.” That is an initial step toward reconciliation. But the extent of the reconciliation depends on repentance and the degree of trust that can be established.
xix Cf. Rom. 12:18.
xx See also Colossians 3:18-19.
xxi For further explanation of this, see Richard W. Tow, Authentic Christianity: Studies in 1 John, 24-38.
xxii Cf. 1 Kings 21:25; Prov. 28:9; Isa. 1:15; 1 Pet. 3:12.
xxiii This self-examination is biblical (2 Cor. 13:5), but we need the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Satan will sometimes try to heap his condemning accusation on us if we are not discerning. Our authority in prayer is dependent on submission to God, but it is not based on our performance. It is based on the favor we have through Christ. We are dependent on his grace, although his grace teaches us to deny ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12). One key to distinguishing Holy Spirit conviction versus Satanic condemnation is this: The Holy Spirit is specific in his conviction. He will tell you specifically what you’re doing wrong so that you can turn from it. Satan’s accusations tend to be general in nature, designed to dishearten us with as sense of hopelessness and worthlessness.
