Does God answer prayers?

from the old testament

• The common saying that God answers prayers with “yes, no, or wait” oversimplifies what the Bible actually shows. In reality, Scripture reveals a range of responses—God may ignore, delay, redirect, deny, or grant a request—depending on His will and our hearts.
• Ignored – God may refuse to listen when people persist in unrepentant sin (1 Samuel 28:6; Proverbs 1:25-29; Isaiah 1:11-15). Through the words of Wisdom in Proverbs, we learn that not fearing the LORD leads to ignored prayers.
• Delayed – Sometimes God’s answer is withheld or hindered, calling His people to patient trust (Psalm 40:1; Micah 7:7; Lamentations 3:25-26; Daniel 10:12-13). The Bible does not tell us that God ever explicitly answers with a “wait” answer as in, “now is not the right time.” Rather, we learn that we must wait without knowing for certain the reason there’s a delay.
• Redirected – He can deny the specific request yet grant something better or different that still fulfills His purposes (Deuteronomy 3:26-27; 1 Kings 19:4-8). God does not have to answer us exactly as we asked. He will answer in a way that keeps His promises, continues His mission, and is overall better for our welfare.
• Granted (“Yes”) – God often gives exactly—or even more than—what was asked (Genesis 24:12-19; 1 Samuel 1:19-20; 2 Kings 20:5-6).
• Denied (“No”) – At times He clearly refuses a request, even from faithful servants, for reasons tied to His righteousness and larger plan (Numbers 20:12; 2 Samuel 12:16-18; Job 38-41).

from the new testament

• Though God is sovereign and knows what we want, we are still commanded to pray! In fact, we are told to be persistent, waiting for an answer. In Luke 11, Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray. He gave an example of a man banging on his neighbor’s door for bread (Luke 11:5–8). Just like the man in the illustration kept knocking until the other man answered, we also are to keep “knocking,” expecting God to answer us (Luke 11:8–9). If we are not being answered, we might need to check whether or not we are sinning. Assuming a lack of an answer cannot be traced to sin, Jesus taught that it’s right for us to keep praying until God answers!
• Jesus also taught that we are to pray like a child who depends on his or her parents. When a child asks for food from his father, a father will never give something harmful in answer (Luke 11:11–13). God does not give us everything we ask for or exactly like we ask. Instead, just like a human father knows when and how to give things that are good for his children, we can trust the heavenly Father to give us good things in response to our prayers. We are to depend on the Father, knowing even if He gives us something different, He does so because He has our wellbeing in mind.
• God will not answer us when we have sinful reasons for asking (James 4:3). It may not be wrong to ask for a raise, for example. But if the reason we want to raise is because we want to buy more toys, God may very well say “no!”
• A believer’s prayers can be “hindered” when we are sinning. For example, Peter said, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”” (1 Peter 3:7). The word in the original Greek that is translated as “hindered” in many English translations is uncertain, and can mean “cut off,” so commentators are split as to what Peter meant. He either means that sinning husbands will have difficulty knowing how to pray correctly because of their sin or that God will block the sinning husband’s prayer (it will be “cut off”). Just as in the Old Testament passages, we see that being unrepentantly sinful causes problems with prayers.
• John wrote 1 John to assure believers of their salvation by encouraging obedience to God’s will (1 John 2:17), and he concludes by urging them to pray according to that will (1 John 5:14)—specifically that fellow believers be kept from sin (1 John 5:16)—which is the kind of prayer God hears and answers.
• Because of our sinfulness and limited understanding of God's work, we often don’t know how to pray rightly—but the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, does (Romans 8:26–27). As God Himself, the Spirit intercedes for us with perfect knowledge of the Father’s will, praying exactly as we need.
• When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, He showed them that prayer starts by first honoring God (Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4). Everything we do, including prayer, is first and foremost about God and not about us.
• Though the Old Testament shows that God often ignores the prayers of sinful people—who include all unbelievers (Romans 3:9–18)—He is merciful and responds to those who sincerely seek Him. For example, Acts 10 describes a God-fearing Gentile who “prayed to God continually” (Acts 10:2), and God heard his prayers (Acts 10:4) to bring him salvation (Acts 10:22ff), showing that even unbelievers can hope for God’s gracious response when they earnestly seek salvation.

implications for today

God is clearly a God who answers prayer! However, just because He answers prayer does not mean that we get whatever we ask for. God is not a “genie” or Santa Clause who grants our wishes. Instead, prayer’s effectiveness is directly related to our relationship with God. God desires righteousness and will withhold answers or will otherwise negatively respond when we are sinning. Conversely, when we are living in ways that pleases Him, He is happy to answer. In all cases, however, God’s answer may differ from our expectations. That is because He knows what is in our best interest as well as in the interest of those for whom we are praying.

So, how does this affect our praying life? First: we need to pray! When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he answered saying “when you pray” (Luke 11:2b). Jesus expected all of His disciples to be praying. Second: we need to pray for what is good. We don’t always know what is truly good, but we need to ask ourselves whether we are asking for something that glorifies God or is just for us to spend on our desires. Third: we need to pray in dependance on God. We are to persistently pray until we are sure we’ve been answered but must also be willing to accept whatever answer we get, even if we wish it had been different. Fourth: we are always to pray with God’s ultimate glory in mind. Everything that God does is for His glory, and as Christians, we should desire to see Him glorified beyond all things. When He is the ultimate aim of our prayer, He will be pleased to answer.