An Answered Prayer


Just type the word “prayer” into an internet
search engine as I did the other day and you’ll
find almost a hundred million different articles,
sites, books, and periodicals on the topic.
Discussions about prayer are as ubiquitous as
the praying football player in the end zone
after a touchdown. Every major world religion
has some form of prayer, and in some of the
earliest words to the church Christians are
exhorted to pray “without ceasing."

And yet if we’re honest, prayer can be a
frequent source of confusion and deep
mystery. Confusion comes not only with
questions concerning what to pray and how to
pray, but also in questioning whether or not
prayers make a difference or are being heard
at all. Phillip Yancey’s book, which asks one
such question in the title, attempts to address
many of these questions about prayer. Why
does God seem silent so much of the time to
our prayers? Why does God seem to answer
prayers affirmatively for some and not for
others? And when all we seem to receive in
response to our prayers is “no,” how are we to
understand both prayer’s efficacy and the God
who loves us?

If these questions aren’t difficult enough,
Jesus’s own bold statements about prayer
make us all the more confused. The Gospel of
Matthew seems to record some matter-of-fact
statements about prayer. After all, Jesus
proclaimed, “I say to you, ask, and it shall be
given to you; seek and you shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened to you. For everyone
who asks, receives; and the one who seeks,
finds; and the one who knocks, it shall be
opened.” Likewise, Jesus promises that like
our earthly fathers, God longs to give us what
is good in response to the asking, seeking,
and knocking of prayer.(Matthew 7:7-11)
Yet Luke’s Gospel narrative makes explicit
what Matthew’s Gospel keeps implicit about
the gifts given in response to prayer. Jesus
tells his disciples, “If you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?(Luke 11:11-13)

According to Jesus, the goal of all prayer is
the Holy Spirit at work in our lives and in the
world. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate “good
gift” that God gives in response to our asking,
seeking, and knocking.
So, then, Jesus describes prayer in terms of
connection and affiliation, a linking of our lives
by the Son with the Father who gives the gift
of the Spirit. The more this connection grows
and develops, the more one desires it. Hence,
God promises to give us more of the Holy
Spirit-in and through all the circumstances of
life-as the deep answer and the good gift in
response to prayer.
Further, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the
comforter, and the one who comes alongside
us.(John 14:16,26) This is the same Spirit the apostle Paul suggests “intercedes for us with groaning too
deep for words,” and “intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.”(Romans 8:26b -27) Therefore, when difficulties come, when our prayers
seemingly go unanswered, there is the
unfailing assurance that we are not alone.
The Father longs to come near to us as
tangibly as the human Son of God has come
into the world and as assuredly as the
comforting presence of God’s Spirit who
comes alongside us.

Craig Barnes, former pastor of the National
Presbyterian Church, adds:
“Sometimes life gets overwhelming, and we
realize we could use a little help. So we pray
for our health to get better, for our marriage
to work out, for success in our work that has
taken a turn for the worse. There is nothing
wrong in praying for these things, but they are
not what our salvation is about. Don’t expect
Jesus to save us by teaching us to depend on
the things we are afraid of losing! He loves us
too much to let our health, marriage, or work
become the savior of our lives. He will
abandon every crusade that searches for
salvation from anything or anyone other than
God. So he delays, he watches as we race
down dead-end streets, he lets our mission du
jour crash and burn. To receive Jesus as Savior
means recognizing him as our only help. Not
our only help for getting what we want. But
our only true help.”

God’s promise to be present with us through
the power of the Holy Spirit suggests that
God’s presence with us is the deepest answer
to prayer. It is God’s “yes” even if God
answers our specific requests with
“no.” Ultimately, God desires to bring comfort,
not from dependence on the things of this
world, but in God’s presence with us andc
alongside us through the Spirit.
Through the power and presence of the Spirit,
God longs to be the very answer to our
prayers. Ask, and the Holy Spirit will be given to
you. Seek, and you will find the Holy Spirit with
you. Knock, and the door of God’s kingdom will
be opened to you. For how much more will our
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit, to those
who ask?

rzim.org/a-slice-of-infinity/an-answered-prayer

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