HOW GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS

jeremiah-333

How God Answers our Prayers:

  1. No – When we pray against God’s Will or to meet selfish desires or for things that will arm others and/or ourselves, He will answer no.
    1. Many things affect our prayers – what we pray for and motives affecting our prayers.
    2. Selfish desires and motives caused by a broken relationship with Him and with others tarnish motives for wanting things we pray for – limited answer He gives us in response. 
  2. Not yet – Sometimes what we pray for is in His will but He needs to do more preparation work in our life and in the life other others that will be impacted by a “yes” answer. 
    1. Even when we are in right relationship with Him and with family and others, we may pray rightly and with right motives but there is still work He must do in our lives and lives of others to prepare them to accept His miracle of bringing what we pray for to past.
    2. God is aware and concerned with the physical and spiritual needs in our life and wants to meet those needs but not at cost of us or others encountering sin and separation from Him.  We really can’t forsee the cause and effect – the consequences of acquiring things or successes or ???   Can you reflect on things you wanted so badly but later were so glad you didn’t get what you wanted?   I certainly can!!
  3. Get ready first – Sometimes we need to grow closer to and more like Him before we can effectively manage a answer of “yes”.
    1. Our relationship with Him is what is most important to Him and what should be most important to us too. 
    2. The impact of our relationship with Him on the lives of those in our field of influence is also paramount to Him
    3. GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS IN HIS WAY AND IN HIS TIME, BUT HE WHEN WE GO TO HIM WITH OUR NEEDS, HE IS MORE LIKELY TO SAY:     “ FIRST BE MY INSTRUMENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS.  THEN I WILL MEET YOUR NEED”
    4. We grow in prayer – we grow in fellowship with our church family – we grow in bible study and filling our minds and souls with His teaching – we grow in obedience in service.
    5. Shortly after Arlene and I were married in April, 1978, God gave me a life verse and I am still discovering the scope of it’s meaning:   Jeremiah 33:3 “CALL UPON ME AND I WILL ANSWER YOU AND SHOW YOU GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW”
    6. God is showing me a new scope as I pray and seek while serving in writing and sharing my daily devotional journals and blog posts, but He is also showing me a new scope as I live out each day interacting with my dear wife and children and grandchildren and church family and others in my community and direct field of influence.
  4. YES – When God answers yes and proceeds with fulfilling and doing His miracles to bring our request to pasts, than we will see doors open and our prayers being answered in amazing ways promptly.  But in these times His
    1. Sometime His answer of yes will come to pass exactly as we prayed but these times are rare.
    2. Sometimes His yes answer is fulfilled in ways we hadn’t anticipated or prayed for.  This is more common and will greatly increase our faith and realization He does know and do best and far greater than we ask.
    3. God’s yes is a yes not only impacting us but a yes that is also answering and addressing needs of others He is aware of and want to meet as well.
    4. Go is not a journey end but a new journey beginning.  Go is actually a starting point, not a goal.  Yet we can’t begin God’s journey until we pray in His will in such a way that He begins answering “YES” to our prayers.  If He is not, let’s start looking for the reasons why to determine if the initial answer is NO or SLOW or GROW.  All these responses mean He has to wait til some homework is done first either in us or some others.

 

 

One gage I been using in recent years to help me gage where my request fall in this list is “50 or 100 years from now will the benefits or consequences of my request still be felt?”.  More often than not, I discover effect is little so request needs to be of lower priority.  Then again, if I can then see consequences, than my request should not be made.  But if I can see lasting benefits, then I can realize it is something I should pray for and have discipline in asking often and regularly.

 

God understand us and loves us far better than we can comprehend or understand, and will not judge our foolish requests.  But I do believe we can judge our prayer request and not waste our limited abilities to pray and sustain prayer on foolish or needless requests, but focus on those requests that open doors for God to do MIRACLES.   WE HAVE NOT BECAUSE WE ASK NOT.  I believe that verse applies here.  If we want to see our prayers answered with God’s miracles.  Let’s start asking for some more important and life changing things.  You have loved ones who aren’t saved.  You have a neighbor or co-worker or boss who needs the Lord.That is a good starting point.  That is a good starting point.  God may said SLOW or GROW but result will be their salvation and you might just find a richer relationship with Him and with them and with ?? as an additional benefit also..  That is the kind of miracle loves to do and will do more often if we only ask!!   AMEN?   AMEN!!

 

 

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

 

Matthew 7:7-11

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
“Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

 

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. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?”
“Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? “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?”

 

Matthew 21:22

“And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

John 14:13-14

“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

John 15:7

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

James 4:3

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures.”not-in-my-well

Published by donsdevotions

Unknown's avatar

Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

Leave a comment