The Key To Answered Prayer - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, October twenty-seventh. Sometimes situations seem so complex, but today you'll be encouraged to trust God, pray, and not give up. How often do you pray? Five minutes a day? Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen?

Maybe twenty. Maybe you don't pray at all unless you get in trouble, unless you need something. When you pray, what are you primarily talking to God about?

Is it something that you need primarily? And so, when I say how long, I'm not talking about what I call like BB gun prayers, bleep, real short. Or shotgun, where you just blast it all over the place. God bless Him, bless her, bless them, give me this, give me that, give me the other. In other words, nothing really specific, but somehow you sort of relieved your conscience by at least talking to somebody out there somewhere.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about talking to the Heavenly Father. Have you ever thought about this? Have you ever thought about praying not because you wanted something, but because you wanted to fellowship with Him? Because you just wanted to be in His presence alone?

Because you just wanted His attention in your life at that moment? You see, it isn't always just asking for this and asking for that. Because think about this. One of the primary reasons God answers prayer is not simply because we have needs.

He's committed to that. One of the primary reasons He answers prayer is because He wants us to get to know Him. Think about this. What do you do in any given day of your life or week of your life that specifically you want to get to know Him better? You say, well, I come to church.

Well, that's helpful. But what about between the two of you? Have you ever thought about just sitting and being quiet in the presence of God? Have you ever thought about just saying, Lord, today I don't want anything. I just want You. I just want to understand You. I want to know You better.

I want a deeper relationship with You. Think about this. The most powerful thing you can do, the most powerful privilege you have in this life is to be able to talk to the Heavenly Father about anything, anywhere on this globe or off this globe, and the Father will hear you. You can touch anybody anywhere in the world through prayer. It's this wonderful holy triangle, and I'll put it like this. Here's the Heavenly Father.

Here you are. Here's somebody's need. And so, you see their need, but you can't do anything about it.

You're a long ways away. But you can talk to the Father, and the Father knows their need. And when you talk to the Father, and the Father knows their need, He can answer your petition. You can touch anybody, anywhere, no matter what the circumstance.

You can touch nations. When God's people get serious about praying, something really and truly happens. And oftentimes we think, why should God answer my prayer?

Simply because He loves you. And you see, if you don't think God loves you, then you're not going to do much praying. And you're going to go through life missing out on the greatest privileges. You're going to go through life missing out on some of the things that God had in mind for you, but you never chose to ask Him. You never chose to ask Him, Lord, would you give me direction in my life? I've been reading the Word.

Would you do this for me? You'll never reach your full potential. You'll never be fully happy. You'll never have the peace that you could have. And you'll go through life, and to the end of your life, you'll end up looking back and thinking, what happened? Where am I?

How did I get this far? And you see, God made you and me for Himself. He made us to fellowship with Him. That's why He saved us. He said, He saved me because He died for me. He saved you because He loves you. And His death on the cross was the means by which He brought about the forgiveness of your sins.

He loves you. He wants to answer your prayers if you're willing to ask Him. There is a passage of Scripture in the Sermon on the Mount. Probably most of us have quoted it sometime in our life. And so, I want you to turn, if you will, to the seventh chapter of Matthew, and I want us to look, if you will, at this one particular passage in the seventh verse.

And what I want you to realize is this. God desires to answer your prayer. So, all these hesitations you have and wondering about, does God care? Does He love me? Is He listening?

The answer is yes, yes, yes. Yes, He does care. Yes, He does love you. Because, for example, in the sixth chapter, the whole last section of the sixth chapter is Jesus saying to His listeners and to those who were seated before Him how much the Father loved them. Secondly, how God would take care of them, meet all their needs. You remember He said in that passage, my heavenly Father knows your need even before you ask Him. And so, He was assuring them. And He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things that you're concerned about, He will answer. He says, don't be anxious about anything. And so, therefore, God desires to answer our prayer.

What I want to talk about in this message is simply this. And that is, when it comes to praying, there is a key. There is a key to answered prayer. Anybody can pray, but if you've never trusted Jesus, you won't be heard. Jesus said, no one comes to the Father but by Me.

Watch this. You cannot reject the Son of God and expect to be heard by God Himself. That's what the Word of God teaches. He's willing.

He's ready. And so, I want you to listen and read along with me in this passage beginning in verse seven of this seventh chapter. He says, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open 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 love, will they 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? So, now look at that verse. He says, if you and I ask and seek and knock, He's going to answer our petitions. Now, if I said to you, well, do you really and truly believe that's what He'll do?

Some of you would say, well, in my life, no. But I want you to listen carefully to this. In all the things that Jesus said about prayer, and He said many things. Disciples on one occasion said, teach us to pray like John has taught his disciples to pray. So, He said many things about prayer.

And so, why? Because it is the will of the Father, the desire of the Father, and the design of the Father to answer our petitions. And so, when we come to say what's the key then to answering prayer, there are two things.

The first one is this. If I really and truly want God to answer my prayer, I must learn to persevere. I must learn to persevere. Just praying and forgetting it and moving on, that's not going to get it. One of the primary reasons people don't get their prayers answered is they start and then they stop. If it doesn't happen today or tomorrow or next week at the latest, then I'm not going to pray anymore because God must not be interested in answering my prayer. He's very interested in answering your prayer. He says, ask, seek, knock. And He says, the Father will answer your prayer.

Notice He said not all that, but He'll give you something good. When you persevere in something, you keep moving, you keep going. It doesn't make any difference what the difficulty, the hardships, the obstacles are. You don't give up. And when He says, ask, and it shall be given you something, and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it'll be open to you, that's what He means. So, when it comes to prayer, it means if I persevere, I'm going to keep asking. And we'll explain the other two.

We'll keep asking and seeking and knocking until we have an answer. That's what He means by that. Now, let me give you an example of how accurate the New Testament is or all the Bible and what Jesus said. In the Greek language, there is an imperative. That means it's a command. Jesus said, seek, it's a command. But there is what is called an aorist imperative and a present imperative. The aorist imperative would be like this, shut the door. But a present imperative would say this, keep the door shut.

Keep on keeping that door shut. So, there's a difference in an act and a continuous thing. A present imperative is a continuous thing. So, when He says ask, He puts in the present imperative, ask and keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking.

Knock and keep on knocking. And so, He intends for us, He knew that you and I would face those situations and circumstances whereby. What we ask for would be the will of the Father, but He knows that it's human nature.

We want it now. Or, we would ask for things that we could not get now for the simple reason what we ask for wouldn't be ready now. Or, what we ask for, we're not ready to receive it right now.

We're not capable of receiving it now. God has to make some changes in our life or changes in our circumstances in order to give us the very thing we ask for. And so, He says, ask, now keep asking, and seek, keep seeking, and knock and keep knocking.

Now, it's interesting He sort of stacked those three together. He says, ask, but don't stop there. Seek, don't stop there, knock. For example, sometimes people have said, I lost my job. I'll say, well, what are you doing? Well, sometimes they'll say I'm praying or I'm looking, this, that, and the other. So, but oftentimes persons say, well, I'm praying for God to give me another job. So, okay, well, what else are you doing?

You go see if you can find one. In other words, look, prayer does not mean I just sit and do nothing and wait for God to just come to my rescue about everything, ask, and not only that, He said, seek, and not only that, He says, knock on the door. That is, there's activity that God involves us in and expects of us when we pray. Now, sometimes you don't have to do the second and the third, but sometimes we do. And remember, when He says, seek and ask and knock, sometimes God is in the process of getting us ready for the answer. We're not always ready for the things we ask for.

And so, there's something else happening during that time. When you and I are asking and seeking and knocking, and the answer's not there quite when we want it, what happens is we naturally begin to look in at ourselves and say, well, God, what is there going on inside of me? Or what's happening inside of me if there's something going on here that I need to look at myself? Is the reason for the lack of an answer something that's in my life?

Or, Lord, is there something You want to change about me? In other words, if it's not there, when He said ask, seek, knock, He says, then something's going to happen. You can expect it. Therefore, if it doesn't happen, then we have to ask ourselves the question, why? And if you and I will be honest about our praying and ask Him, Lord, what is it, what's holding us back? He'll show you. Because He wants to meet your need. He says He knows what our needs are.

He desires to meet them. And if they're not being met, there's a specific reason. So, what people usually do, they just say, well, you know what, I've been praying, I've been praying three months, and God, forget it. He's not listening to me. If He were listening, He'd answer my prayer.

I read the Bible, I pray, and I don't see any answer going on, so why should I keep talking in the air when nobody's listening? You're not talking in the air, you're talking to the Father who is very wise about what you're asking Him for. And watch this, what you ask Him for may be almost the right thing.

So, He's got to change some attitude. Now, remember what He says in this passage later on when we come into it. He talks about giving us good things. Now, all of us have asked for things that were not good for us. And sometime I say, thank You, Jesus, you didn't answer my prayer, because we ask for things that are not His best for us, and so when the answer is not there, I have a right to ask, but I must also be willing to make whatever change is necessary. Now, when I look at this passage, and I have to ask, first of all, what does this not mean? When He says, ask, seek, and knock, that does not mean that if I ask Him and I don't get it, I take another step, and I take another step, so I knock and I knock and knock, and finally, if I knock long enough, I'll override the will of God.

No, you won't. So, it doesn't mean that if you knock or if you seek and you're asking and nothing's happening, that if you keep on doing it, you'll finally, finally override the will of God, and He'll say, okay. Nor does it mean if you ask and seek and knock, that finally He'll change His mind. No, He's not going to change His mind, because remember, He said, my Father knows before you ask Him what you need. So, why is God going to change His mind? He's not going to change His mind because you pursue and you persevere till finally He gives in.

That's not the way He operates. And remember, there's a reason for His, not hesitation, but a reason for His withholding the answer at that time, because something is not ready. Either we're not ready or the circumstances aren't ready. We're not ready. We're not ready.

We're not ready. And for example, let's say that somebody's praying that they want a husband or a wife. I'm praying for God to give me a husband. You ought to give me a wife.

And so, what happens? You're praying so God isn't answering my prayer. Well, it just may be that you've never met the person.

God's got the person out there. You've never met them. They may live five hundred miles away or two hundred miles away, or they may live across town, but you don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them. You don't know them.

You don't know them. You can't arrange the circumstances to do the very thing you're asking to do. And so, you decide, I'm not going to wait any longer and make a big mistake.

So, there's a reason. Now, of course, somebody says, well, isn't that just like asking God to give you a blank check? Ask, knock, seek, finally I'll make it. He says, I'm going to make it. He says, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it.

I'm going to make it. Listen, what I want you to see is, don't be discouraged, because it's not happening when you expect it to happen. Because remember, He knows you perfectly. He knows exactly what you need. He knows exactly what is good for you. And so, I would ask you, do you want God to give you something that's not good for you?

No, you don't. Do you want God to give you something that you're not ready for and cannot handle at this point in your life? Not really. Do you want God's best?

Yes. Are you willing to wait for God's best? Well, that waiting business bothers me.

Well, if you want God's best, you've got to trust Him to know when is the best time and what is best for you. So, when He says, ask, seek, and knock, He wants us to keep on. Because while we're asking, seeking, and knocking, He's working. And you may look around you, so I don't see anything going on. Well, it's the wonderful thing about God.

He can just work up a storm, shall we say. And we don't see anything going on, and all of a sudden, there it is. He says, you ask and keep on asking. You seek and you keep on seeking.

You knock and keep on knocking. The answer is coming. You say, well, does that mean that whatever I've asked, I'm going to get it?

Well, let's look at it this way. We're talking to a Heavenly Father who knows everything. We're talking to a Heavenly Father who's promised to meet all of our needs. We're talking to a Heavenly Father who's promised to give us good things and only good things. So, we have a right to anticipate, to expect, but He has a right to decide when the time is.

And we're coming to Him passionately. That is, this isn't, well, I'm going to pray once in a while. When you're asking and you've gotten up to the knocking part, you are passionately talking to God about something that is of major importance to you. Is He listening? Yes, He's listening. Does He want to answer your prayer? He will answer your prayer. Oh, what will His answers be? They will be yes, what's the next one?

Wait, and what's the next one? I've got something better for you. Now, that's the way I personally look at it. I look at it this way. God says, yes, wait, I've got something better. Now, you say, well, He could say no.

Well, He could say no, but let me ask you this. If He's your love in the Heavenly Father and He wants the best for you and He says He's got good things for us, then is He not answering by simply saying, He could just say no, end of story. But if He says, I've got something better for you, then I'm going to keep on praying. If God says no, then I think, okay, all right, so I messed up, I was asking for the wrong thing. Sometimes we're not asking for the wrong thing, we're asking for the right thing, but we're asking on our schedule.

And so, people get discouraged. And that's why the whole issue here is persevering in prayer. I keep praying because I know that my Father wants the best for me. I know He's provided the best. I know He is going to give me the best. And therefore, I must keep praying while God is working on me of a circumstance in order to get me ready for His best.

You don't give up and quit because you don't get what you're looking for when you're looking for it. God answers prayer not because we're so desperate. He answers prayer for us because He loves us. He wants us to understand who He is, what He's like, what He's about.

So, we start it off in the very beginning of the message. He wants us to know Him. And one of the ways we get to know Him is the way He responds to our request. We learn what He thinks is good. We learn about His timing. We learn about His love. We learn about His silent times.

And we learn how to live the Christian life in a much more exciting fashion. That's who He is. He's an awesome God who loves us. Thank you for listening to The Key to Answered Prayer. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by, intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia. We'll be right back.