Rev. Harlan G. Vanden Einde is pastor of the Oakdale Park Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The question of this reader is: “It says in the Bible if we pray in faith believing that God will hear liS, then he will answer our prayer. But if we have prayed in faith, relying on the promises of God, and he answers us in the negative, how can it be then that he does not answer our prayers? It says his promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.”

I presume that the reader has in mind such passages of Scripture as I John 5:14, “And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us,” or John 14:13, 14, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do.”

Some people have interpreted these texts to mean that God has given us a blank check and invited us to fill it in. In other words, we can ask for whatever we want, and expect God to grant it. But is that what these texts mean? Is that really the teaching, the full teaching, of Scripture about prayer?

It is important to notice the phrase “according to his will” in I John 5:14 and the phrase “in my name” used in both of these verses of John 14. Those phrases qualify or place a condition on our prayers. Not just anything for which we ask will automatically be given by God, but that which we ask “according to his will” and “in his name.”

You see, real prayer is communion with God, so that there are common thoughts between His mind and ours. What we need is to have Him fill our hearts with His thoughts, so that His desires will become our desires Hawing back to Him in prayer. If wc ask anything according to His wiu or in His name, He will hear us. But what is it to ask anything according to His will or in His name? Surely It means more than simply concluding our prayer in Jesus’ name or for His sake. To ask anything in the name of Christ is to ask in harmony with what Christ is! It is to ask as if Christ Himself were the supplicant! We can only ask God for what Christ would ask, if we are to meet the conditions of praying “according to his will” and “in his name.” So that is not like receiving a blank check in which we are invited to fill in the amount we desire, but it is to spread our need before Him, commit our way to Him, and leave Him to answer as seems best to Him. Martin Luther put it well when he said: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness.” How important it is then to have the “mind of Christ” in us as we pray!

Let me conclude with a couple of illustrations from the Bible relative to prayer. When Lazarus of Bethany fell sick, his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent word to Jesus saying: “Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick.” They desired His help, to be sure, and must surely have hoped that Jesus would come immediately and heal him. But their request recorded in Scripture went only as far as spreading their need before the Lord. Was Jesus mute to their cry? They may have thought so, for Jesus stayed two days in the place where he was before He finally went to Bethany. He had a purpose in mind for waiting as He did, but the point to be made here is the proper attitude of the believer in the hour of need.

A second illustration is Paul’s request for the removal of the thorn in his flesh. Three times he asked that it be removed. vVas his prayer answered? Yes it was, though not in the manner he desired. But it was answered in that he was promised and given the grace to be able to bear it.

There are times, you see, when we selfishly pray for the removal of a given problem, and then think if it isn’t removed, God hasn’t heard or answered us. But if God, through that problem, determines to give us greater faith or more grace, then that is a more glorious answer than the removal of the problem itself. God does hear and answer prayer, but always “according to his will.”

We must be very careful in our prayer life not to try to reduce God to our servant, one who is always doing our bidding, performing our pleasure, granting our desires. Rather, let our prayer life be a coming to God in faith, telling Him our need, committing our way to the Lord, and leaving Him to deal with our request as seems best to Him.

If the reader is interested in pursuing this subject more fully, I would recommend reading from Arthur W. Pink’s book, The Sovereignty Of God, chapter nine entitled “God’s Sovereignty and Prayer.”