In our previous article about prayer, we answered seven common questions that people ask about this most important topic. We saw that God wants us to pray because He delights in our prayers and because He commands us to; we are to pray through Jesus; praying "in Jesus' name" is about praying with His authority and purposes; our prayers are primarily supposed to be addressed to the Father through the Holy Spirit; the Spirit's role in prayer is to intercede for us; we noted some characteristics of effective prayer; and lastly, we learned a bit about fasting.
Now, in Part 2 of this series, we are going to tackle just three questions about prayer...but three utterly crucial questions about prayer. These three questions—and their answers—have been the cause of pain, doubt, confusion, weak faith, and outright unbelief in many people's lives. Having a solid foundation, therefore, on the subject of prayer—especially regarding these questions—is very important for the faith of those who follow Jesus and call themselves Christians.
1.) Is There Such A Thing As Unanswered Prayer?
Well, that depends on your definition of unanswered. The word unanswered means "not responded to." It doesn’t mean "not responded to as you would like." Some would say that God indeed chooses not to answer the prayers of His people, but we do not think that is consistent with His Good character. We believe, therefore, that there are three answers that God could give us regarding our prayers: "Yes", "No", and "Not yet/Not now." That’s it.
We believe that, if we have the authority of Christ to pray to God (which we do), and Christ says "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...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!"—if Christ says those things, we don’t think there is any room to say that our Good Father does not respond to our prayers.
The problem is that people define "unanswered prayers" as those which God does not answer as they would like Him to answer them. But He does answer them in either a "yes", "no", or "not yet." And we have to believe that when He gives us any of those answers, it is for good, because God "works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Also, since we don't know how or what to pray for as we should, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-27), ensuring us that His will will be done.
2.) Do We Need To Say A Prayer In Order To Be Saved?
Now, this is a controversial question. Evangelicals are used to asking people to pray the "sinner’s prayer," and tell them that if they pray it with all of their heart, they will be saved. The problem is that nowhere in the Bible do we see the pattern of saying a prayer out loud to be the manner in which we are to be saved. What we see is people believing in Christ in their hearts, and then being given the Holy Spirit, and publicly announcing it by being baptized. But of course, the answer to this question may depend on people’s definition of prayer or conception of praying.
If by prayer, people mean having to close your eyes, bow your head, and recite some words to God, then no, prayer is not needed in order to be saved. But, if by prayer people mean personal communication with God (and in this case, communicating that we believe in Christ and believe Him to be God)—then prayer is still not needed to be saved, but may be involved in receiving salvation.
“If you understand the gospel, believe it to be true, and have accepted Jesus as your salvation, it is good and appropriate to express that faith to God in prayer. Communicating with God through prayer can be a way to progress from accepting facts about Jesus to fully trusting in Him as Savior” (GotQuestions.org). But this phenomenon does not make prayer a necessary condition for salvation—the only condition is faith in Christ. What if someone dies before praying the sinner’s prayer, but had just truly believed in Christ as their Savior, are they not saved because they didn’t pray? No, they are saved, because the only condition is faith in Christ.
Romans 10:9-10 says: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Faith alone is the condition for salvation (Rom. 4:4-5; Ephesians 2:8-9). If we assert that saying a prayer is necessary in order to be saved, then we would be adding a condition to salvation that the Bible does not teach. In fact, the whole Gospel of John would be wrong if praying were necessary to be saved—and, indeed, the rest of the Bible.
The point is this: do not base your salvation, nor have others base their salvation, on having prayed a prayer—praying in and of itself does not save you. What saves you is your faith in Christ. But, sure, you may communicate your faith in Christ to God through prayer, but in most cases, you must have already had that faith in your heart in the first place, and have confessed Him as Lord.
3.) Does Prayer Change The Way God Acts?
This may seem like an odd question, but if you think about it: The Bible says God never changes (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17). So, if He never changes, why should we pray...is He suddenly going to change His mind for us? Doubtful. Surely there must be some explanation. It is true that God never changes, so…His response if we do pray will be one thing (and it will have always been that), and His response if we don’t pray will be another thing (and it will have always been that). In other words, there are only two possible ways God can act regarding prayer: the action He takes when we do pray, and the action He takes when we don’t pray; both are fixed because He doesn’t change, not even His mind.
We see this principle in the O.T., especially with a story of Moses. In Exodus 32:9-14, God tells Moses that He would destroy the people of Israel for their sin. Moses then prays and pleads with God to not pour out His wrath on Israel. We then read that God did not destroy them, that He relented—once Moses prayed. What happened there, did God actually change His mind? No. When the Bible says "God relented," it is making use of anthropomorphic speech (from a human point of view).
Moreover, God's action in Moses' case (and all other cases) was always fixed for either of Moses’ two decisions: to pray or not. If Moses had not prayed, God would have destroyed the Israelites at that time (and that would have always been His action in that situation); and if Moses prayed (and thank God He did), the Israelites would be spared (and that would have always been His action in that circumstance). God’s actions were fixed in either of those two different cases.
So when we pray, it is not that we "change God’s actions or mind," it is that we now get to see what His actions are having now prayed—His acts don’t change, His mind doesn’t change, we changed by praying and got His already-determined response to our prayer, if indeed what we prayed for was in His will. This makes prayer extremely important.
An example of this would be, if your teenager desires a car and you say that you will buy him one if he graduates with at least a 3.5 GPA, you are also implying that if he doesn’t meet your condition, you will not buy him a car. Your two actions are fixed and pre-determined, and both have conditions—assuming you keep your word and don’t decide to not buy him the car even though he meets your condition, which is why it is important to follow through on your promises and consequences (good or bad) for your kids and not change your mind when you make them. This will show them part of God’s character: that He never changes and is trustworthy.
And, related to this, this principle of God never changing and prayers being important is the reason why Jesus says "Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24). This verse sounds a little weird, right? It seems to be saying that if we just believe whatever we want and pray about it while thinking we already have it, that it would be ours, it would come to pass. This sounds like something out of The Secret, which is a new-age, positive-confession movement teaching that the universe brings you that which you think about often and ask for.
But no, what this verse means is that if we pray for something that is in God’s will, we will receive it (in fact, have received it), for it was always in His will to give it to us if we prayed for it. In other words, we’d be asking for something that’s already ours to have. He’s always had it for us, but we only receive it if we ask for it through prayer. So, in a very real sense, if what you’re praying for is in His will, believe you already have it. And if you don’t know if what you’re praying for is in His will, you’ll soon find out—but you can still believe that if what you’re asking for is in His will, that you will receive it, that you do have it. So, when you pray, God is not changing; the only thing that "changes" is which one of His responses you receive, and even those were always determined by God.
May this series on prayer have blessed you, and have moved you to get on your knees and start praying. God is good all the time! For Bible verses about praying/prayer, click here.
Recommended Resources
