The story is told of family friends gathered together for dinner and visiting when the time came for the young ones to retire. One young boy, before going upstairs to bed, said to the group, “Does anyone need anything? I am about to go say my prayers and I can ask for you.” The young boy had great expectation from his prayers. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have the thought that little boy had in regard to prayer? So many times, we pray not fully expecting the outcome we pray for.
In James 1:5-8 we are told, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
If we lack wisdom, and we all lack wisdom, we only need to ask of God and he will give it. This statement points to the fact that God is characterized by his giving. He is a giving God. It is a part of his nature to give, and he gives to all. Brother Woods comments that the answer to some prayer is conditional. In some instances we should recognize the contingency of prayer in the petition: “if it pleases you, grant our request.” He goes on to say that whenever a request from one of God’s faithful children is not granted affirmatively, the sorrowing child of God still has an answer to the prayer. He always answers prayer. There is no such thing as an unanswered prayer ever said by faithful followers of God. True, he does not always say yes, but the no is as much of an answer as the yes would be. When we make requests of God which are not for our good or, because he intends to give us richer blessings in the future, it is an answer for our good and we should be content with the answer.
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
For the elders, Tony Williams