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ANSWERED PRAYER: SOMETHING FOR NOTHING And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:9-13).
God is absolutely sovereign over history. He possesses the power to answer any prayer. Nevertheless, a question that everyone who prays will eventually ask himself (and God) is this: "Why has God refused to answer this particular prayer?"
In the immediately previous passage, Jesus compared the correct prayer strategy with a request by a man late at night for his neighbor to lend him three loaves of bread, so that he can feed a surprise guest. The neighbor refuses; he is already in bed. The supplicator asks again. The listener eventually capitulates. "I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth" (v. 8). The same view of persistent prayer appears in Luke 18:2-8: the parable of the unjust judge and the nagging widow. She receives a verdict because she will not leave him alone.
These are very peculiar parables. They indicate that we should pray to God as if He were either inconsiderate, lazy, or unjust. We should keep coming back with our request, as if we could nag God into action on our behalf. These are "as if" parables. God really is not like this, yet we should deal with Him as if He were.(1)
There is an exception to this strategy of nagging prayer. Paul had an unspecified affliction that was interfering with his ministry, or so he thought. God refused to heal him. God told him that the affliction was there to keep him from becoming exalted and therefore proud. Pride would have hurt his ministry more than the affliction did. So, after three requests, Paul ceased to pray for deliverance. "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (II Cor. 12:7-10). So, some prayers are not going to answered positively -- what we might call requests for scorpions. The supplicator thinks that a hoped-for egg will do him good. He is wrong. It is a scorpion's egg.
The Holy Spirit The greatest of all answers to prayer is the gift of the Holy Spirit. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (v. 13). We must begin with this presupposition: we are evil. We do not deserve God's grace, i.e., His economic subsidy to us of answered prayer. Effective prayer must begin with this implicit confession. Sometimes it has to be explicit. "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 18:13-14).
Having heard this confession, the Holy Spirit will then pray on our behalf. He will pray comprehensively, beyond what we can imagine. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26-27). This passage precedes one of the most comforting verses in the New Testament: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (v. 28).
Prayer and Predestination Faithful prayer must be seen in the context of Romans 8:28. The key phrase is "all things." This does not imply that a Christian who does not pray will have bad things happen to him as a necessary consequence. Painful things may happen to him, but not bad things. God's predestination is comprehensive. The comprehensive plan of God and the comprehensive sovereignty of God work together to secure exclusively good results for covenant-keepers. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:29-32).
The Wish
The covenant-breaker's equivalent of a prayer is the wish. Middle Eastern stories of genies that offer three wishes are beloved by children in the West. "If only I could get my three wishes!" The person who dreams of having his wishes come true does not recognize that we cannot change just one thing. There are always unforeseen and unintended consequences of our actions. A magical wish would compound these consequences, for such a wish upsets the limits that God has placed on historical cause and effect. A magical wish seeks to remove the wish-maker from the limits imposed on creation by God's curse (Gen. 3:17-19). So does a prayer, but there is this crucial difference: a wish, if granted by a supernatural power, would be granted by something without omniscience to someone without omniscience. The wish would produce unintended consequences. These consequences would place the supplicator more deeply into the power of a supernatural creature.
God does not grant wishes. He answers prayers. There are no unintended consequences for God. When He answers a prayer, the new conditions are part of His comprehensive predestination. He does not predestinate in either a vacuum or a sea of chance. The context of prayer is God's comprehensive predestination (Rom. 8:29-30). The context of wishes is either chance or fate, both of which are impersonal. An answered supernational wish might well gain a person's limited goal, but only on the assumption that both the wish-maker and the wish-provider operate in an impersonal universe. The universe is not impersonal. It is personal -- cosmically personal.(2)
Prayers and Providence
Our prayers are part of God's providential plan. They have been predestined by God. We pray, and God responds positively to us. The problem we have as creatures is this: not being omniscient, we cannot see the hoped-for but limited results of any of our prayers whenever they are treated by God as uninformed wishes. God refuses to grant us our poorly informed requests. In fact, if He did grant such a request, we would be harmed. This is what happened to the Israelites in their rebellion in the wilderness. "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul" (Ps. 106:15). He brought them under judgment. Psalm 106 recounts their continual rebellion. They survived only because Moses intervened before God on their behalf (v. 23). He prayed the most powerful prayer that anyone can pray, a prayer that upholds God's name and reputation.
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people (Ex. 32:9-14).
God grants our requests, but He does so by way of His omniscience. He knows what we really need. We often do not know. He also knows our hearts. We are too often self-deceived. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:9-10). He answers our prayers the long way around, granting us the things that are good for us, not always granting the things we request.
Here, I reprint my comments on Matthew 7:7-12.(3)
* * * * * * * * * *
A Program of Cost-Effective Seeking Here is one of the greatest promises in the Bible: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (v. 9). It is comparable to this promise: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:20b). What are we to make of all this?
First, seeking is the outworking of faith. Faith is a means of risk-reduction.(4) But this passage goes further: active seeking is a means to wealth accumulation. The good things of life are available for the seeking -- not just for the asking, but the seeking. Seeking is a program that combines faith, identification of the items desired, planning to gain these items, and a unique means of securing the completion of the plan. This final stage is generally referred to as the golden rule. All elements must be present for the program to work as outlined here.
The first step listed here is asking, but it is not the first step in the seeking process. The seeker must already have identified whatever it is that he wants. This takes great spiritual maturity. This is the most difficult aspect of the entire procedure. He must identify his own scale of values. Put another way, he must identify his priorities and the reasons for them. He must seek conformity of his priorities to God's written revelation. The Gospel of Matthew makes it plain that the supreme priority is the kingdom of God. This is the covenant-keeper's method of fulfilling the dominion covenant (Gen. 1:26-28).
The second step is the planning stage: seeking. Once he knows what it is he is after, he must think about how he can attain his goal. He must develop a plan of action. He must get from here to there. I have argued elsewhere that this plan consists of two parts, once the goal is identified: 1) estimating the price; 2) estimating the time frame. The shorter the time frame, the more it will cost to complete the plan. We do not get something -- above all, time -- for nothing.
The third step -- knocking -- is Jesus' way to describe prayer. His definition underlies another passage on prayer, the parable of the woman and the unjust judge (Luke 18:2-6). This is the model for constant prayer. We are to pray to God as if He were an unjust judge. He who prays faithfully must be stubborn. If a prayer is worth praying, it is worth praying again.
The frustration of unanswered prayer is always a threat to the faith of the godly person who prays in faith. Unwavering faith is important for getting prayers answered. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:5-8). It takes courage to pray this way: the courage to expect God to answer the prayer. Unanswered prayer is a temptation to disbelieve the promise and therefore the One who made the promise.
Moses told Joshua to exercise courage. "And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed" (Deut. 31:7-8). The same kind of courage must underlie successful prayer. This degree of courage is not given to every Christian, or even most Christians, in most periods of history.
Good Things for the Asking "How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" The child asks for bread. The father does not give him a stone. The child asks for fish. The father does not give him a scorpion. The first request is minimal: bread. The second is for something extra: fish. Giving a stone would be an evil response to a child's request for bread. Giving a scorpion for the request for fish would be even worse.
What was Jesus' point? That men, being evil, do good things to those whom they love. How much more does God do good things for those whom He loves?
But what if the child had asked for a stone to cast at an enemy? Would a wise father grant him his request? No. How much more would a wise father not grant a child's request for a scorpion? Of what good use is a scorpion to a child? What Jesus maintained here was that a legitimate request from a child should be answered by his father. So is God's open hand in relation to His children.
What seems legitimate in our eyes may be the equivalent of a scorpion in our lives: a deadly gift. We lack insight into our own hearts. We are not always good judges of character, especially our own.
The father's gift to a child in response to a legitimate request should be our model for understanding God's responses to our prayers. If we do not see our prayers answered, then the fault may be in our assessment of our needs or perhaps our assessment of the times. The father gives his son bread, but not every time the son may ask throughout the day. Similarly, God gives us what we need when we need it. What defines our need? God's calling and timing. We must see our needs in terms of God's kingdom. The theme of God's kingdom is found throughout Matthew. The kingdom is central; we are not.
Job asked God for death. "Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?" (Job 6:8-11). God had other plans for Job: blessing (Job. 42). He did not grant Job's request.
What is good for covenant-keeping man? Whatever is good for God. The proper criteria of good are theocentric. Through the power of prayer, covenant-keepers are enabled to participate in the extension of God's kingdom. They see their prayers come to pass in history. But these answered prayers extend God's kingdom in history. Prayers are answered in history; the kingdom is extended through answered prayers in history.
* * * * * * * * * Something for Nothing Prayers are a way to gain our objective without paying for it in full. They are a way to get something for nothing. For example, we pray for guidance. This is another way of saying that we ask God to lower our search costs. We pray for a positive outcome from our investment of money, time, and labor. We are asking for an above-market rate of return. We pray for success. We are asking for a reduced risk of failure.
A prayer is our admission to God that the risk-reward ratio is too high for us. We request a subsidy from God. We admit that, apart from God's intervention on our behalf, we are likely to fail. God then searches our hearts. Why are we pursuing the matter? What is our motive? Is it personal success for ourselves? If so, we are placing ourselves at risk spiritually. "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:20-21). Rich toward God: here is the correct motive.
The extension of God's kingdom requires capital. It requires dedicated people. It requires confident people. God provides His servants with capital, dedication, and confidence. Prayer is important as a source of supply for all three shortages.
Prayer offers advantages to covenant-keepers who are active kingdom-builders. It opens the door to God's subsidies to Himself by way of His people. It gives them an advantage over covenant-breakers. While covenant-breakers sometimes invoke incantations or other formulaic appeals to the occult supernatural realm, their requests suffer from these major defects: their own covenant-breaking status, the implacable hostility of their wish-providing sources, their own lack of omniscience, and the lack of omniscience of their wish-providing sources.
Covenant-keepers are encouraged strongly to pray. God wants to grant these subsidies. He knows that the world is too complex for us to understand and deal with on our own. He wants us to adopt standard free market techniques for gaining success: thrift,(5) diligence in our work,(6)
investment in our education,(7) honest dealing,(8) steadfastness,(9) and so forth. But these are insufficient in the long run to produce compound economic growth across the generations. We must also pray, tithe, attend church, confess our sins to God, and exercise all of the other spiritual disciplines. So must our heirs.
Humanistic economics denies this. The humanistic economist assumes that the God of the Bible and His covenant law are important only insofar as men think they are. Prayer, church attendance, and other acts of subordination to God may motivate some men, but the economist is agnostic regarding the existence of a God who objectively rewards such behavior. The economist's faith insists that men's faith in the future, not the content of their faith, is what matters in motivating them to plan for the future. Their faith in the future lowers their acceptable rate of interest, but God's historical sanctions are not part of the equation.
The judicial basis of God's subsidy to us is the cross. We receive something for nothing, but only because Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for our sin. Prayer is therefore an aspect of grace: a gift unearned by us but earned by Christ. He was not paid what He deserved, so that we might escape being paid what we deserve.
Conclusion God is ready to hear the prayers of every covenant-keeper, day or night. He is ready to answer these prayers, but only when they are to His advantage. If they are to His advantage, then they are also to the advantage of His people. He who prays fervently prays on behalf of himself, but he is also implicitly or explicitly praying on behalf of the kingdom of God. The extension of God's kingdom is more fundamental than anyone's self-interested wish list.
The Oscar-winning song in Walt Disney's full-length cartoon, Pinoccio (1939), declares the dream of covenant-breakers throughout history: "When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are." This is incorrect. It makes a very great difference who you are with respect to answered prayer. God is interested in extending His kingdom in history. He is not interested in extending anyone else's.
Footnotes:
1. Another "as if" doctrine is the doctrine of erasure from the book of life. "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Rev. 3:5). "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Rev. 22:19). How do we know that these are "as if" teachings? Because of Paul's doctrine of perseverance. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Rom. 8:33-35). "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come" (Rom. 8:38).
2. Gary North, The Dominion Covenant: Genesis (2nd ed.; Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987), ch. 1.
3. This is adapted from Chapter 16 of Gary North, Priorities and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Matthew, electronic edition (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 2000).
4. Ibid., ch. 15.
5. "There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up" (Prov. 21:20).
6. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23-24).
7. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (II Tim. 2:15).
8. "Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Lev. 19:36).
9. "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).
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