I have experienced many seasons of unemployment in my life. And during those periods, I often applied for jobs without expecting a favorable response. I had a quota of resumes to send daily but couldn’t always find postings that matched my interests or skills. So I applied to many random positions. I didn’t expect answers for these applications; it was just in case.
Christians often pray with the same attitude. We bring our requests to God not because we believe He will answer us but because it is the right thing to do. We pray once, maybe twice, only to comfort ourselves that we have given it to God. But secretly, we harbor no real expectations that God will provide us with what we ask.
This is wishful thinking posing as prayer. Real biblical prayer comes with the confident expectation that God will hear us, answer us, and give us what we ask.
1 John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
Therefore when we pray and lift our voices before God’s throne of mercy, we ought also to expect His reply. Prayer and expectation have always been the pattern of God’s people.
David said, “O Yahweh; in the morning, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You, and eagerly watch (Psalm 5:3 LSB)
After Elijah prayed for rain, he immediately sent his servant to go out and look for signs of rain. He continued to pray and look up six more times before his servant returned with news of a bit of cloud forming (1 Samuel 18:41-46).
After Habakkuk brought his complaints and questions before God, he expectantly waited for God’s reply. He said, “I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me.” (Habakkuk 2:1).
Why we can pray with confident expectation
We have absolute confidence that God will answer us not because of our worthiness, the eloquence of our speech, or how much Scripture we quote during prayer, but because of who God is.
We can pray confidently because the Father’ adopted us as children. As a father loves and pities his children, so does the Lord have compassion for us. If our sinful, earthly fathers hear and answer us when we cry out to them, how much more will our compassionate, merciful, loving, kind, holy, and gracious heavenly Father be? Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11).
We can pray confidently because of the Son’s intercession. Christ is our high priest who can empathize with all our weaknesses. He gives us access to God’s throne of mercy to find help in our time of need and promises to provide us with what we ask when we pray in His name (John 14:14). And as we pray in His name, Jesus Himself is praying and interceding on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25 says He “always lives to make intercession” for us. We can see a glimpse of Jesus’s prayers on our behalf in John 17.
We can pray confidently because of the Spirit’s guidance. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us on earth and helps us utter prayers acceptable to God. Romans 8:26 says, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” The Holy Spirit has perfect knowledge of God’s will, and He will not help us pray contrary to it.
Why we should pray with confident expectation
Praying with confidence and expectantly waiting for God’s answer is commendable for several reasons.
It shows we believe in God’s Word. Scripture repeatedly promises that God will always answer our prayers (Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, John 14:13-14; 15:7; 15:16, 1 John 3:21-22; 5:14-15). If we do not expect God to give us what we ask, we make Him a liar because we have not believed His Word.
It honors God. It honors our gracious Father, who will not withhold any good things from us, it honors the Son who intercedes for us, and it honors the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and teaches us how to pray. Not expecting answers to our prayers insults the kindness of the Father, belittles the intercessory work of Christ, and discredits the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
It proves our faith. When we pray and expect God’s answer, it shows that our prayers are not wishful thinking or mere formalities. For faith expects God to answer and patiently waits for it.
It motivates us to pray persistently. Knowing that God hears and answers a prayer encourages us to keep on praying as Jesus commanded (Luke 18:1). Like Elijah, we can look out for the rain day after day because we are sure it will come.
It completes our gratitude to God. There is none more grateful than the prayerful Christian who watches and receives answers to prayer. Or, as Spurgeon says, “None sing so sweetly as those who get answers to prayer.” Had Hannah not prayed and expected God to answer her prayer, she would not have sung such glorious praise about God (2 Samuel 2:1-10). We must watch for God’s answer so we can give Him His due praise and glory.
He who prays without expecting to receive a return, mocks at the mercy seat of God. For, let me ask you, of what use the mercy seat can be if God has said, “Seek ye my face” in vain? If no answers do come to supplication, then supplication is a vain waste of time. You play with prayer when you do not expect an answer. The truly prayerful man is resolved in his own soul that he must have the answer.
Charles Spurgeon
This doesn’t mean that we should expect God to give us everything we ask for exactly how we ask. God has promised us to provide us with whatever we ask for when we pray in His name and according to His will (See “Unanswered Prayers:” Why God Says No). His answer may not be what we want or expect, but it will always be what we need. He might not give us the object of our desire, but He will always respond to the need behind it.
I love how Spurgeon puts it. “God has not promised to give you the particular mercy in kind, but He will give it to you somehow or other. If I pay my debts in gold, no man can blame me because I do not pay them in silver; and if God gives you spiritual mercies in abundance, instead of temporal, He has heard your prayers…He gives us what is best for us. And if He does not give us the mercy we ask for in silver, He bestows it upon us in gold. If He does not take away the thorn in the flesh, yet He says, “My grace is sufficient for you,” that comes to the same end.”
So beloved, pray and eagerly watch. Lift up your eyes and look from whence your help shall come. It will surely come.
Grace and peace to you!
Inspired by my pastor’s sermon on John 5:13-15 and Spurgeon’s Sermon: Praying and Waiting
