Good Monday morning (7-19-10),

At the close of every business day I prepare a bank deposit. I know, with complete confidence, that when I take that deposit to the bank it will be added to my bank account. What’s even better than putting money into the account is knowing that when I write a check on that account the bank will honor it. There is no question about it. I write the check with complete assurance.

That sort of confidence is what coined the phrase, “You can take that to the bank.”

Here’s something you can take to the bank: God will always answer every prayer you ever pray when you pray with a clean heart and you pray His will. There are no exceptions…not ever. His answer isn’t based on your delivery, or how much you weep, or how hard you fast.

When we pray according to His will He hears us, and we know that when He hears us we have received (as a current possession) what it is that we have asked.

That means you can pray that prayer with as much confidence as when you write a check on a full bank account.

Here is how Jesus put it. “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust, and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will get it.” (Mark 11:24, Amp.) Jesus never said we might get it, or that God would think about it, or that it would be weighed against how good or bad you have been that month!

Despite this incontrovertible fact — that God always answers the prayer of faith that is according to His will — many Christians are wounded in the heart because of what they consider to be unanswered prayer. When we believe God has not answered us we begin to harden our heart toward God. We begin to question His goodness and His mercy. Bitterness crowds out joy. We still pray, but it is with a hollow faith.

The number one reason we have lost our confidence in God’s prayer answering account, the reason we find it difficult to pray in faith, is because we have asked for something and not received the answer.

If God always answers the prayer of faith that is prayed according to His will, why didn’t He answer my prayer of faith?

Maybe He did, but you gave up too soon.

In Daniel, Chapter 10, Daniel had been praying for three weeks. When an angel arrived bearing the answer he said something astonishing. “From the first moment you prayed God heard you and sent me. But a demonic principality fought with me to keep this answer from reaching you.” (Laurie’s paraphrase)

We become anxious. We are impatient. We think we know how and when God is going to answer us, and when it doesn’t happen according to our preconceived ideas then we give up on God. We throw away our confidence. We quit.

We need to recognize that God never quits. He will never leave us or forsake us. When we pray according to His will He hears us.

But we have need of patience. We need to learn endurance. I wonder how often I have given up on a prayer — stopped knocking, stopped seeking, stopped asking — turned away in defeat just one moment before the angel broke through with my answer. When the angel showed up I’d had already turned my back.

How often did God answer me, but I didn’t recognize the answer because it didn’t look just like I thought it would look?

Sometimes God waits. He wants to build something into us. He wants to strengthen and deepen us. Is it possible He knows better than I do how that situation should be resolved? Is it at all conceivable that His plan is more perfect than my plan?

Really, this entire issue is about trust. Do I trust that God means it when He says He will answer? If I truly trust Him, trust Him the way I trust the money in my bank will cover the check I just wrote, then I won’t stop asking and thanking until the answer arrives. I will pray through, I will pray without ceasing, I will thank Him in faith and in advance…knowing He always looks over His word to perform it.

“Do not, therefore, fling away your fearless confidence, for it carries a great and glorious compensation of reward. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is promised.” Hebrews 10:34-35, Amp.)

Laurie Gross