YOUR PRAYERS WILL BE ANSWERED
Matthew 7:7-11
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 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!
Good Morning! I invite you to turn with me in your bibles to Matthew 7. Yes, you heard correctly, Matthew 7. We are skipping ahead in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. Even though we are just half way through Matthew 5, I want to jump to Matthew 7 today.
Those of you who know me know that this not only uncharacteristic of my preaching style, but it is not easy for me to do either. But we’re going to jump to Matthew 7 for two reasons. One reasons is that we are missing a number of families this morning. Our Bible Bee families are out of town. And it was requested that they not miss the next portion of the series.
That got me thinking and I realized that this coming week we are to observe Thanksgiving. And I thought that maybe talking about lust may not be the most fitting for the holiday preparations.
So we are going to turn our attention to Matthew 7:7-11. It is the familiar section dealing with prayer. More specifically, it deals with God’s provision in prayer, which I find to be a good thing to reflect on as we approach Thanksgiving. If there’s one thing for which we can be thankful, it is the hope we have for answered prayer.
So, let’s give our attention to what the Spirit says in Matthew 7:7-11...
Introduction
I mentioned a moment ago that I felt that this passage was a better choice for today. We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, and I felt that this would be a much more fitting text for our preparations.
And there’s a good reason why it is appropriate. Perhaps you didn’t know this, but the first Thanksgiving that was celebrated in our nation was actually not until 1623. That was two years after the famed dinner where the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sat down together at their now famous feast. Many people don’t know that the first Thanksgiving Day involved a day of prayer.
It was about a year after the Indians had taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn. They had gone out to their fields and had plowed and planted. They had laid a fish in the ground with the seeds, just as they were taught. And it wasn’t long before the seedlings began to sprout. All was looking good. But then a severe drought set in. Their fragile crops were in danger of withering up. It did not rain for nearly two months. From the third week of May to the second week of July not a drop of rain was to be seen.
So the Pilgrims there in that colony turned to God. They declared a day of prayer and fasting. And they spent the whole morning singing psalms, repenting of sin, and lifting their voices to God to beg for rain. And would you believe, God answered those prayers. As a matter of fact, William Bradford reports of the event with these words:
All the morning, and the greatest part of the day, it was clear weather and very hot. Not a cloud or any sign of rain [was] to be seen. Yet toward evening it began to overcast, and shortly after to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God. It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, [but] by degrees…the earth was thoroughly wet and soaked therewith.
There were two things that Bradford noted about this. First, the Indians were astonished. When they prayed to their god for rain, it would always come with violence and destroy the little crops they had. So this event actually was one of the things that opened them up to the gospel as they saw the God of the Pilgrims was much greater than their own gods.
The second thing Bradford notes is that from that point on the rain would come with regularity. And thus they declared a day of Thanksgiving in that following season.
When we think about Thanksgiving day, we often are moved to think about God’s providence and the bounty that he provides. But there is a sense in which we should remember how needful it is to pray. God’s provision is not to be downplayed, to be sure. But we should understand that there is a strong link between prayer and the moving of his hand.
And we all need reminders like this. We need to think about how important it is to pray and be encouraged to pray. And we need to remember that God responds to prayer. Prayer is not a mere formality. It is not an empty rite. By it we can see God moved to action.
And I believe we will be more apt to pray when we understand that God does respond to our prayers. Nothing will encourage us more to pray than knowing that our prayers will be answered.
But the question becomes, how do we know that? How can we be sure that our prayers will be answered? I mean, just because he listened to the Pilgrims, that doesn’t guarantee that he’ll listen to us? How can we be sure that God will respond when we pray?
Well, that’s the assurance that we gain in this passage. This passage tells us that God answers prayer. It gives us three assurances or three reasons why we can believe that our prayers will not just be heard, but answered. Jesus tells us that our prayers are answered because they are anchored in God’s undisputable promise, His benevolent character, and His fatherly relation.
First, we have our assurance grounded in the undisputable promise of God.
I. Our assurance is based in God’s promise (7-8)
Look at verse 7. I want you to notice the repetition. Notice how thorough Jesus is. He says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; Seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”
You have here a threefold promise, do you not? Jesus really drills it home with mounting up these different images, all of which basically say the same thing. It’s not like he simply says, “God will answer you” just once. It is echoed three times over.
And then, in the very next verse, he basically says it again. This time he simply states it as a logical conclusion, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
So really, what this amounts to is a repetition of the promise 6 times over.
Now, I’ve talked about repetition in the past. I’ve said that if someone says something twice, that’s a big thing. That’s like bold face type. But if they say it three times, that is like bold face capitalized font. So that makes what is said here incredible. It’s repeated three times over twice. It’s like bold face, capitalized, italicized, underlined and highlighted with a hot pink marker.
So what Jesus says here is to be regarded as absolutely indisputable. God’s promise is so sure that you can have absolute confidence that your request will not only be heard, it will most definitely be answered.
Jesus repeats this so that it will be pounded deep within your heart and mind. It’s almost like a challenge: Go ahead, pray. Ask, seek, knock. Just do it and watch how the Lord responds.
Now, this is something that you can do too. There’s nothing better than repeating the promises back to God. There are always times when we are reluctant to pray. Maybe it’s because we are spiritually lethargic or perhaps it is because we are filled with doubt. We are reluctant to pray because we don’t think that it is going to work. Those are times where you need to grab hold of these promises and really try to incorporate them into your prayers.
Let’s take the problems we’re seeing with the jab. A couple families are having to deal with this. What can you do? Maybe you can’t pray. Maybe you feel you’re too frustrated to pray. Well, you can begin to pray the promises. You say, “Lord, you told me to ask. You commanded me to seek and knock. And you said that if I do this, you will answer. Lord, you’ve given me a 6 fold promise. So, Lord, I’m looking to you. I have this dilemma. My work is being challenged. I’m knocking on your door about my occupation. I need your provision. I need you to break through to my employers or provide another line of work that will be profitable for my family and me. I’m asking, and you said you would respond. So I am going to trust your promise. I’m going to hang my faith right here on these words of yours. And I look forward to seeing what you will do. I know you will act. I believe you must act. You have said you would. So I leave it in your hands and pray that you will bless the work that I have ahead.”
Now that’s how you should use these verses. That’s taking the promises here seriously. And as you pray these promises and as you use them to formulate your prayer, what’s going to happen? You’re going to clear your head and you’re going to gain more assurance.
As Jesus repeats these promises to you, you can repeat them back to him. And you can begin to find your trust in him becomes a lot easier. These promises are indisputable and so you can take your dispute to the Lord and let your heart rest at ease.
But notice that Jesus doesn’t leave it at that. Jesus gives you another reason to be assured. After affirming God’s promise, he points to the character of God.
II. Our assurance is based in God’s character [9-11]
Look at verses 9-11. And what I want you to take note of is the contrast that he sets up. He draws an analogy between human generosity and His generosity. He says, “which of you, if your son asks him for bread will give him a stone. Of if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.”
Then notice what he says in verse 11. “If you 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.
Do you see what he is doing? He’s using what is called an argument from the lessor to the greater. You are evil and you can expect at least this level of generosity from your fellow wretches. If that’s the case, what should you expect from God—the one who is nothing but pure goodness?
I love this because it really gets at the nature of total depravity. We talk about how man is sinful and inclined towards all evil, but man is not as evil as he could be. Some people think that’s what the doctrine of total depravity is. But it’s not. Man’s nature is corrupt, but God does not allow us to be so evil that we kill off our children or torture them most of the time.
But you get the idea. If we who are evil have at least some potential to show some level of kindness, then how much more should the Lord be ready to provide for our needs? After all, God’s nature is not in any way like ours. God does not have the least bit of evil in him. He is the very embodiment of benevolence. He is the very definition of generosity. His nature is nothing but pure goodness. And if that is the case, should we not then expect that he will answer the prayers of his people?
And the answer is a resounding yes. At least, in so far as it is good for us.
You know, I’d hate to qualify my “resounding yes,” but there is some clarification that this provides. We might object that God does not answer our prayers. And I will say that there have been many prayers of mine that God has not answered. But we must look at it in this light. God does not answer all our prayers because he is good.
We have to keep in mind that we are not good and we don’t always ask for things that are good for us (or for the good of others). I can say that there have been various things that I have prayed for over the course of my life which I can now look back on and say, “I thank God that he did not answer that prayer!” It would not have been good for me to have received that. I have been much better off because I have not gotten that which I prayed for.
Now, think about how that applies to God. God is the essence of goodness. As such he gives good things to those who ask him. If God gave you something that was not good for you, that would go against his nature wouldn’t it?
Or we can flip this around. We can say, “I prayed that God would bless me. And do you know what happened? I got in a car wreck. Or I ended up losing my job. Is that the kind of blessing that God gives?”
And the answer to that is that yes, this was a good thing. God, in his wisdom, knew that this hardship would be a blessing to us. It would be better to go this harder route than if we simply floated through life on a fluffy cloud of ease. He knew that it would be a means by which we grew in faith. He knew that being stretched beyond what we normally would be had some profit to it. And so he answered our prayer in a way we might not have expected. He answered it with a trial.
So, when it comes to unanswered prayer, we must learn to view things from this perspective. Life must be seen through the lens of God’s goodness.
But that’s the exception, I might say. This should not detract from the point that Jesus is making. The point is that we should have every encouragement to pray. We know that God is good. And because he is good, he will never do us wrong. As a matter of fact, we can trust that he will deal bountifully with us.
So, if you are too shy to pray, let this be your consolation. We have every encouragement to pray as a result of God’s promise and God’s character.
But there is a third basis for our assurance. It’s embedded in those same verses that we just looked at. Not only do we have god’s indisputable promise and benevolent character to rely upon, we also have his Fatherly relation
III. Our assurance is based in God’s relation [11]
Again, he says, “You know how to give good gifts to your sons.” Then he adds, “how much more does your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
What is he doing? He’s emphasizing not just the goodness of God, but his Fatherhood. He’s emphasizing that special relationships we have with him and the special affection he displays towards us.
You might think that the two things are not that much different. You might think that God’s goodness and his fatherliness are the same. And there is a degree to which I would agree with that. But I do think that there is some level of distinction. I would suggest to you that emphasizing God’s Fatherly relation gives the benevolence of God that much more power.
You might even say that it makes this less theological and more interpersonal. It brings it to the level of family. So, he’s not merely a divine being interacting with his human subjects in some distant way. There’s a real intimacy that’s expressed in this.
Think about it this way: Let’s say you get a stimulus check from the government. We’ll even go so far as to say that this stimulus check was a good thing (It’s definitely not. It’s money that has been stolen from others and redistributed to you, but for the purposes of this illustration we’re not going to concern ourselves with that). Now the government puts that money into your hand. It has been handed over to you so that you can purchase whatever you please.
Now, ask yourself this, is that the same as your father giving you money for your need. No, it isn’t. You can’t really say that the government really cares about you. It’s not in any kind of relationship to you. There’s something radically different going on when your father comes to your aid. He hears you call out. He sees your need. When he acts, it’s because he loves you and cares about you.
That’s the difference that we are making here. God is not just good. He hasn’t just made bald promises. His goodness and his promises stem from his special interest in you as His child. And his answer to your prayers is a result of the care he has for you.
Perhaps this can put it into perspective. An old Puritan minister once said that “Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went; but he did know with whom he went.”
Do you think about how hard it had to have been for Abraham to up and leave all his family. He walked away from everything that was familiar and comforting. He then stepped out the door without a single clue where he was supposed to go. He didn’t know where he would end up. God had not told him. How was it that he could have the courage to do that? Some might say that it was because he had great faith. Others may say that he was actually a lunatic. But the fact of the matter is, it was not his faith or mental state that made the difference. It was the God who went with him that made it all possible. God was not just out there. He was not just good. But He was personally involved with him. He was a God who had a special charge over him. Abraham knew that he wasn’t just God Almighty, but he knew him in a Fatherly way.
And that should be the way we think about God. He will answer our prayers because he is our father. We can be assured that what we ask will be responded to because there is this paternal relation that he has with us.
Conclusion
I would suggest that this is something for which we can most definitely be thankful. And as we head into the festivities of this week, I hope that this can help to make the most of your celebrations. But most of all, I hope that you will be encouraged to seek the Lord in prayer. Knowing that he will respond and have compassion upon your needs, may you be emboldened to present your supplications all that much more. Not out of a formalism, but out of a spirit of real hope.
Those of you who know me know that this not only uncharacteristic of my preaching style, but it is not easy for me to do either. But we’re going to jump to Matthew 7 for two reasons. One reasons is that we are missing a number of families this morning. Our Bible Bee families are out of town. And it was requested that they not miss the next portion of the series.
That got me thinking and I realized that this coming week we are to observe Thanksgiving. And I thought that maybe talking about lust may not be the most fitting for the holiday preparations.
So we are going to turn our attention to Matthew 7:7-11. It is the familiar section dealing with prayer. More specifically, it deals with God’s provision in prayer, which I find to be a good thing to reflect on as we approach Thanksgiving. If there’s one thing for which we can be thankful, it is the hope we have for answered prayer.
So, let’s give our attention to what the Spirit says in Matthew 7:7-11...
Introduction
I mentioned a moment ago that I felt that this passage was a better choice for today. We are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, and I felt that this would be a much more fitting text for our preparations.
And there’s a good reason why it is appropriate. Perhaps you didn’t know this, but the first Thanksgiving that was celebrated in our nation was actually not until 1623. That was two years after the famed dinner where the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sat down together at their now famous feast. Many people don’t know that the first Thanksgiving Day involved a day of prayer.
It was about a year after the Indians had taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn. They had gone out to their fields and had plowed and planted. They had laid a fish in the ground with the seeds, just as they were taught. And it wasn’t long before the seedlings began to sprout. All was looking good. But then a severe drought set in. Their fragile crops were in danger of withering up. It did not rain for nearly two months. From the third week of May to the second week of July not a drop of rain was to be seen.
So the Pilgrims there in that colony turned to God. They declared a day of prayer and fasting. And they spent the whole morning singing psalms, repenting of sin, and lifting their voices to God to beg for rain. And would you believe, God answered those prayers. As a matter of fact, William Bradford reports of the event with these words:
All the morning, and the greatest part of the day, it was clear weather and very hot. Not a cloud or any sign of rain [was] to be seen. Yet toward evening it began to overcast, and shortly after to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God. It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, [but] by degrees…the earth was thoroughly wet and soaked therewith.
There were two things that Bradford noted about this. First, the Indians were astonished. When they prayed to their god for rain, it would always come with violence and destroy the little crops they had. So this event actually was one of the things that opened them up to the gospel as they saw the God of the Pilgrims was much greater than their own gods.
The second thing Bradford notes is that from that point on the rain would come with regularity. And thus they declared a day of Thanksgiving in that following season.
When we think about Thanksgiving day, we often are moved to think about God’s providence and the bounty that he provides. But there is a sense in which we should remember how needful it is to pray. God’s provision is not to be downplayed, to be sure. But we should understand that there is a strong link between prayer and the moving of his hand.
And we all need reminders like this. We need to think about how important it is to pray and be encouraged to pray. And we need to remember that God responds to prayer. Prayer is not a mere formality. It is not an empty rite. By it we can see God moved to action.
And I believe we will be more apt to pray when we understand that God does respond to our prayers. Nothing will encourage us more to pray than knowing that our prayers will be answered.
But the question becomes, how do we know that? How can we be sure that our prayers will be answered? I mean, just because he listened to the Pilgrims, that doesn’t guarantee that he’ll listen to us? How can we be sure that God will respond when we pray?
Well, that’s the assurance that we gain in this passage. This passage tells us that God answers prayer. It gives us three assurances or three reasons why we can believe that our prayers will not just be heard, but answered. Jesus tells us that our prayers are answered because they are anchored in God’s undisputable promise, His benevolent character, and His fatherly relation.
First, we have our assurance grounded in the undisputable promise of God.
I. Our assurance is based in God’s promise (7-8)
Look at verse 7. I want you to notice the repetition. Notice how thorough Jesus is. He says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; Seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.”
You have here a threefold promise, do you not? Jesus really drills it home with mounting up these different images, all of which basically say the same thing. It’s not like he simply says, “God will answer you” just once. It is echoed three times over.
And then, in the very next verse, he basically says it again. This time he simply states it as a logical conclusion, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
So really, what this amounts to is a repetition of the promise 6 times over.
Now, I’ve talked about repetition in the past. I’ve said that if someone says something twice, that’s a big thing. That’s like bold face type. But if they say it three times, that is like bold face capitalized font. So that makes what is said here incredible. It’s repeated three times over twice. It’s like bold face, capitalized, italicized, underlined and highlighted with a hot pink marker.
So what Jesus says here is to be regarded as absolutely indisputable. God’s promise is so sure that you can have absolute confidence that your request will not only be heard, it will most definitely be answered.
Jesus repeats this so that it will be pounded deep within your heart and mind. It’s almost like a challenge: Go ahead, pray. Ask, seek, knock. Just do it and watch how the Lord responds.
Now, this is something that you can do too. There’s nothing better than repeating the promises back to God. There are always times when we are reluctant to pray. Maybe it’s because we are spiritually lethargic or perhaps it is because we are filled with doubt. We are reluctant to pray because we don’t think that it is going to work. Those are times where you need to grab hold of these promises and really try to incorporate them into your prayers.
Let’s take the problems we’re seeing with the jab. A couple families are having to deal with this. What can you do? Maybe you can’t pray. Maybe you feel you’re too frustrated to pray. Well, you can begin to pray the promises. You say, “Lord, you told me to ask. You commanded me to seek and knock. And you said that if I do this, you will answer. Lord, you’ve given me a 6 fold promise. So, Lord, I’m looking to you. I have this dilemma. My work is being challenged. I’m knocking on your door about my occupation. I need your provision. I need you to break through to my employers or provide another line of work that will be profitable for my family and me. I’m asking, and you said you would respond. So I am going to trust your promise. I’m going to hang my faith right here on these words of yours. And I look forward to seeing what you will do. I know you will act. I believe you must act. You have said you would. So I leave it in your hands and pray that you will bless the work that I have ahead.”
Now that’s how you should use these verses. That’s taking the promises here seriously. And as you pray these promises and as you use them to formulate your prayer, what’s going to happen? You’re going to clear your head and you’re going to gain more assurance.
As Jesus repeats these promises to you, you can repeat them back to him. And you can begin to find your trust in him becomes a lot easier. These promises are indisputable and so you can take your dispute to the Lord and let your heart rest at ease.
But notice that Jesus doesn’t leave it at that. Jesus gives you another reason to be assured. After affirming God’s promise, he points to the character of God.
II. Our assurance is based in God’s character [9-11]
Look at verses 9-11. And what I want you to take note of is the contrast that he sets up. He draws an analogy between human generosity and His generosity. He says, “which of you, if your son asks him for bread will give him a stone. Of if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent.”
Then notice what he says in verse 11. “If you 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.
Do you see what he is doing? He’s using what is called an argument from the lessor to the greater. You are evil and you can expect at least this level of generosity from your fellow wretches. If that’s the case, what should you expect from God—the one who is nothing but pure goodness?
I love this because it really gets at the nature of total depravity. We talk about how man is sinful and inclined towards all evil, but man is not as evil as he could be. Some people think that’s what the doctrine of total depravity is. But it’s not. Man’s nature is corrupt, but God does not allow us to be so evil that we kill off our children or torture them most of the time.
But you get the idea. If we who are evil have at least some potential to show some level of kindness, then how much more should the Lord be ready to provide for our needs? After all, God’s nature is not in any way like ours. God does not have the least bit of evil in him. He is the very embodiment of benevolence. He is the very definition of generosity. His nature is nothing but pure goodness. And if that is the case, should we not then expect that he will answer the prayers of his people?
And the answer is a resounding yes. At least, in so far as it is good for us.
You know, I’d hate to qualify my “resounding yes,” but there is some clarification that this provides. We might object that God does not answer our prayers. And I will say that there have been many prayers of mine that God has not answered. But we must look at it in this light. God does not answer all our prayers because he is good.
We have to keep in mind that we are not good and we don’t always ask for things that are good for us (or for the good of others). I can say that there have been various things that I have prayed for over the course of my life which I can now look back on and say, “I thank God that he did not answer that prayer!” It would not have been good for me to have received that. I have been much better off because I have not gotten that which I prayed for.
Now, think about how that applies to God. God is the essence of goodness. As such he gives good things to those who ask him. If God gave you something that was not good for you, that would go against his nature wouldn’t it?
Or we can flip this around. We can say, “I prayed that God would bless me. And do you know what happened? I got in a car wreck. Or I ended up losing my job. Is that the kind of blessing that God gives?”
And the answer to that is that yes, this was a good thing. God, in his wisdom, knew that this hardship would be a blessing to us. It would be better to go this harder route than if we simply floated through life on a fluffy cloud of ease. He knew that it would be a means by which we grew in faith. He knew that being stretched beyond what we normally would be had some profit to it. And so he answered our prayer in a way we might not have expected. He answered it with a trial.
So, when it comes to unanswered prayer, we must learn to view things from this perspective. Life must be seen through the lens of God’s goodness.
But that’s the exception, I might say. This should not detract from the point that Jesus is making. The point is that we should have every encouragement to pray. We know that God is good. And because he is good, he will never do us wrong. As a matter of fact, we can trust that he will deal bountifully with us.
So, if you are too shy to pray, let this be your consolation. We have every encouragement to pray as a result of God’s promise and God’s character.
But there is a third basis for our assurance. It’s embedded in those same verses that we just looked at. Not only do we have god’s indisputable promise and benevolent character to rely upon, we also have his Fatherly relation
III. Our assurance is based in God’s relation [11]
Again, he says, “You know how to give good gifts to your sons.” Then he adds, “how much more does your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
What is he doing? He’s emphasizing not just the goodness of God, but his Fatherhood. He’s emphasizing that special relationships we have with him and the special affection he displays towards us.
You might think that the two things are not that much different. You might think that God’s goodness and his fatherliness are the same. And there is a degree to which I would agree with that. But I do think that there is some level of distinction. I would suggest to you that emphasizing God’s Fatherly relation gives the benevolence of God that much more power.
You might even say that it makes this less theological and more interpersonal. It brings it to the level of family. So, he’s not merely a divine being interacting with his human subjects in some distant way. There’s a real intimacy that’s expressed in this.
Think about it this way: Let’s say you get a stimulus check from the government. We’ll even go so far as to say that this stimulus check was a good thing (It’s definitely not. It’s money that has been stolen from others and redistributed to you, but for the purposes of this illustration we’re not going to concern ourselves with that). Now the government puts that money into your hand. It has been handed over to you so that you can purchase whatever you please.
Now, ask yourself this, is that the same as your father giving you money for your need. No, it isn’t. You can’t really say that the government really cares about you. It’s not in any kind of relationship to you. There’s something radically different going on when your father comes to your aid. He hears you call out. He sees your need. When he acts, it’s because he loves you and cares about you.
That’s the difference that we are making here. God is not just good. He hasn’t just made bald promises. His goodness and his promises stem from his special interest in you as His child. And his answer to your prayers is a result of the care he has for you.
Perhaps this can put it into perspective. An old Puritan minister once said that “Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went; but he did know with whom he went.”
Do you think about how hard it had to have been for Abraham to up and leave all his family. He walked away from everything that was familiar and comforting. He then stepped out the door without a single clue where he was supposed to go. He didn’t know where he would end up. God had not told him. How was it that he could have the courage to do that? Some might say that it was because he had great faith. Others may say that he was actually a lunatic. But the fact of the matter is, it was not his faith or mental state that made the difference. It was the God who went with him that made it all possible. God was not just out there. He was not just good. But He was personally involved with him. He was a God who had a special charge over him. Abraham knew that he wasn’t just God Almighty, but he knew him in a Fatherly way.
And that should be the way we think about God. He will answer our prayers because he is our father. We can be assured that what we ask will be responded to because there is this paternal relation that he has with us.
Conclusion
I would suggest that this is something for which we can most definitely be thankful. And as we head into the festivities of this week, I hope that this can help to make the most of your celebrations. But most of all, I hope that you will be encouraged to seek the Lord in prayer. Knowing that he will respond and have compassion upon your needs, may you be emboldened to present your supplications all that much more. Not out of a formalism, but out of a spirit of real hope.