Can we get God to say ‘yes’ to our prayers more?

Yes, God answers the prayers of His children. Of course He does.

Sometimes the answer is “yes,” sometimes it is “no,” and sometimes it is “wait.” And at still other times, the answer comes from a totally unexpected, undreamed-of direction, opening up opportunities and situations we could not have imagined.

But here’s an interesting question. Is there anything we can do to see our prayers answered more often with a “yes.” I believe there is.

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Jesus, you’ll remember, taught us to pray like this:

“Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT).

I love that prayer. It is a template for all prayer. When we come into God’s presence, we need to stop and recognize we are speaking to the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving Creator of the universe. If we do that, it will change the way we pray.

Now we come to the first secret to answered prayers. He teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” If I have unconfessed sin in my life, all of the prayers of the world won’t accomplish a thing.

God told Isaiah: “Listen now! The Lord isn’t too weak to save you. And he isn’t getting deaf! He can hear you when you call! But the trouble is that your sins have cut you off from God. Because of sin he has turned his face away from you and will not listen anymore” (Isaiah 59:1-2, TLB).

The psalmist said, “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18, NLT).

If you refuse or neglect to confess your sins — agreeing with Him that what you have done is wrong — it’s like you just hung up your phone on God. Yes, there will still be a relationship; that doesn’t go away because it was given to you as a result of your believing in Jesus. But fellowship and communication with God can be temporarily severed — like phone lines blown down in a windstorm. But — thank the Lord — it can be reconnected through the confession of sin.

Some say, “I don’t really know if I have any sins to confess.” You will, however, if you spend time in God’s holy presence! You will become aware of how in need of forgiveness you really are.

Remember in the prophet Isaiah’s vision, how he “saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted”? And what was his response? “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:1, 5, NIV).

The more we see God in His glory, the more we will see ourselves in our sinfulness.

It makes me think of the light-colored pants I occasionally wear. It seems to me that whenever I wear them, I spill more food and coffee on myself than usual. But then I realize that I am always spilling stuff on myself. I just normally wear dark jeans and don’t notice the stains.

I think you and I sin more than we think we sin. Just trust me when I tell you that it’s a good thing on a daily basis — or maybe even an hourly basis — to say “Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who have sinned against us.”

And there’s another key right there in that sentence. You must forgive others.

Forgiven people need to be forgiving people. If you are not forgiven by God, then you are wracked with guilt. If you don’t forgive others, you are consumed by bitterness.

Unforgiving people are bitter people. No one wants to hang around them because they are always upset and ranting. They rarely smile and laugh from the heart, and they frequently dine out alone. Is there someone you’re thinking of right now who has sinned against you that you need to forgive?

Jesus says, “If you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God” (Matthew 5:24, NLT).

Isn’t that interesting? He says, “If they have something against you.” You might shrug your shoulders and say, “Well, that’s their problem.” But actually, it’s your problem, too. The Lord says you need to deal with it — or at least seek to be reconciled with them.

What if they refuse to reconcile? The Bible says, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18, NKJV). So do what you can and then leave the results to God.

It was C. S. Lewis who once said, “Forgiveness is a lovely idea until we have someone to forgive.”

But that’s the clear instruction God gives us in His Word. Ephesians 4:32 (NLT) tells us to “be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

You may say, “But they don’t deserve forgiveness!” Yes, that may actually be true. But here is my response. Do you deserve forgiveness? Do I? No, we don’t. Not at all. But God in His grace has forgiven us in Christ, and as His sons and daughters, we need to follow Him in that.

Finally, don’t give up!

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7, NIV).

Do you notice the ascending intensity in “ask, seek, knock”?

I start by asking God. Then I begin actively seeking Him. After that, I’m knocking — actually pounding on the door. And is heaven offended when we do that? Not at all. I like Luke 18:1 (TLB), where we read, “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes.”

We have to be persistent in our prayer. And how will God respond? If our request is wrong, God says NO. If the timing is wrong, God says SLOW. If you are wrong, God says GROW. But if the request is right and the timing is right and you are right, God says GO.

It’s true that we don’t know the will of God about many things. But we can be confident in praying for a loved one who doesn’t know the Lord. That is directly in His will. He says so! We can be confident in praying for our country to experience a spiritual awakening. We can be confident in praying for God’s blessing, protection, wisdom, direction and provision.

And we have to stay at it. We can’t back down or give up. We have to keep seeking. We have to keep asking. We have to keep knocking and knocking.

When we do, we find what we were seeking — and so much more. We find ourselves drawing close to the heart of God.