A Bible Devotion

The answer to this question is that you should ask until you get the answer.

When you believe you have the answer, it would be silly to ask again.

But how should you determine when you get the answer? What evidence will you require to believe you have the answer?

What will God have to do before you will believe He has granted your request? Will God need to send an angel to tell you your request is granted? Will you have to wait until all the circumstances change and everyone sees the answer show up in your life?

Or, will you simply accept God's Word as sufficient evidence to believe God has granted your request?

Jesus said in Mark 11:24 that we are to believe we receive the answer when we pray. The key to receiving from God is not long praying, but faith. What we believe is what makes the difference.

God gave us the Bible to change what we believe, so we could know His will, pray in agreement with His will, and therefore have confidence that our requests are granted.

MATTHEW 6:7 NKJ 7 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

In Matthew 6:7 Jesus warned against using "vain repetition" in prayer, but this probably means more than just making the same request more than once. It cannot always be wrong to repeat a prayer, because Jesus prayed the same words three times in Matthew 26:44. It depends on what kind of prayer it is.

It is appropriate to repeat some prayers, like those found in Ephesians asking for believers to be filled with the knowledge of God's will with all understanding. That is not a prayer you can just pray once and believe you receive the full answer immediately.

But when we ask God for some material thing, we should not need to ask more than once. We should believe God granted our request when we prayed. So it is not appropriate to ask God again, but only to thank Him.

What is vain repetition? Something that is useless and makes no difference.

MATTHEW 6:7 ERV 7 "And when you pray, don't be like the people who don't know God. They say the same things again and again. They think that if they say it enough, their god will hear them.

Successfully praying to receive things is not a matter of wearing God down with repeated requests until He finally gives in and grants your request.

Jesus taught that what we receive through prayer is a matter of what we believe. Mark 11:24 tells us that when we pray we are to believe we receive our answer when we pray.

If we believe we receive the answer to our prayer, there is no need to continue asking for that request. There is no need to keep asking for something we already have.

We don't have to believe we are in possession of what we requested, but simply that God has granted our request and the answer is on its way to us.

How many times would you ask a friend to do something for you? Unless you are forgetful or crazy, you would only ask them until they said yes. Once they said they will do something for you, if you trust them, you know they will do it. Continuing to ask them to do something after they already agreed to do it would be rude and disrespectful.

MATTHEW 21:22 NKJ 22 "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

The key factor is what you believe. If you don't believe God heard and answered your prayer, then you need to pray again. But you need to recognize that the fault is not with God, but with you.

Jesus taught that to receive from God we must ask in faith. If we are not prepared to believe we receive the answer when we pray, then we are not ready to pray for that request.

We have no business praying for something we do not believe is God's will. But if we pray in agreement with God's will, then we should know we have the answer.

1 JOHN 5:14-15 NKJ 14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

"What then am I to pray about? What do I say tomorrow during my prayer time?"

If you believe you received the answer "yes" from God today in regard to your request, then tomorrow when you talk to God about it, you should say "Thank You!" "Thank You that You are working and the answer is coming. Thank You for answering my prayer. Thank You that things are working out good."

"But," you say, "nothing has changed yet!"

If you think that, it shows you are basing your beliefs entirely on the information coming from your circumstances. You are not accepting God's Word as worthy evidence. You have not believed that God granted your request and the answer is on its way. With this approach, you cannot expect very good results in prayer.

SAY THIS: There is no need to ask for something after it has been granted to you.