Mining Grace

I want to reiterate where we ended up at the end of part 2 of this series on how God answers prayer. We closed by saying that our prayers and our persons are accepted on the same basis before God. That basis is the mediatorial and atoning work of Jesus Christ. We will return to this point often: a healthy prayer life is only possible when we have a deep abiding sense of what took place on the Cross. With that said, we can move on to the first of the five ways that God answers prayer.

Sometimes God answers prayers as we pray them.

This is the most simple of the five ways to explain and to discern. We have manifest evidence throughout the Scriptures of God answering the prayers of his people just as they prayed them. Any believer should also have plenty of instances in their own growth in grace to which they can point and say, “God answered my prayer.” Let’s look at one notable example from Scripture.

Elijah vs The Prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40)

Ahab ranks in the top three of the worst kings (along with Jeroboam and Manasseh) out of the catalog of kings we find in the books of the Kings. One of Ahab’s more detestable sins was to encourage the people of God to worship the false god Baal. The Lord called the prophet Elijah to confront Ahab and the people of God on their idolatry. The confrontation was on the scale of what we might now call a no-holds-barred, winner take all, cage match. Elijah would represent YHWH, the living God. The prophets of Baal would represent Baal.

The thing to note in reference to our current study is that the contest was a contest over whose God could immediately answer the prayers of his people as they prayed them. The stage was set with two sacrifices. Each opponent would pray to his god to burn up the sacrifice. The god who answered was the true God. It would not do for God to delay his answer or for him to answer differently than the request at hand.

The prophets of Baal go first. They spend a good part of the morning in all sorts of pagan rituals. Elijah, good prophet that he is, resorts to mocking the god of the pagan prophets. We see in the mockeries of Elijah some of the false views we ourselves harbor of our prayer answering God, namely that he is unconcerned or unable to answer prayer.

Then Elijah steps up to the plate. He insists on water being poured over the sacrifice to further highlight the monergistic power of his prayer answering God. Then Elijah prays his prayer and God gloriously answers with flames from heaven, consuming not only the sacrifice but even the water from the trench around the altar. The prophets of Baal are routed and killed. God Almighty was shown for who he is, the mighty prayer answering God who for his own glory, sometimes answers prayers just as his people pray them.

Now having shown from Scripture God’s power and willingness to answer prayers as they are prayed, lets end with some conclusions.

1. May the possibility of God answering our prayers as we pray them be a motivation for us to pray bold prayers. All too often we don’t hold out the possibility of God answering our prayers directly and so we pray bland prayers or don’t pray at all. There should be a sense of urgency and excitement to our prayers when we consider that it may be the Lord’s will to answer with exactly that for which we have prayed.
2. Let us ever hold out the truth that it would be a cruel thing for God to answer all of our prayers as we pray them. If God does not answer in this way it is not because he is aloof or unloving but that he is especially gracious and loving. We very often have no idea what is good for us. Often, what we think would be good for us is what in actuality would make a shipwreck of us. It is very similar to when my 2 year old asks to play with a sharp knife. For me to say, “No, but here is a football” is not cruel or uncaring but actually the more loving option than giving him his desire.
3. Let us be thankful to our God when our prayers are answered in this way because they are most easily recognized. The people of God have always struggled to be thankful. We all to often receive tremendous graces from God and then turn and attribute our blessedness to our own frail and sinful efforts. See in prayers answered as we pray them a chance for us to be especially thankful. No other answered prayer is as noticeable as this kind.
4. Lastly, and to connect back into how we opened this post, let us consider it to be a most amazing thing not that God answers our prayers but that we are allowed to pray God’s answers. For God to answer a prayer as someone prays it is for their will and God’s will to be unified in that request. How could a wretched sinner and a holy God ever be of like mind? Only through the Cross of Christ. It is only through the redemptive work of God that people like us could pray in such a way as to pray in line with God’s perfect will. Truly, the amazing thing of this type of answered prayer is not that God answers our prayers but that we are made by grace to pray God’s answers.

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How God Answers Prayer Series:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7