Josiah Concept Ministries

People read in the Bible that God will deliver us anything we ask for in a heartfelt prayer. This view of prayer is a childish and man-centered way of thinking. God is not a gumball machine: we cannot just pop in a quarter (prayer), turn a crank, and receive a gumball. There are a few prerequisites.

An atheist website asks us to pray the following prayer:

Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we pray to you to cure every case of cancer on this planet tonight. We pray in faith, knowing you will bless us as you describe in Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:24, John 14:12-14, Matthew 18:19 and James 5:15-16. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

There are a few things that must be noted about prayer before continuing with this discussion that our friends at this website have neglected to factor into their test.

First, there is an obedience component. Look at Job 22:27: “You will pray to Him, He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.” Or “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps 37:4). What about Psalm 66:18? It says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Consider Proverbs 28:9: “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.” Proverbs 15:8 and 15:29 say that “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him” and “The Lord is far from the wicked but hears the prayers of the righteous.”

Notice a pattern in the boldfaced words? That’s right: there is no promise of an answer in any of these verses, there is only a promise that God will hear you. Psalm 37:4 seems to be an exception. However, Psalm 37 has a future outlook to it; and therefore is only a promise of eventual fulfilment, not of immediate gratification. It should also be noted that, textually speaking, following the preceding imperative statements found in verses 3 and 4 will yield positive results. That means the Psalm can be translated as above (NIV), or as “He will answer your prayer” (NET). However, in the original Hebrew, the text promises only a divine blessing, not a direct answer.

Second comes a motivation component. This is key, because the prayerful cannot hide their true intentions from God (Job 10:14; Ps 33:15, 44:21; Pro 17:3, 21:2; Isa 29:15-17). Jesus, when tempted by the devil (Mat 4:1-11), reminded Satan not to test God (verse 7). Jesus was actually quoting Scripture, Deuteronomy 6:16. The consequence is destruction (6:15). That is not as harsh as it sounds. Keep in mind that God, according to the Bible, is not the author of destruction, man is (Prov 19:3; note that man also seems to blame God for this, which could account for the Bible promising destruction from God in these cases).

Third, the context of Bible promises includes not only the immediate verses, but also everything else the Bible says on that topic. Although there is plenty of New Testament material on prayer, I have been citing Old Testament sources to make this point clear. Jesus’ promise assumes that His audience knows everything I have just written.

Nothing in the Bible is written in a vacuum, apart from or separate from anything else. The Bible is a very interconnected volume, and it is important that one thing be understood in light of everything else on the same subject.

That said, let’s examine the verses in that so-called “prayer.”

Matthew 7:7 is the famous “Ask, Seek, Knock” passage. “Ask and you shall recieve, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened unto you.” The atheists say

If “every one who asks receives“, then if we ask for cancer to be cured, it should be cured. Right? If “our Father who is in heaven gives good things to those who ask him“, then if we ask him to cure cancer, he should cure it. Right? And yet nothing happens.

We would not expect anything to happen. We can assume that the atheist asking is not obedient (Rom 3:23). We can assume he has the wrong motives (Ps 14:1-3; cf. Ps 89:46). The person knocking is only testing to see if there is someone behind the door. As Proverbs 19:2 points out, paths of ruin are created by men. Death, weather by our bodies failing, cancer, heart attack, stroke, or getting creamed by a bus entered the world through our own doing. God has never promised to deliver us from the consequences of our own sinful actions. Death will not be removed from the world as it is an age-old punishment for our sins. Cancer is, unfortunately, one way that death can take us.

Jesus did tell us to “Ask, Seek, and Knock.” But He also said that he came to fulfill the Law, not destroy it (Mat 5:17). Obedience to God’s commands are still very important, evening living in this age of grace. Only now we obey by choice, not by requirement.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 17:20 that we can move mountains with faith the size of a mustard seed. Nothing will be impossible! To that, Brain says:

If “nothing will be impossible to you“, then if we ask to cure cancer tonight, cancer should disappear. Right? Yet nothing happens. Note that if we take the Bible less-than-literally here, the statement “nothing will be impossible to you” becomes “lots of things will be impossible to you,” and that would mean that Jesus is lying.

The assertion here is that Jesus is lying if we can find a single thing that is impossible for us to do through Him. But that is just a straw man. That site is asserting that it is impossible to cure everyone in the entire world from cancer in one night through only the power of prayer. No Christian has ever, or will ever, make this assertion. It is certainly possible. But God has another plan, and as obedient Christians we must seek this alternative plan.

The use of Matthew 18:19, 21:21; Mark 11:24; and John 14:12-14 in the above prayer is just laughable. Although each of these verses promise us anything we ask in prayer, they attach the condition of belief in Jesus. Not a single person who runs this “test” believes in Jesus in a way that would fulfill the requirements of those verses.

Brain cites Mark 9:23 and Luke 1:37. To that, I say that these verses only speak of possibility, not certainty. The statements are that all things are possible, not all things God will grant you. It would be nice if prayer worked that way, but as I have demonstrated above, prayer does not.

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. [Jms 5:15-16]

Remember that human beings are eternal. So death is not the end, and it is not a denial of prayer. Death should be viewed as a calling home. The fact that confession is mentioned in this context indicates a “getting right with God” mindset to this verse. The verse expects death in some cases. In fact, death may be the most merciful answer to the offered prayer in some cases.

Then, this section closes with the following statement:

If you are an intelligent, rational human being, all of the examples mentioned above show you that the God of the Bible is imaginary. What Jesus says about prayer in the Bible clearly is not true.

No, these examples only show that God does not grant the frivolous prayers of skeptics with ulterior motives. What Jesus says about prayer should be checked against what the rest of the Bible says about prayer, since Jesus’ audience would have already known about the limitations discussed above.

Overall, the article represents a spoiled child’s attitude to prayer. When a Christian prays, he understands that God sometimes answers prayer “No,” “Wait” or in a very unexpected way. If someone will not make allowances for God to say “No” or “Wait” or to answer it in another way, then he has already hardened his heart to the Holy Spirit, and that is another matter altogether.

The prayer above is not a heartfelt, unselfish prayer as it proclaims. It is a test of God’s existence. God does not lightly dispense answers to prayer. He has a huge population on this planet to consider. Imagine the chaos if everyone on this planet got everything they wanted whenever they prayed. This would literally be a planet of lazy bums, and no one would appreciate anything they had.

People would take God for granted. He hates that (Ex 20:2-6). “No” answers or “Hold on a sec” from God should increase appreciation for the answers we do get, or a better answer than we expected later on. But atheists seem to call for bitterness and resentment whenever God says “No.” That is the attitude of a spoiled brat!

As finite minds, we are not capable of comprehending God’s infinite plan (Is 55:8-9). He built us to wonder about Him, not to understand Him. I cannot answer why He will not heal every cancer patient on this planet, but as an obedient servant I can only trust that this is part of His plan and that it will bring Him greater glory than simply healing everyone overnight.