“Isn’t Prayer Just a Hope?”

In a Bible class the question was asked, “Isn’t prayer just a hope?” Absolutely not! Prayer is a promise from God! Prayer is communication with the awesome God of heaven and earth. Prayer is a beseeching, a drawing near to God, a pouring out of the soul in supplication and a kneeling down before the mighty Creator. Christians are told to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17). Why? Why are Christians instructed to pray without ceasing? Prayer avails (Jas. 5:16)!

Prayer is more than a hope. Prayer is powerful; prayer avails much. God’s attention is obtained through prayer. God delights in the prayers of the upright (Prov. 15:8). Christians are promised that when they pray in secret that their heavenly Father who sees in secret will reward them openly (Matt. 6:6). Prayer must be offered in faith that God is, and is the hearer and answerer of prayer. Our prayers need to be sincere, offered humbly with an awareness of one’s own insignificance.
Our prayers need to be offered with strong belief and conviction: “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing you will receive” (Matt. 21:22). Many pray with some sort of a hope but not really believing: “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mk. 11:24). Prayer needs to be offered with reverence, Godly fear, and in full faith, belief and trust. The question is, do we have FAITH? Do we believe these texts of promises concerning prayer? These promises of God make prayer more than a hope. God who cannot lie (Tit. 1:2) has given us the promise that He hears and that He answers our prayers.
Prayer always needs to be offered in faith. The prayer of faith is not a prayer of hope but a prayer of belief and trust: “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Jas. 5:15). Do we believe the prayer of faith will save the sick? Notice, it is the prayer of faith not the prayer of hope that will save the sick. Faith is explained thusly: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Faith is more than hope, it is substance. Faith is seeing! Seeing the unseen! Christians don’t just hope, they see the unseen by faith in the power of the One who promised. The Christian believes so strongly in God and His power that what he is asking for is not some hope but is as though it has already occurred or is already a reality.
Prayers offered with just some sort of outside hope or the feeling that maybe by chance it will happen, never avails. Prayer needs to always be offered in FAITH, nothing doubting. Praying in faith is seeing the prayer already granted and answered by the One who promised. Naturally, all prayer must be cradled in the words of Jesus: “…not My will but Your will be done” (Matt. 26:39). Jesus requested that the cup of suffering and death be removed from Him but for the greater good of God’s purpose this could not be and Jesus recognized God’s sovereign right in the answer given to His prayer. There are times when God answers “Yes” to our prayers, and times when God in his sovereignty answers with “No.” Either way, a prayer offered by a faithful Christian in faith is always heard and answered. If the answer is no, the child of God should not say, “God didn’t hear my prayer,” but should say, “God heard my prayer but He is the sovereign God of heaven and earth and He knows what is best for me.”
God hears the prayers of every righteous person: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” ( Ps. 34:15). By faith we can believe: “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Ps. 34:17). The question is, Can we by faith believe a text like this or can we only have a hope that we will be delivered? Can we believe the Lord will raise up the sick as a result of an individuals prayer of faith? Is James 5:15 a promise or a hope? James wrote: “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (Jas. 5:15). Is this verse just a hope or is it a promise?
A prayer offered without faith is like a woman who has to taste her cake before serving it. That woman’s cake is called doubt cake and some prayers would have to be called doubt prayers. We should always ask according to His Will. What does it mean to ask according to His Will? “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”(I Jn. 5:14). To ask according to His will is to ask in keeping with His teachings. We must ask respecting the laws God has set in motion. Therefore to ask God to do something that He has already stated in His Word (the Bible) that He would not do would be to ask not according to His will. Some will ask for something that is not according to His Will and then think God just did not hear their prayer or He refused their petition. It is according to God’s Will regarding prayer that we include in our prayers: “not my will but Your will be done.” This assures God that we recognize His sovereignty. It also assures us comfort of heart when God says no. Why? It means we have comprehended that God knows what is truly best for us, His children.
Christ has instructed that prayers be offered in His name—John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16: 23-24; Colossians 3:17, Acts 12:12, Matthew 6:6; 6:9, Ephesians 5:20, 3:14. Jesus promised the apostles: “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (Jn. 14:13-14). Did the apostles have faith in His promise? In the final analysis, at the end of the day, prayer is a matter of faith and we need to pray, “Oh Lord, increase our faith!”