What if we don’t receive what we pray for?

Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” It’s a beautiful verse, and yet, there are likely many of us who follow Christ, pray in His name, but don’t receive what we ask for. This, of course, makes reading a verse such as this one a tad confusing. I mean, how are we supposed to interpret it when we know there are occasions in which we don’t get what we ask for in prayer? Does Scripture not say, “Ask, and it will be given to you?”

We pray for a job yet get rejected. We pray for a spouse but are still waiting. We pray for safety and health and are met with pain and loss. When we face realities that seem to be the opposite of what we pray for, we say to the Lord, “Why?” Or maybe we don’t go to Him at all, and instead presume that our circumstances are a reflection that God is simply not listening to us.

First, as Pastor Charles Spurgeon urged, “If God did not mean to hear us, He would not bid us to pray.” But also, I remember, during a dark period, asking God why I was going through what I was going through. The only answer I recall receiving was, “Be still. I am with you.”

It wasn’t until later I realized this truth came from Isaiah 41:10, which states, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” This was an important lesson, namely, that knowing who God is means we don’t have to know why something is happening. His good character paired with His sovereign nature equate to, at least for me, the peace that surpasses all understanding. But there’s another aspect to this conversation worth addressing, and it’s the fact that the more we draw near to Christ, the more our desires will be fixed on what is of Christ. And the more our desires are of Christ, the more likely that we will, in fact, get what we ask for.

Let me explain it a little further.

Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out.” Also, in John 10:28, He stated, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Romans 10:9 reads, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The point? Scripture proclaims the message that if we want Christ in our lives, we are going to get Christ. He wants us to turn to Him, and when a sincere heart prays for a relationship with the Lord, I have to believe that is a request we are sure to receive. And really, is there any desire greater than to be a follower of Jesus? I would have to say no, there is not.

As such, it stands to reason that if our greatest desire is Christ, we will see that come to fruition. I would also argue that if our greatest desire is Christ, and we pursue Him with our entire being, then what we want will increasingly grow to be that which is promised to be ours in Christ. Now, I am not talking about the people who have claimed to have faith and seemingly fallen away. I am talking about what Scripture has to say about being a Christian. And Scripture, most clearly, defines the believer as one with joy, hope, peace, and an eternity with Christ that awaits. The Bible doesn’t say we’ll always feel joyful, nor does it say we’ll always be at peace. But it says we have Christ, and He is where our joy and our peace are found.

He is our anchor and rock, our shield and deliverer. C.S. Lewis once said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” Ultimately, when our eyes are fixed on Him, we view our circumstances differently. Not only do we have hope, but we start to see the purpose that each rejection, trial, and blessing has. Because, even if we can’t understand it completely, when our greatest desire is Christ, we can thank Him for any and all circumstances that bring us closer to Him.

This is a God of intention. When we face rejection, we can pray, “God, thank you for making it clear that’s not where you wanted me to go.” If we’re still waiting for a spouse, we can pray, “Lord, please use this time to shape me into who I need to be to better serve my future spouse and use this time to remind me that You will always be my greatest love.” If we are struck with tragedy, we can pray, “Father, be my peace during this time. May my suffering draw me closer to You.” When our greatest desire is Christ, we can see how each and every one of our prayers are then crafted around this single request: “Give me Jesus.”

And really, what I pray we never forget, is that eternity with Christ makes up for all earthly losses. I once stumbled on a quote that discussed how, even if we die without answers to all our questions, once we are finally fully united with Christ, we’ll no longer feel the need to have those answers. This same truth applies to our requests. Once we reach the end of this life, we may look back and see we did not receive all we requested. And once we see Jesus face to face, we’ll finally realize that He is all we could ever truly want.

“Teach me to pray,” an anonymous Puritan once wrote. “Let Thy Spirit help my infirmities, for I know not what to pray for as I ought. Let Him produce in me wise desires by which I may ask right things … May I never be importunate for temporal blessings, but always refer them to Thy fatherly goodness, for Thou knowest what I need before I ask; May I never think I prosper unless my soul prospers, or that I am rich unless rich toward Thee, or that I am wise unless wise unto salvation. May I seek first Thy kingdom and its righteousness.”

“May I value things in relation to eternity: May my spiritual welfare be my chief solicitude. May I be poor, afflicted, despised and have Thy blessing, rather than be successful in enterprise, or have more than my heart can wish, or be admired by my fellow men, if thereby these things make me forget Thee. May I regard the world as dreams, lies, vanities, vexation of spirit, and desire to depart from it. And may I seek my happiness in Thy favor, image, presence, service.”

May this be every believers pray, that our lives be lived first and foremost for Christ.

Originally published at The Washington Stand.