I’ve been having a lot of prayers answered lately. I may have been getting a little prideful. So I was thinking about prayer this morning and expecting a word from the Lord on the subject. This was my answer:

He reminded me of the time Peter was jailed. (Acts 12) Herod the King had had several followers of Christ killed: including James, the brother of John. The Sanhedrin (religious council in Jerusalem) and their followers were so happy about the death of one of the Apostles that Herod thought he’d do it again to please them. He had Peter arrested.

So the believers in Jerusalem got together and prayed for Peter. The night before he was to be brought out to face judgement by Herod, Peter was sleeping between two guards when an Angel woke him and escorted him out of the Jail.

Peter went to the house where the people were praying for his release.

“And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!” But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James (Jesus’s half brother) and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.” Acts 12:13-17

After reminding me of this story, the Holy Spirit posed this question: “Why were their prayers answered?” I realized that they had not had faith in their prayer so, yeah, why were their prayers answered? Several possibilities ran through my mind but this is what I was left with:

Faith in your answer is not required. It is clear that those prayer warriors did not expect their prayers to be answered, because they were surprised by the answer. After all, it was a hard “ask” when you think about it. Peter was in a prison chained to two guards, with four squads of men between him and the exit. Even if the believers in Jerusalem contemplated a jail break, they would see how useless it would be.

Faith in Christ is required. So why was their prayer answered? I believe it was because they prayed according to Jesus’s will. As the Bible says:

“14 And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14-15

In other words, If we pray according to His will, He grants us our requests. In a way, this is a big relief. Some people think prayers are granted because of our faith: that if we just believe hard enough God will be impressed and grant us our petitions. That puts a lot of pressure on the individual. Faced with overwhelming odds and a mortal timeline, we often despair of having enough time to “gin” up enough faith to be of any use.

A wise man once told me that we have no right to expectations. Just because we do things “right,” that is no guarantee we will get our desired results. Applied to Christianity, I take this to mean that we don’t get to decide how God should answer our prayers. Our job is to pray and leave the answer up to Him, trusting in His goodness and grace.

Take the old story the “Christmas guest” as an illustration. In one version of the story, penned by Leo Tolstoy, an old cobbler dreams that he will be granted his greatest wish: On Christmas Day, the Good Lord will come to visit. So he sits and waits for His arrival. Meanwhile, the cobbler’s Christmas is interrupted three times by weary travelers, whom he helps, even as he awaits his Lord’s coming. At the end of the day, the cobbler, fearing that the Lord did not come, gets a surprise when he asks where He was. The Lord reveals that He had come three times in the guise of the three travelers.

Again, the prayer was answered, but not as expected. In fiction, as a mercy to the reader, the author revealed what really happened with the answer to the cobbler’s prayer. In real life we often do not know the outcome of our prayers. That is why faith in the Person of Christ is more important than faith in the prayer itself.

I’m learning that the key to answered prayer is not about my will, but about finding His will, and getting His answer. The more I pray according to His will, the more successful my prayer life is going to be.