Does God Answer Every Prayer?

What is God prepared to give you? Answering that question will do a lot for your prayer life.

By Deacon Frederick Bartels
13 January 2024

We sometimes hear that God answers every prayer in a way that aligns with his will. Well … there’s perhaps some truth in that. But I also think it’s a little bit of a dodge. For example, if I pray in a selfish way, let’s say for financial wealth, is it better to say that God does not answer that prayer or that God answers it in an unexpected way which will lead me closer to him? In other words, will my selfish prayer result in God “teaching me a lesson”?

The Importunate Friend

St. Luke’s parable of “the importunate friend” provides some insight (Luke 11:5-13). In this parable a man goes to his friend at midnight and asks for bread to feed a traveler. His friend refuses to get out of bed. Nevertheless, the man remains persistent in his request.

This “parable invites us to urgent prayer” says the Catechism (2613): “Knock, and it will be opened to you.” God the Father will “give whatever he needs,” to the person who prays insistently, “and above all the Holy Spirit who contains all gifts” (ibid). A key takeaway is that God will give us whatever we urgently need, not whatever we might want. The point here, it seems, is insistence in asking for the truly good things we really need.

Asking Wrongly

Selfishly asking for what we want is at odds with asking for the good things we truly need. St. James has this to say: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3) and “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

James 4:7-10

The emphasis here is on humility (see also Luke’s parable on the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, 18:9-14), desiring God, resisting temptation, and seeking God’s grace. If we want our prayer life to be fruitful, we must begin with these principles.

The Catechism tell us:

If we ask with a divided heart, we are “adulterers” (cf. Jas 4:4); God cannot answer us, for he desires our well-being, our life. “Or do you suppose that it is in vain that the scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us?'” (Jas 4:5). That our God is “jealous” for us is the sign of how true his love is. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard.

CCC 2737

It seems the Catechism is saying God does not answer the prayers of a “divided heart”; that is, prayers from a man who is an “adulterer,” a man who relegates God as an instrument to be used for his own selfish pleasure or gain. Do we see God as a powerful tool or as our heavenly Father and Creator, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Jesus teaches Us to Pray

The Catechism also reminds us that Jesus teaches us how to pray (CCC 2607). The prayer of Jesus is the highest example of prayer because he is the incarnate Son of God—he is God in the flesh. When we explore the prayers of Jesus, we find that he prayed to do his Father’s will in Gethsemane, and he often prayed for the well-being of others. He prayed for truly good and necessary things.

From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart: reconciliation with one’s brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.

CCC 2608

Some “Prayers” Are Not Prayers

For these reasons, I prefer to say that there are some prayers God does not answer. The fact is, there are some types of “prayer” that are not really prayers at all. At the same time, God never ceases to draw us to himself—it’s up to us as to whether we respond to his grace and call.

Are There Prayers God Always Answers?

But are there some prayers God always answers? I think it’s safe to say “yes.” For example, a sincere prayer for faith in Christ. If we are sincerely seeking truth and salvation, and open to this prayer, God will always grant it. He will never withhold faith in Christ from someone who sincerely seeks it. As St. Paul teaches, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Tim 2:4) and Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6).

God will not withhold the gift of faith from those who sincerely seek it (against Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination). That is why I always encourage someone who is struggling with whether God exists to pray sincerely for the gift of faith. Unfortunately, people who reject God are more often interested in shoring up their own false ideas than truly seeking God.

There are other prayers we could add here, for example the prayer of a humble and repentant sinner for God’s mercy, or a prayer for the grace to seek God’s will and act on it, or a prayer to be satisfied and grateful for what we have instead of always wanting more.

Finally, God will answer prayers for the good things we truly need. Here we think of faith, hope, and charity, the gift of the Holy Spirit, as well as petitions for our neighbor, for our daily bread and other necessary good things. But let us not forget this foundational purpose for prayer, as St. Augustine said, “God wills that our desire should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give” (St. Augustine, Ep. 130, 8,17:PL 33, 500).

What is God prepared to give you? Answering that question will do a lot for your prayer life.