I know what you’re thinking. Always? But I’m serious. In fact, although I only talk about three of the most important ones here, there are many, many prayers God says yes to. Not sometimes. Not most of the time. All the time.
The problem is that we get caught up in worrying about the prayers we have already prayed in our lives that God hasn’t said yes to, prayers that we have to trust that he has reasons for not answering the way we want.
The beauty of the three prayers listed here is that they’re always good for us, no matter what the situation—so God is always ready to answer them with a decisive Yes.
Doubtful? Give them a try. You might just be surprised.
1. “Forgive me.”
Life is full of things that aren’t easy. But some things are easy. Easier, in fact, than we sometimes realize. One of those things is being forgiven. When it comes to making amends for mistakes we’ve made, the New Testament is as clear as can be that the hardest part has already been done for us. Being forgiven is a given. All we have to do is ask.
There’s a catch. Being forgiven may be a snap, but asking for that forgiveness isn’t. Why? Because few of us like to admit when we’re wrong. Not just to our spouses, and not just to our colleagues at work, but most of all to the individual who we need, above all others, to be able to admit our faults to: God.
Which gets me back to the prayer in question. It’s no exaggeration to say that Christianity is predicated on this single fact: If we say, “God, will you forgive me?” and sincerely try to mend our ways, he will never, ever answer with a No.
The implications are huge. Imagine a football game in which every fumble is ruled a do-over. That’s the way God views our lives.
Every time a player drops the ball, fouls another player or blows a play in any other way, God is ready to let us run it all over again till we get it right. No flags, no 10-yard penalties and no turnovers—as long as we admit our fault and ask for forgiveness.
Which only makes sense if you think about it. After all, God has been watching us blow plays on the field of life since time began. By this point, you can bet that he’s not exactly surprised when we mess up! But he’s always ready to give us another chance. All we need to do is ask.
2. “Give me courage.”
Even when we get good at admitting our shortcomings, there’s one that most of us still have trouble owning up to. That shortcoming is cowardice. Laziness, jealousy, anger…you may be willing to admit you struggle with those and a dozen other less-than-attractive qualities.
But the odds are you still won’t be ready to admit that you’re afraid. That’s why “God, give me courage” is one of the hardest prayers to utter. But hard as it is, it also might just be the single most important one.
Why? Because everything good we do in life depends on courage. C. S. Lewis put it this way. “Courage,” he said, “is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at its testing point.”
In other words, there’s no use in having any of the other virtues if we don’t have the courage to practice them when life puts us to the test. And sooner or later, life tests all of our virtues. Having any of them without courage is like having a flashlight without batteries. No matter how big or strong that flashlight, you’ll still be in the dark.
Which is why we’re so incredibly blessed that God always says yes when we pray to him for the courage to do what we know is right.
Always? Once again, always. Have you ever noticed that most of the people who have won the Congressional Medal of Honor don’t look like Rambo? That’s because they’re ordinary people. Ordinary people who, caught in an extraordinary moment, almost always called on God to give them an added dose—sometimes a huge dose—of extra courage.
Of course, we don’t always require such mega-doses of courage. More often than not, we need smaller amounts. The courage to own up to a mistake we made or to speak up when we feel something isn’t right. God is ready with those smaller packages of courage too—provided we ask him for them.
3. “Get me through this!”
“Look at the bright side.” “Everything happens for a reason.” Right. We’ve all heard the platitudes, and they can be annoying when you’re going through something tough.
After all, though we might enjoy thinking about the past or dreaming about the future when we’re comfortable, when we’re in a tough situation, the present always takes over. Suddenly it’s almost impossible to see past what’s going on—to realize that with a little time things will be okay again.
But they always will. Clichés don’t become clichés if there isn’t some grain of truth to them. And somewhere along the way, people took notice of the fact that bad things in life just about always have a habit of giving way to good things.
If you really look at the bad things that have happened in your life, you might discover that more often than not they’re connected to good things in just that way: so connected they can be inseparable.
You lost a job you loved only to end up with a better one. Even the most terrible tragedies, if you take the long view (and let’s face it, only God is totally able to do that), can lead to our becoming deeper, better people with a stronger and more centered faith.
Maybe you’ve looked back at your life and found a few bad things that God hasn’t made use of yet. That “yet” tells you all you need to know. “All things work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
For me, those words from Romans are the equivalent of a coat of armor. All things? All things. God is the ultimate recycler. There’s nothing he can’t use for a better purpose.
What’s the key to making that happen? I probably don’t have to tell you that by this point: All you have to do is ask.
Download your FREE ebook, A Prayer for Every Need, by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
