Q-and-A: Why Should I Ask God for Anything More Than Once?

[This is the second of a series of columns I'm writing on questions people have posed to me lately. I hope that you find it helpful.]

“I trust that Jesus answers my prayers,” a friend recently told me, “so, why should I ask things of Him more than once? When I keep on praying about a request, I feel as though I’m saying that I don’t really trust Him.”

My friend has a point. Jesus promises, “I will do whatever you ask in My Name.” (John 14:13)

Making requests of God in Jesus’ Name involves asking for things we believe are consistent with the character of Jesus. No one praying in Jesus’ Name would ask God to help them cheat in a business deal or cover up a murder, for example. Those sorts of things aren’t consistent with Jesus’ character.

Praying in Jesus’ Name also entails acknowledging that it’s only through Jesus that we can approach God. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus says. “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

So, assuming that we believe our requests are consistent with Jesus’ character and are offered in the belief that Jesus is the way to God the Father, why should we offer prayers in Jesus’ Name more than once?

One reason is that Jesus tells us that we should. He once told the story of a poor widow who wanted a corrupt judge to find that she had been wronged by someone else. The judge wasn’t in the habit of finding for plaintiffs in such cases unless they could pay him with a bribe. But the widow was so perseverant in pursuing her case that, just to keep her from bothering him anymore, the judge found in her favor.

After telling this story, Jesus contrasts God with the corrupt judge. He says that unlike the judge, God will grant justice to those “who cry out to Him day and night.” And then Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man [that’s Jesus Himself] comes, will He find faith on earth?” [Luke 18:1-8]

If God answered all our prayers at the moments we said them, we might see God as a cosmic ATM. We would see God as our subordinate, instead of as our Master and King.

Or, we might begin to think that the good blessings that come as the result of our prayers had nothing to do with God.

God wants us to keep on praying so that, as we await His answers, we’ll learn to truly trust Him. (Trust is what the Bible is talking about when it speaks of faith or belief in God.)

God also wants to leave no room for questions in our minds about whether the good things that have come to us really are from the God to Whom we’ve been praying.

A final reason that God may want us to persevere in our praying is to change the motives behind our prayers.

We may be tempted to offer prayers like the one in the old Janis Joplin song, “O Lord, please give me a Mercedes Benz.” But God wants us to make love of God and love of neighbor our highest priorities, not personal comfort.

“Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart,” Psalm 37:4 says. As God forces us to wait for answers to our prayers, He causes us to make His priorities our priorities. We become people who genuinely ask for the good things that God wants to bring into every person or circumstance we pray about.

We start to move from being selfish babies treating God like an extension of our own egos and whims, toward being mature children of God who invite the love and power of God into the world.