Praying With Confidence

What kinds of prayer does God hear?

By Abba Isaac of the Desert

Abba Isaac of the Desert (fourth century) was a disciple of the great pio-neer of the ancient monastic movement, St. Anthony the Great. His sayings are recorded in "The Confer-ences of John Cassian."

The words of Scripture teach us that there are different reasons for prayer being heard, in accordance with the varied and changing condition of souls.

First, Our Lord's words point out how prayer is fruitfully answered in the case when two persons agree: "If two of you on earth agree about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father" (Mt 18:19).

A second reason for answered prayer is the fullness of faith, which Jesus compared to a grain of mustard seed:

"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Mt 17:20).

Yet a third reason for answered prayer is our unwearied perseverance in petition:

"I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence" (Lk 11:8).

Still another reason for answered prayer is found in the fruits of justice and a concern for the poor:

"This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly. . . . Setting free the oppressed. . . . Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless. . . . Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and He will say, 'Here I am!'" (Is 58:6-9).

Meanwhile, an excess of troubles sometimes causes our prayers to be heard, as the psalmist said: "The Lord answered me when I called in my distress" (Ps 120:1). The Lord says of those who are mistreated: "If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate" (Ex 22:26).

Be Bold!

Seeing, then, how many ways the gift of answered prayer may be obtained, no one need be crushed by the despair of a bad conscience. No one need conclude that he can never secure what he needs for eternal wholeness. Surely we can have the boldness that God supplies to all who desire it, the boldness that the Lord promises to reward.

For the Lord does not despise or reject those who are boldly insistent, but actually welcomes and praises them, most graciously promising to grant whatever they have perseveringly hoped for:

"Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened" (Lk 11:9-10). And again: "Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive" (Mt 21:22).

According to His Will

Finally, it is well for us to consider this saying from St. John: "We have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (1 Jn 5:14).

He bids us then to have a full and undoubting confidence of the answer to prayer only in those things that are not for our own advantage or for earthly comforts, but conform rather to the Lord's will. And we are also taught to put this condition into our prayers by the Lord's Prayer, where we say, "Thy will be done" -- Thine, not ours.

For if we also remember these words of the apostle Paul, that "we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26), we will see that we sometimes ask for things opposed to our salvation. In that case, we are most providentially refused our requests by the God who sees what is good for us with greater right and truth than we can. TCA