Mark 11:24 – All prayer answered?

Mark 11:24 – “Jesus says you’ll get whatever you pray for, but we know that doesn’t happen”

Jesus was not casually telling everybody that all prayers are answered, he was talking to his disciples about what was possible for those completely surrendered to God and his will. To receive answers to prayer three conditions are given:

1) in Jesus’ name (John 14:12-14, meaning according to his will, see 1 John 5:14 – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”),

2) with unswerving faith (Mark 11:24, James 1:6 – “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind”),

2) with godly motives (James 4:3 – “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”)

As believers we can have faith that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Sometimes God uses difficulties, weaknesses and trials in our lives to purify us and accomplish his purposes. Jesus modeled this attitude of humble submission in prayer for us before his crucifixion saying,

“Father all things are possible for you . . . Yet not what I will, but what you will (Mark 14:36).