Have you ever wondered why God seems to delay answering your prayers? In this episode, Dr. Charles Stanley dives deep into Jesus’ words from Matthew 7:7–11, unpacking the biblical sequence of “Ask, Seek, Knock.” He explains why God sometimes builds delays into our prayer lives—not out of indifference, but out of love—to strengthen faith, deepen relationship, and align us with His perfect timing. Through practical insights and personal reflection, Dr. Stanley challenges listeners to persevere in prayer, allowing God to work in the hidden places of their hearts and build enduring trust in His goodness.
00:00:01 Intro to Learning to Pray the Bible Way Part 2
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, October 7th. Have you ever been frustrated by what seems like a delay in answer to your prayers? Let’s investigate that common experience in part two of Learning to Pray the Bible Way.
SPEAKER 01 :
Would you say that your prayer life is rather a haphazard response to needs and desires, or is it The nourishing of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ within you. Because you see, when you gave your life to Jesus Christ, He came into your life to live. And it is in prayer that we nourish our relationship with Him. And some of you are struggling in your prayer life. You ask and nothing seems to happen much. In fact, you’ve sort of wondered if God’s really listening anymore. In fact, you really wonder if He even cares because… You’ve brought this to him and this and this and somehow nothing’s really happened and you don’t see anything going on. And surely if God’s the God he says he is, why doesn’t he do something? Well, all of us have struggled at one point or the other in prayer. And I believe if you listen carefully today, you’re going to find a simple message that will help you in your faith, in your talking to God. The title of this message is Learning to Pray the Bible Way. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11. And in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, beginning in verse 7, Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. And he who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf or bread, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him?” Now, one of the reasons Jesus has made this very clear and very specific in the steps he’s given us is because that prayer is not really all that simple when you begin to evaluate it on the one hand. Secondly, prayer isn’t just talking to God. Prayer becomes work. And prayer demands diligence. And when he says ask, seek, knock, Jesus is saying there is a sequence of events. And there’s something going on here more than just something verbal. Now, why did he put it in that fashion? And why did he not simply say, pray and you will receive, period, and let that be it? Because he wants us to understand the true nature of prayer, that it is more than asking. Because there are times when you and I ask and we don’t get exactly what we ask for. There are times when we ask and there’s a delay. Now, all of us have had to face that. We pray for a season. We don’t see anything happening, so our conclusion is it must not be God’s will. Oftentimes, it is the will of God, but there are built-in delays. Now, why does God delay? Because He’s a good God, and He knows that in order for you… To become the person He wants you to be, you may need exactly what you’re asking for. He may already have it on the rail, ready to send your way, but He cannot and He will not until you are in a position spiritually to receive it. So one of the reasons he causes the delay is in order to get us to surface things in our life that are not right, to deal with them so that you and I can enjoy what God wants to give us. There’s some things that I believe all of us ask for in life that God delays because he knows if he gave them at that specific time in our frame of mind, we would make the biggest mess of things imaginable. So he delays. A second reason we ask, time goes by, nothing happens is, that God is in the process of testing our earnestness. I wonder how God responds when you and I come to Him and we say, Lord, here’s my need. You know, it’s a desperate need, Lord. And I mean, on Sunday night, you get down to praying and it’s a desperate need. Monday, it’s still pretty bad. And Tuesday, it’s still there. And by Friday, it’s sort of gotten lost in all the rest of the week and all the rest of the things that have been going on. Do you understand why he said, ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking to build into us an earnest spirit? So let me ask you a question. The last time you brought something to God and it was absolutely critical and urgent, red flags flying and red lights flashing in heaven over your need. How long did you pray? Did it sort of fizzle out within two weeks? Then ask yourself the question, what degree of concern really drove me to God? Or did you just stop praying and decide, I’ll work this out somehow my way. Maybe God will sort of help me do it. He says, ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. He says, because God is going to answer your prayer. Now, there’s another reason. Not only our earnestness, but he says, ask and keep on asking. Why? Because he’s going to test our faith. How do you build faith? By testing it. And how do you test it? How do you test faith? You withdraw. And God builds in those delays to test our faith. So think about this for a moment. Why did he put it in this fashion? Ask, keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. Because as you and I begin to ask, we begin to seek and we begin to knock. Something happens through our relationship to God. We’re getting to know Him. He already knows us. We’re getting to know Him, who He is and the way He operates. Do you realize that what God wants to give you above everything else, once you become one of His children, He wants to give you Himself. That is, He wants you to know Him. What does He do? He withholds the answer. He delays the answer, but he says, keep on praying because if you cease praying when God delays the answer, you don’t build a relationship. You go on and do your own thing. And what happens? We miss what God has for us. The delays are built in by divine design based on a loving father who has for us the very best. Then it also develops patience within us. God develops patience that we wait, we endure until God’s timing. And then one of the primary reasons that God delays our answers is because His timing doesn’t always match ours. Now, there may be times in your life and mine when God will begin to burden us to pray about something that He has no intention of answering for six months. He said, but now wait a minute. Why would God want to bring something to my attention that I would pray for for six months before He knows He’s going to answer it? Why doesn’t He wait till the week before? Well, I’ll tell you why. He’s not interested in instant anything. He’s interested in what is best for you and me. So what does God do for six long months? Here’s what He does. He builds our faith. He builds our endurance. He intensifies our earnestness. What began as asking is now seeking and is beginning to be knocking. And we’re hanging in there and trusting Him. And God’s building a relationship. He’s showing us Himself. He’s teaching us things about Himself that we would never learn any other way. And God is far more interested in our knowing Him than getting from Him all the things that our heart desires. So He builds within us Those character qualities in that time in which he delays. And so he says, ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. Why? Because God has something very, very precious in mind. Now let me ask you a question. I want you to listen very carefully to this because I want you to think about it. Why is it that you and I so easily give up when God doesn’t answer our prayer right now? Now, you and I understand that people don’t pray because of pride. You know, we can do it ourselves. Sometimes it’s ignorance. There are lots of reasons people don’t pray, but why is it those of us who do pray, why is it when we begin and we don’t get the answer when we think we ought to, why do we give up? I want to give you an answer that every person needs to soberly listen to. The primary reason that you and I give up and we quit is and we lay the praying aside so easily, is because we’re unwilling for God to dig with His knife, cutting into, delving into the innermost being, searching out, seeking out, desiring the surface, those things in our life that need to be dealt with. We don’t want Him dealing with them. We don’t want him messing with them. We want him to leave them alone. This is our request. This is our need. Don’t bother this. We don’t like God weaving his way into the depths of our thinking and our feeling, dealing with feelings and thoughts that are secret and private to ourselves. We don’t like it. And my friend, I know that’s the truth. I know it personally, and I know it’s a general attitude. There have been times when I’ve gotten on my knees to God about something, and it’s like I could see where he was heading. I knew what he was coming after. And it’s like I want to say, well, thank you, Father, in Jesus’ name, amen. And I wanted to get on my way doing my own thing because I didn’t want to deal with it. Now, it’s funny and it’s tragic, isn’t it? We don’t want God dealing with certain areas of our life, because you see, the truth is, we have them all set up in a nice fashion over here, and as far as we’re concerned, that’s really none of God’s business. I mean, we’ve already handled that. And so we want to go over here where we’re interested in the things that we’re concerned about, and we don’t want God tampering around anything private. And you let that sink into your heart real good, because the next time you get down to praying and You get tempted to get up and let’s get on with it and do something else. You need to ask yourself that question. God, why do I quit so soon? Why don’t I hang in there and keep talking to you? And you know, in my own heart, I’ve had struggles in prayer. There have been times when I want to give up and quit. But I learned something a long time ago. And God put such a heavy burden on my heart for something that I was praying for. It’s like everything in me wanted to quit. Just wanted to stop. I didn’t want to pray anymore about it. But it’s like the Spirit of God keeps saying to me, don’t quit now. Don’t stop now. I learned a lesson. When you want to stop, don’t stop. When everything in you says, quit praying about it, keep on praying. Now, if God says to you, this is not my will, Here’s what my will is, then naturally you’re going to turn. But I mean, if there’s something there that you believe that God is dealing in your life about, or there’s some need there, don’t stop. That’s why he said, ask, keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking. Knock, keep on knocking. Don’t give up. Persevere. Hang in there, no matter what. Because God wants to answer that prayer. There’s no point in the Bible that says that prayer is easy. There is a struggle. And there’ll be times when Satan will attack you on your knees. He’ll do everything in his power. He will harass you with doubt. He will send thoughts in your mind. You think, God, where in the world did this come from? Has nothing to do with what you’re talking about to him. And so our natural response is, well, I might as well get up and go. I’ll come back later. Jesus said, ask, keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking. Knock, keep on knocking. Don’t give up. Now, listen to what he says in the last part of this passage, verse 9. He said, Now on the basis of that, what man is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf, some bread? Will he give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father, who is in heaven, give what is good to those who ask him? So the last thing Jesus says in this passage is this. He says, here’s the reassurance that you and I can enjoy. What are the steps? Ask, seek, knock. He says, here’s the reassurance that you and I need to enjoy our prayer life. You know, somebody says, well, I got to go pray. You know, it’s time to, it’s for my prayer time. I got to go talk to God. As if it was some terrible chore. Let me ask you a question. Is it a chore to talk to Jesus? who said, ask, seek, knock. The chore is not in talking to Him, but in the struggles that we have within ourselves. You know what Jesus is saying in this passage? He says, I wanna tell you, the Father loves you. He wants to answer your prayer, but you got to ask Him and keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking, the answer’s coming. And He simply says in this passage, Listen, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much, listen, you see how he put it? How much more? He says, if you who sin against the Father know how to give good gifts to your children, you’re very imperfect, he says. How much more will the perfect, loving, generous, kind, tender, forgiving Father who is omnipotent and omniscient, how much more will He give good things to those who ask Him? Let me ask you this. When you get on your knees before God, what kind of thoughts come into your mind? Do you bow your head because you feel unworthy? I don’t mean in a spirit of humility, but just an unhealthy kind of unworthiness. Let me tell you what you ought to feel. If you kneel to pray, you ought to be able to get on your knees and say, Lord Jesus, I praise your name that you’re my life. I thank you that I can come to you in confidence because you said, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. And Lord, I’m coming. I’m coming as your child, confident that you’re listening to what I’m saying, confident that you will give me direction for my life, confident that you’re going to answer my prayer. I praise you and I accept ahead of time the answers for my prayer. What a difference in getting on your knees and saying, oh, I hope you’re listening. So what is he saying in this passage? Very simple, he says, your heavenly father is ready to answer your prayer. Secondly, your heavenly father knows what your needs are before you ask him. Your heavenly father will always respond out of pure love and infinite wisdom. That is, whatever he does is going to be an expression of love, and it’s going to be an answer that is the answer of an all-wise God who knows exactly what you need. And he is also saying that when you pray, God’s answer will always be good. It’ll always be good. And he says the answer is always going to be best suited just for you. Every answer from God is an expression of pure love and infinite wisdom. Now, we don’t always like all the answers God gives. He didn’t say, He’ll just give you anything you ask. He says, asking it shall be given you. Seeking you shall find. Knocking it shall be opened to you. You say, but wait a minute. That sounds like a blank check to me. But notice the last verse. He says… If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, listen, here’s the key. How much more will the Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him? You know what He promises? He promises that everything He gives is good for us. Now, my friend, God only can act with what is His nature. That is, if you ask for something that is of pure indulgence on your part… If you ask God to indulge your selfish whim, your selfish desire, God isn’t going to do that. You know why He’s not going to? Because He’s made you a promise He wouldn’t. Do you want God to give you something that will harm you or could ultimately destroy your life? If all of us were really honest, we’d probably say, well, I’ll probably ask for some things like that. But do you really want God to give you anything in answer to your prayer that will harm you or destroy your life? Not really. God isn’t going to answer with those things that will harm or destroy. He says, here’s the limitation. What I give you is going to be good. And the faithfulness of God is at stake. He will never violate His faithfulness. What I give you is going to be good. Now, what are the simple steps to praying the Bible way? They’re real simple. Asking, seeking, knocking, and trusting a loving, all-wise God to give you His good answer. It’s not a blank check. It’s better than that. It is God’s faithfulness promising to answer your needs and your desires. And when they have filtered through, The all-wise mind of God and his wonderful spirit of pure love, it always comes out for us good, perfect, and best. And if you will simply remember that the next time you get on your knees. God will begin to answer specific requests, big requests as well as little requests. And you can point to them as examples of God’s specific answer to your prayer. When we ask, seek, and knock, and trust our loving Father to always answer for what is good. The privilege of prayer is a heritage which belongs to every single child of God. a potential that is beyond the human understanding of man, a work of God’s grace that He’s given to each one of us. And it is my prayer that you will not let that heritage be wasted in your life, but you will allow God to make you the man, the woman, the young person that He’s chosen to make you as you learn to relate to Him nourish that inner being of Christ in your prayer life and make your prayer life daily an ongoing intimate relationship of conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to part two of Learning to Pray the Bible Way. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
