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30 Encouraging Scriptures for Answered Prayer
Prayer isn’t just bringing a grocery list to God of your desires. It isn’t a magic formula to help you get what you want.
Prayer is meant to be a conversation with the One who loves you more than you could possibly imagine.
It’s a way to connect with Him. To build your relationship with Him. To grow your faith. And to help you experience His Presence in a personal and intimate way.
This is why one of the best things in the world is answered prayers. To know without a doubt that the God who adores you gave you a beautiful gift is amazing. And to know He heard you and chose to grant your request is encouraging.
Because if we’re honest, prayer doesn’t always feel this way.
Sometimes prayer is hard.
It may feel like God is ignoring our prayers. Or it feels like He’s distant. Sometimes we’re the ones who get distracted or are in too much of a rush to meet with Jesus.
We may struggle with doubts or have little faith that He is going to answer anyway.
This is why we need reminders from God’s Word on the importance of prayer.
The following Scriptures on answered prayer help us remember what an awesome gift prayer is. They encourage us to keep praying . . . even when praying is hard.
Because God really does hear us.
Scriptures on God’s Promise to Answer Prayers
If we look at Jesus’s words in the New Testament it seems like He’s saying we can ask anything in Jesus’s name, and God will use His great power to grant our request.
But is this really true?
Can we just ask God for anything and because we prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus, we’re guaranteed to get it?
Unfortunately, many of the following Bible verses have been taken out of context to support this claim.
The truth is God is not a genie up in the sky waiting to give us all the desires of our hearts. He is our Heavenly Father and while He wants to give good things to us . . . He also knows what’s best for us.
God’s promise is to answer our prayers according to His perfect will. And His perfect timing.
While Jesus said we could ask for anything in His name, we must remember what that means. Praying in the name of Jesus means we’re praying for things in accordance with God’s will.
Keep in mind that the words aren’t as important as the heart attitude behind the words we pray.
So, are we praying for what will bring honor and glory to God? Or just for what we want?
These verses from the Word of God remind us that while we can come to God’s throne in our time of need. While we can tell Him anything and everything. We have to get to a point where we lay it all at His feet.
Knowing that even if we don’t understand . . . He is working all things out according to His perfect plan.
1) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
-Matthew 7:7 NIV
2) “But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!”
-John 15:7 NLT
3) “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”
-Mark 11:24 NLT
4) “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
-1 John 5:14-15 ESV
5) “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
-John 15:6 ESV
6) “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
-John 16:4 ESV
7) “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
-Matthew 21:22 ESV
8) “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
-John 14:13-15 ESV
Scriptures on Praying While Waiting for Answers
Sometimes when we’ve been praying for a long time, and it doesn’t feel like God is answering . . . we may be tempted to give up.
I’ve felt that way a lot while living with a chronic illness over the past 10 years.
But what helps me keep going in my prayers is remembering this truth: We may not SEE an answer to our prayers, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t working on responding to them.
If we’re in a season of waiting on God’s answer, then we’re in good company.
-Abraham and Sarah waited over 25 years for the child God promised them.
-David waited many years after being anointed as King until the day he finally took the throne.
-Joseph waited 13 years through slavery and imprisonment until he finally saw what God was doing in his situation. And how God was using his hard times to put him in a position to save a nation.
-Jesus lived for 30 years as a regular human being before starting His earthly ministry.
This is why we need reminders like the following verses to encourage us to keep focusing on our prayer life. To keep praying even after it’s been a long time.
And to keep bringing our needs to God . . . while trusting His plan for our life.
9) “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
-Ephesians 6:18 NLT
10) “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
-1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT
11) “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
-Colossians 4:2 ESV
12) “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.”
-Luke 6:12 ESV
13) “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
-James 1:5 ESV
Scriptures on Answered Prayer
These Scripture references remind us that the eyes of the Lord are always on His beloved children. He hears when the righteous cry out to Him.
God is a passionately loving God. And He is our good Father.
So, we know He delights in answering our prayers. Just as every good parent enjoys giving gifts to their kids.
14) “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
-Matthew 7:11 NIV
15) “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.”
-1 Peter 3:12 ESV
16) “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.”
-Psalm 40:1 NLT
17) “I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.”
-Psalm 116:1 NLT
18) “I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory!”
-Psalm 118:21 NLT
19) “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”
– Psalm 69:13-15 ESV
20) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
-Philippians 4:6 NIV
21) “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”
-1 Chronicles 16:11 NIV
Scriptures on Having Faith for Answered Prayer
The following Scriptures remind us that we need to have faith in God when we pray. We need to believe that He can answer our prayers.
And trust that He will do what’s best in our situation.
22) “Then Jesus told them, ‘I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, “May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.’”
-Matthew 21:21-22 NLT
23) “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
-Hebrews 11:6 NIV
24) “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
-James 1:6-7 ESV
25) “Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.”
-James 5:15-16 NLT
Scriptures on Reasons for Unanswered Prayers
If it feels like God is not answering our prayers, there may be a good reason.
The following Scriptures show us that sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers . . . because there are some things He wants to help us take care of first.
Unconfessed Sin
Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers because we have sins in our hearts we need to confess and repent of.
God cares more about our character and helping us become more like Christ Jesus . . . than giving us what we want.
26) “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
-James 5:16 NIV
27) “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
-Psalm 66:18 NIV
28) “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
-Isaiah 59:2 ESV
Wrong Motives
Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers because we’re asking out of selfish motives. God loves us too much to give us something that would be bad for us.
But He deals with us in an understanding way.
Showing us what’s really in our hearts so we can grow into the kind of people we need to be in order to receive the Lord’s answer.
29) “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”
-James 4:2-3 NLT
30) “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
-Romans 12:2 NIV
Trusting God for Answered Prayers
We are more passionately loved by God than we could ever imagine. He is a good Father who delights in answering the prayers of His beloved kids.
But God also knows everything. He knows the best way to answer our prayers. And the best time.
In the meantime, we have to choose to trust Him in the meantime. To let the Holy Spirit comfort us and let the peace of God sustain us.
So, no matter what we’re facing we can strive to keep praying.
To get on our knees and pour out our hearts before the King of Kings. To fall on our face before the throne of grace.
Because just as these verses have reminded us . . . God really does care. And He really does hear every single one of our prayers.
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