Prayer Is Not Leverage: A Sermon Review of “God Desires to Answer Your Prayers” (Prayer Series Pt 1)

 


Recently I listened to a sermon on Luke 11 titled “God Desires to Answer Your Prayers.” The message was clearly delivered with sincerity and a genuine desire to encourage believers to pray more. And that desire is good. The church should be a praying people.

But as I listened carefully, I became increasingly concerned — not about passion for prayer, but about how prayer itself was being framed.

Because when prayer is subtly misunderstood, sincere Christians can end up discouraged, confused, or quietly blaming themselves when life with God does not match what they were led to expect.

This post is not written to attack a pastor or question motives. It is written because doctrine matters — especially when we are talking about how believers relate to God Himself.

And prayer sits at the very center of that relationship.


The Main Concern: Prayer Presented as Outcome-Production

Throughout the sermon, a repeated idea emerged:

  • If you keep asking, God will keep giving.

  • If you ask much, God will give you much.

  • Many unanswered experiences may simply be the result of not asking enough.

Even if unintentionally, this creates a powerful impression:

More prayer produces more results.

Prayer begins to sound less like communion with a Father and more like a spiritual principle that can be activated.

But historically — and biblically — this is not how prayer works.

The evangelical understanding of prayer has never been that believers increase divine action through increased request volume. Prayer is not a mechanism for generating outcomes. It is the life of dependence between children and their Father.


Reading Luke 11 Carefully

Luke 11 records a disciple asking Jesus:

“Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus responds with three connected teachings:

  1. The Lord’s Prayer — what shapes our desires.

  2. The parable of the midnight friend — confidence in God’s character.

  3. Ask, seek, knock — encouragement to keep coming to the Father.

But here is what is often missed:


The passage does not climax with answered requests.

It climaxes with this promise:

“How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13)

The greatest gift Jesus points to is not outcomes, provision, or measurable answers.

It is God giving Himself.

Luke’s emphasis moves prayer away from getting things and toward deeper relationship with God.


Where the Sermon Was Right — and Where It Went Further

The sermon rightly rejected the idea of a reluctant God. Scripture clearly teaches that God is good and willing to hear His children.

Jesus’ argument in the parable is a classic “lesser-to-greater” comparison:

If even imperfect humans respond to need, how much more can we trust our heavenly Father?

But the sermon moved beyond reassurance into implication — suggesting that persistence increases the quantity of God’s giving.

That step is not made by Jesus.

The point of the parable is confidence, not technique.


When Prayer Becomes Transactional

Statements like:

“If you ask much, God will give you much”

introduce a subtle but serious shift.

Prayer begins to feel transactional.

Christians may not say it aloud, but they begin to assume:

  • Outcomes correlate with effort.

  • Unanswered prayers indicate insufficient asking.

  • Some believers are simply better at prayer than others.

Yet Scripture repeatedly dismantles that assumption.

Paul pleaded repeatedly for his suffering to be removed — and God said no (2 Corinthians 12:7–9).

Jesus Himself prayed in Gethsemane for the cup to pass — and the Father’s will was different (Luke 22:42).

These were not failures of prayer.

They were faithful prayers offered in trust.


Prayer Is Not Leverage

One of the greatest dangers in modern teaching on prayer is the quiet idea that persistence moves God from reluctance to generosity.

But the gospel teaches the opposite.

God has already moved toward us in grace.

“He who did not spare His own Son… how will He not also graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Prayer does not convince God to be good.

Prayer flows from the fact that He already is.

We are not negotiating with heaven. We are approaching our Father.


The Problem with Measuring Prayer

The sermon encouraged tracking answers to prayer as motivation. Gratitude is a beautiful and biblical practice. Remembering God’s faithfulness is good.

But when prayer becomes measurable — when answers are counted like results — comparison quietly enters.

What happens to the believer praying through chronic illness?
Or infertility?
Or grief that does not lift?

If answers become the metric of spiritual health, faithful sufferers can feel spiritually deficient.

The Bible never measures prayer by visible outcomes.

It measures prayer by faithfulness and trust.


What Jesus Is Actually Teaching About Prayer

Jesus is answering a deeper question than “How do we get more answers?”

He is answering:

“Can you trust the Father?”

Luke 11 reassures disciples that:

  • God hears.

  • God is good.

  • God gives what is truly good.

  • Therefore, keep coming to Him.

Persistence is not pressure placed on God.

It is confidence expressed by children who know they are welcome.


The Gospel Changes Prayer Completely

Because of Christ, believers do not pray hoping to be heard.

We pray because we already are heard.

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace…” (Hebrews 4:16)

Our confidence rests in Christ’s finished work — not in the intensity, frequency, or strategy of our prayers.

The greatest promise of Luke 11 is not that prayer secures outcomes.

It is that the Father gives the Holy Spirit — His own presence — to those who come.


Prayer Is Coming Home

God does desire His children to pray.

But not because prayer increases His willingness to act.

He invites prayer because He desires relationship with His people.

Prayer is not leverage.

Prayer is not a transaction.

Prayer is communion with the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

And sometimes the greatest answer God gives is not the change we asked for — but Himself.


This post is the first in a series of sermon reflections on prayer. In upcoming posts, I will continue reviewing several teachings that shape how many Christians understand prayer today, followed by a deeper exploration of what Scripture actually teaches prayer is meant to be.


Rooted in Jesus Grace,

Mara Wellspring 

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