🏡 Family Devotional — Day 219

A Family That Prays and Trusts God’s Answer

📖 “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.”
—John 16:23b (NKJV)

Jesus spoke these words while preparing His apostles for what would happen after His death, resurrection, and return to the Father. They would no longer walk beside Him as they had during His earthly ministry, but they would not lose access to God. They would pray to the Father in Jesus’ name.

That privilege belongs to everyone who belongs to Christ.

A Christian family does not approach God because its members have behaved well enough to earn His attention. We come through Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose from the dead. He is the reason believers can draw near to the Father.

But praying in Jesus’ name means more than adding the words “in Jesus’ name” to the end of a prayer.

Those words are not a magic formula that guarantees a family will receive whatever it requests. To pray in Jesus’ name means coming through His saving work, under His authority, and in agreement with His character and will.

This is an important truth for children to learn.

A child may pray for a particular gift, a winning score, a canceled examination, or permission to do something a parent has already forbidden. If the request does not happen, the child may wonder whether God listened.

Adults can make the same mistake with more serious requests.

We pray for employment, healing, financial provision, protection, reconciliation, direction, or relief from a difficult situation. These may be good and proper requests. Yet if the answer is different from what we wanted, we may quietly wonder whether prayer works.

Biblical prayer is not a method for making God follow our plans.

It is an expression of dependence upon Him.

Jesus demonstrated this in Gethsemane when He prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” and then added, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39, NKJV).

Submitting to the Father’s will is not a lack of faith.

It is an act of faith.

Our family can ask honestly while trusting that God knows what we cannot see. Sometimes He answers yes. Sometimes He answers no. Sometimes He requires us to wait. In every case, He remains wise, good, and faithful.

John later explained, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14, NKJV).

God’s willingness to hear does not depend upon impressive words.

Family prayer may sometimes feel organized and peaceful. At other times, a younger child may interrupt, someone may forget what she intended to say, or the entire prayer may last only a few sentences because everyone is exhausted.

The Father is not grading our vocabulary.

He sees our hearts.

This means every member of the family can pray. Children do not need to wait until they are adults or understand every doctrine. Teenagers do not have to sound like their parents. A new believer does not need to imitate someone else’s style.

We can speak truthfully and reverently to God because Jesus has opened the way.

Families can pray throughout ordinary life. We can pray before someone leaves for work or school. We can pray when a difficult conversation is approaching. We can thank God when provision comes. We can confess when we have sinned against one another. We can ask for wisdom before making a decision.

And when someone in the family is suffering, we can pray together rather than leaving that person to carry the burden alone.

The earliest Christian households learned to pray amid circumstances they could not control. They prayed when believers were imprisoned, when food or money was scarce, when someone was ill, and when opposition threatened the church.

Sometimes God changed the circumstances dramatically. In Acts 12, the church prayed while Peter was imprisoned, and God sent an angel to release him.

But not every faithful believer was delivered from suffering in that way.

The church also prayed for courage to remain obedient when danger continued. Their confidence did not rest upon the certainty that every hardship would disappear. It rested upon the certainty that the Father heard them and would accomplish His will.

Our family must learn that same trust.

Suppose the family prays for an illness to be healed, but recovery is slow. Perhaps everyone prays for a new job, but the search continues. Maybe children pray that a difficult situation will change, yet weeks pass without an obvious answer.

Those moments provide an opportunity to teach something deeper than, “We must not have prayed hard enough.”

We can say, “God heard us. We will keep praying, keep obeying, and trust His wisdom while we wait.”

Paul asked the Lord three times to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” God did not remove it. Instead, Christ answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8–9, NKJV).

Paul’s prayer was heard.

God gave sustaining grace rather than the relief Paul requested.

There may be times when our family receives the same kind of answer. God may not immediately remove the difficulty, but He may provide strength for today, wisdom for the next decision, help through another believer, or peace that keeps us from being controlled by fear.

We should also be careful when discussing answered prayer.

If one family receives what it requested, that does not necessarily mean its members had more faith than a family whose circumstances did not change. We must not turn another person’s suffering into an accusation against her faith.

God’s purposes are not always revealed to us.

Our responsibility is to pray faithfully, help practically, and trust Him humbly.

A praying family must also be willing to become part of the answer to another person’s prayer. If we pray that God will provide food for someone, He may call us to share what we have. If we ask Him to comfort a grieving person, He may send us to sit with her. If we pray for reconciliation, we may need to confess our own wrongdoing and take the first step toward peace.

Prayer does not replace obedience.

It prepares us for it.

Knowing Christ as a family means we can bring every need before the Father without fear. We pray through Jesus, ask according to God’s will, and trust Him with the answer.

We may not always receive what we requested.

But we are always received by the Father through His Son.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You that our family may come to You through Jesus Christ. Teach us what it truly means to pray in His name. Keep us from treating prayer as a formula for getting what we want, and help us bring every need before You with honesty and trust. When Your answer is yes, make us grateful. When it is no, help us trust Your wisdom. When You require us to wait, give us patience and strength to remain faithful. Teach us to pray for one another, carry one another’s burdens, and obey when You call us to become part of the answer to someone else’s need. Let our confidence rest in Your character rather than in any particular outcome. In Jesus’ name, amen.