Four Myths About Answered Prayer
by Richard W. Coffen | 20 May 2025 |
Theologians have said that their main theological task is to speak well of God. In this essay, I’m going to address four commonly held reasons for prayer. I question them because it seems to me that they do not speak well of God.
What do you think?
God as an ego-starved deity
We’ve all heard it said that God does things only if we ask. I counter: What sort of parent says, “Yeah, I know [insert your child’s name] needs my help for [whatever], but he hasn’t asked. So, fie on him!”
This line of reasoning implies that God needs to be wheedled into answering prayer. Were that true, we’re better parents than God!
Jesus addressed this from the opposite direction. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8, NET) he said. God knows our situations. He’s more eager to meet our needs than you and I are when supporting our own children!
“Everyone [Greek: pâs = “all”] who asks receives. . . . What father . . . , if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake . . . ? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more [Greek: pósō mâllon = how much to a greater extent] will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:10-13, NET).
No ego-starved heavenly Father here! God eagerly provides for his needy children.
God as an impetuous deity
Most of us have been alerted: “Be careful what you ask God for—he just might give it to you!” You ask God for humility, and he abases you with ego-bruising, self-defacing events that trash your self-esteem! You’ve become Job redivivus!
This caveat, of course, supposedly offers a fair warning about God’s erratic behavior. “He knows something is harmful, but since you asked, . . . here it comes!” Such a caution scares us from praying. However, Jesus taught that God is eager to shower us with good gifts—not with soul-destroying whimsies! Jesus came to provide life (Greek: zōē = “life in the absolute sense, life as God has it.” It is “intensive” rather than “extensive.” It denotes “all of highest and best which the saints possess in God” [Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, par. xxvii; W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, pp. 336, 337]).
God as a supernatural vending machine
Back in the 1970s, the Coon family of pastors ministered in our denomination. Glenn A. Coon became well-known for the ABC’s of prayer. According to Elder Coon, God is like a giant vending machine. Insert three quarters (“ask, “believe,” and “claim”), and out pops the divine answer that you want! The key to answered prayer is not merely the asking or the believing. It’s the final coin that starts the heavenly vending machine into motion: claim a Bible promise. The idea behind the ABC’s of prayer is to force God’s hand by flinging a Bible promise in his teeth!
Elder Coon submitted a manuscript to Southern Publishing Association containing various anecdotes about how well this ABC approach works. One of his stories recounted a presentation he’d made. After the program, a gentleman approached. “Elder Coon, I’ve been struggling.” (I’m paraphrasing.) “There’s a stunning woman at our church. I see her every Sabbath. I’ve sinned: I’ve lusted after her.” Coon remained attentive. The brother conceded: “I cannot find a suitable Bible promise to claim.”
Elder Coon transcribed his own words. “Brother, here it is: ‘I will put enmity [Hebrew: ’êbâ = active hostility] between thee and the woman’ [Genesis 3:15].”
Of course, that passage has nothing to do with victory over lust. Coon had wrenched Genesis 3:15 from its obvious meaning! He violated a fundamental principle of biblical interpretation by ignoring the context.
I returned his manuscript.
God Always Answers
This seems to be the most encouraging assessment of praying, differentiating it from other explanations. Our prayers—every single one—don’t stop at the ceiling like a helium balloon! They float all the way to the divine throne room, where they snare our heavenly Father’s attention. He not only attends to our prayers but also responds—always! This affirmation buoys up the faltering faith of those of us who approach “the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).
This idea is arguably the most demonic of all. This argument goes that God always answers prayers, but sometimes God says “yes”; sometimes he says “no”; sometimes he says “wait!” You pray, and whatever happens or whatever does not happen is God’s answer!
So there’s no way to demonstrate empirically that God really did answer! Anything—or nothing—is God’s response.
During Elijah’s showdown atop Mt. Carmel, he was outnumbered 850:1. Throughout the morning, the prophets of Baal and Asherah prayed, gesticulated, leaped around, even sliced themselves until their blood “gushed” (1 Kings 18:28). They prayed: “Baal, answer us” (1 Kings 18:26, NET). Elijah took advantage of the situation to needle them. He suggested that Baal might already have too much on his mind. Maybe he’d “gone to the toilet,” (1 Kings 18:27 NIRV) Perhaps he was traveling. Or perchance he had even nodded off!
Whatever—“there wasn’t any reply. No one answered” (verse 26, NIRV). Noontime came and went. “The prophets of Baal” (verse 29, NIRV) continued their shenanigans, “but there wasn’t any reply. No one answered. No one paid any attention” (verse 29, NIRV).
Elijah’s turn arrived; he offered a simple prayer. An empirical answer arrived pronto: “The fire of the Lord came down” (verse 39, NIRV). That was an observable answer to prayer!
“All . . . saw it. . . . They fell down flat with their faces toward the ground. They cried out, ‘The Lord is the one and only God!’” (verse 39, NIRV).
Baal didn’t answer with “no” or “wait,” let alone “yes.” He remained mum! There was just one answered prayer on Mt. Carmel. There’s just one way to verify empirically an answer to prayer: a concrete response.
During the late 1940s, while attending Atlantic Union College, my dad needed $200 to pay his college bill. He prayed. When the due date arrived, so did a letter from an old friend. Ralph Anderson had become a prosperous potato farmer in Aroostook County, Maine. A personal check made out to George Coffen fell from the envelope. For $200! The check had gotten lost under a pile of papers cluttering Anderson’s desk. Weeks later, when he happened upon it, he mailed it. How did Ralph know where Dad was? How did he know how much Dad owed at the time? That check was an empirical answer to a specific prayer.
The End Has Come
We mustn’t fool ourselves with the folderol often touted about answered prayers. Recognizing concrete answers to prayer honors God. Additionally, praying for others and letting them know that they’re in our prayers produces a double blessing: first, the recipient feels sustained because someone else cares and second, when the pray-er focuses on the other rather than on self, faith grows.
Richard W. Coffen is a retired vice president of editorial services at Review and Herald Publishing Association. He writes from Green Valley, Arizona.
