1. God Answers Prayer
World Scripture
Your Lord says, “Call on Me; I will answer your prayer.”
Qur’an 40.60
The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.
Psalm 145.18
When My servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed Close to them. I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me.1
Qur’an 2.186
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.
Psalm 55.22
Lord of creation! No one other than Thee pervades all these that have come into being. May that be ours for which our prayers rise, may we be masters of many treasures!
Rig Veda 10.121.10 (Hinduism)
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11.24
Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
James 5.13-18
You must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing you shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.
Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 18.19-21 (Latter-day Saints)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Prayer is calling to God and conversing with Him.
(270:17, May 3, 1995)
Prayer is a covenant between man and God; it is a pledge. Whatever you pray about, you have to practice. There is no need to pray for the same thing day after day. You only need to pray for it once with genuine sincerity. Then seek and long for it with a prayerful heart even if it takes ten or twenty years to be fulfilled.
(40:299, February 7, 1971)
Prayer is making a wish. By making a wish, you place yourself in an object position to God, the Subject. You set up a subject-object relationship of love. Having unfulfilled wishes and longings is good, because they motivate us to make this relationship. Because we lack confidence to fulfill them ourselves, we pray… clinging to God.
(112:54, March 29, 1981)
Through prayer you receive strength. Through prayer you are given wisdom to know how situations will develop in the future. You will be taught how to deal with every work. The wisdom gained through prayer can equip you for a great mission. Prayer is indispensable if you are pioneering a such a path.
(104:111, April 15, 1979)
[In times of difficulty], pray and ask God for His power to sustain you on the path. Declare your determination: “Father, although I might die for this work, I will do it. Though I suffer from hunger and thirst, I will cling to Thee, my God.” Thus, your prayer is a pledge and a proclamation. Once you have made that proclamation, then on your own, decide your course and determine to accomplish it. Practice love; then surely God will listen and encourage you to go forward. Once you have prayed, as long as you practice what you have prayed about, overcoming obstacles one by one, then God will approve of you and recognize you as a trustworthy person.
(112:54, March 29, 1981)
Test the power of your prayer. Pray every day for one person [without telling him]. Pray tearfully for his well-being, and see what happens. Amazingly, he will feel a magnetic attraction to you. He will feel drawn to you, but he won’t know why.
(104:113, April 15, 1979)
When you make a request in prayer, it passes through several stages before it is answered. And when it is answered, the answer may come in an unexpected way. Furthermore, when you pray for a blessing, depending on your condition, you may receive a certain amount of blessing, only to have something else taken away…
We are also praying for the world. When your personal devotions and efforts at spreading the Word do not go well, do not worry that your prayers are ineffective. Continue praying, and far away something in the communist world crumbles. Yet it takes time. So pray for something that will not come to pass in your lifetime but thousands of years from now. I am praying such prayers; therefore the work of God will continue to flourish for thousands of years after I am gone, until my prayers are fully answered.
(104:110, April 15, 1979)