114. How do you know God answers prayer?

How do you know God answers prayer?

I know it first of all because the Bible says so, and I have conclusive proof that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and whatever it says is true I know to be true. The Bible abounds in statements that God answers prayer. For example, Jesus says in Matthew 7:11 : “If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him!” And He says again to His disciples who were united to Him by a living faith and obedient love: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it” (John 14:13-14). But I also know that God answers prayer because He has answered mine. Time and time again throughout the years I have asked God for things which He alone could give, for things that there was no probability whatever of my getting, and I have told no one else of my need, and God has given me the very things I asked. There have been times in my life when I asked God for certain specific things, and it was so evident that if I got them they must be from Him, that I have said to Him in asking for them: “If you will give me this thing I will never doubt you again as long as I live,” and God has given me the very thing I asked. On one occasion God gave $6,000 within two hours in answer to prayer. On another occasion, when another and I prayed for $5,000 for the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, word was received by telegram that $5,000 had been given for the work by a man who was remote from the place where the prayer was made by about 1,000 miles, and of whose very existence I did not know, who had never given a penny to the Moody Bible Institute before and has never given a penny since. I could multiply instances of this sort.

Now it may be said this is merely coincidence, but the “coincidence” has occurred so often and there has been such an evident connection between prayer (the cause) and the answer (the effect), that to say it is coincidence is to be unscientific. The history of George Müller’s Orphan Homes at Bristol, England, where about 2,000 children have been housed and clothed and fed in answer to prayer through a long period of years, where no money has ever been solicited, no debt ever incurred, and no meal ever failed though oftentimes it seemed as if it might fail up to the very last moment, is to a fair-minded investigator of facts clear proof that God answers prayer. For any one to study the facts in connection with George Muller’s Orphan Homes and still doubt that God answers prayer is for that person not only to be willfully obstinate in his belief but thoroughly unscientific in his treatment of demonstrated facts.