A prayer without faith is just a complaint. If we want something from God, all we have to do is ask (Matthew 7:7-11), but we must do so in faith (Mark 11:22-24).
Matt 7:7 [NLT] “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Mark 11:22 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
In Matthew 6:24-34, Jesus says that God will provide all our needs, such as food and clothing, but we must seek first the kingdom and trust Him to take care of us, just as He does the animals and plants. He continues in Matthew 7:9, that God gives generously, just as any father to his children, and when his child asks for bread, they will receive bread, not a stone. He wants to give us the good things that we ask for. Wisdom is something we should all ask for, according to James 1:5-8. Solomon asked for wisdom, and God answered, blessing him with more than just that (1 Kings 3:3-14).
James 1:5-8 states that if anyone lacks wisdom, they can ask God for it, and God will give it generously. However, the person must ask in faith, without wavering. It continues that people who waver in faith should not expect to receive anything from him. This is a conditional statement, which says we must believe to receive. Jesus says that nothing is impossible for God (Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23), and James reminds us that we must believe this when we ask. This applies to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7-11. Jesus repeats this concept when he curses the fig tree in Mark 11:15-24, and he says, “say to any mountain in faith to be moved and it will be moved”, but he concludes the lesson of faith by saying that “there must be no doubt in your heart”.
Important to note that God is a genie or a heavenly slot machine. Having enough faith doesn’t make a prayer get answered faster. If we engage in reckless endeavors or foolish pursuits that God doesn’t agree with, we cannot use him to be our good luck charm. James chapter 4 warns us about prayers not being answered because of jealousy, lust, and having selfish motives and endeavors that harm others while uplifting ourselves.
James 4:1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Later, James discusses making decisions on our own without consulting God.
James 4:13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” 16 Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.
Another way to think of it is that faith begins where the will of God is known. Not a tool we use to get God to do what we want. When we know the will of God, then we partner with God in faith and will have guaranteed success. David defeated Goliath with God’s help. In 1 Samuel 17:45-47 , David said to Goliath, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
His faith was in God’s promise to “hand Israel’s enemies over to them” (Ex 23:27, Num 10:9, Deut 6:17-19). In Deuteronomy 1:30 it says, “The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt.” The Bible repeats this multiple times, like in Exodus 23:27-31; 34:11 & 24, as well as Deut 11:23, 18:12; 31:3. God told them he would give them victory over all of the people living in Canaan, which included the Philistines (Joshua 13:1-7). Goliath was a Philistine, so God had already promised to give Israel victory over him and all of their army. This is what David was trusting in when he said what he said to Goliath. David meditated on what he heard from the Torah being read in the assembly and believed it, received it, repeated it, and acted on it.
In addition, when we ask for something specific, God often has a better idea than what we asked for, so He will answer the heart of our prayer in a different way. For example, three people facing eviction may ask God to deliver them by providing the money to pay their rent. God may give money to one person, but for another, he has someone else pay their rent. One person is trustworthy with the money, while the other is not. If the reason a person is in an irreparable situation is due to their negligence, indiscipline, or laziness, then God will not give them resources like money that they will squander. Instead, He will provide them with an alternative. God can provide one person with a new source of income, while simply granting another person a favor with the landlord, or even having an angel investor cover their rent. For the third person, God’s plans may be for them to move, even though they want to stay, and so He will provide them with a place to live on His terms, rather than preserving them where they are by providing for their rent. He answered the prayers of all three people, but in different ways, even though they all asked for money. His plans may be different from ours, and they are always better than ours. Faith in God is not about trusting God to do what we want, but trusting that he will be faithful in His promises to take care of us.
When we ask things according to His will, then we should expect them, because He already agrees with what we are asking for (1 John 5:14-15).
1 John 5:14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
Lastly, Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith, it is impossible to please God, and that anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God is capable of doing what they need and rewards those who sincerely seek Him. We must trust (have faith) in God to receive from him, and our faith is in what he has promised and revealed to us, not our own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.