Need encouragement to pray? John Calvin once said that "Nothing is better adapted to excite us to prayer than a full conviction that we shall be heard." That's why Jesus said things like: 

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matt. 7:7–8). 

These unblushing promises are meant to encourage us to pray. 

But they also raise an obvious question. How do we explain it when we've asked, but it sure doesn't seem like we've received? We've sought, but we haven't yet found. We've knocked, and the door is still shut. How do we explain unanswered prayers given Jesus's claim that "everyone who asks receives"? 

We talk about it with Pastor Justin Dillehay. 

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