God delights in answering the prayers of His people when according to His will (Prov 15:29), as He causes all things to work together for His glory and the good of those who belong to Him (Rom 8:28).
John MacArthur, Christ Triumphs Over Sin and Death: The King’s Victorious Return, p. 3
Why We Pray
It is an immutable fact: every Christian wants something from God.
A primary reason Christians pray to God is that we want something from Him. There is no shame in that. As the 19th century American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) acknowledged, “Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come [to Him] at all.”[1] Similarly, Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) urged:
“Do not be afraid to cry out to God. I know we sometimes feel as if we must not and dare not pray. We have become so dull, so lifeless, so unworthy, that we do not expect to be heard, and feel as if it would be presumption to cry. But our heavenly Father loves to hear his children cry all day long . . . If you can cry out to Jesus, he will joyfully hear you. If you will give him no rest, he will give you all the rest you need. The Lord finds music in his children’s cries.”[2]
Guarding Your Heart
Even when we want nothing materially from God—though I would argue material(istic) prayers constitute the vast majority of the petitions we offer Him—we nevertheless want something spiritually. For example, in Psalm 19:14, David prayed, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” Above all else, David desired that the words that proceeded from his lips would be completely devoid of hypocrisy and insincerity (Jn 4:24), knowing that the words he spoke were merely a reflection of what resides in his own heart (Mk 7:17-23).
Contrary to what many professing Christians believe, particularly those who were reared in a system of theological or denominational legalism, to want something from God is not sinful in and of itself (Matt 7:7-12). As is the case with every aspect of the Christ-following life, when it comes to prayer it is not our asking that is the issue but our motive in asking. In other words, it is our heart that is the central matter when it comes to prayer (Jn 15:7). In 1 John 3:21-22, the apostle John declares, “Beloved if our heart [emphasis added] does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.”
The phrase “if our heart does not condemn us” is a call to authentic self-examination. The significance of engaging in such spiritual introspection is affirmed by the 18th century Puritan Alexander Comrie (1706-1774), who declared: “Every man who deals with his heart must acknowledge that it behaves like a bird that jumps from one branch to the next, hovering from one meaningless subject to another, and will be filled with frivolous and random thoughts.”[3]
It is in light of those words from Comrie that it bears noting that in 1 John 3:21, the word “condemn,” which is the Greek verb “kataginōskō” (καταγινώσκω), means to rightly find fault with, to accuse, or to place blame. So that text can be properly understood as an admonishment to us to conduct an honest assessment of our heart to determine if there is any unconfessed or unrepented sin that might prohibit us from approaching God with a clear conscience (Acts 23:1; 24:16; 1 Tim 1:5, 19; Heb 10:22; 13:18). For as the 17th century English theologian Joseph Hall (1574-1656) asserts, “Happy is that man that can be acquitted by himself in private, by others in public, and by God in both.”[4]
Humble Boldness
God wants His people to pray to Him. In fact, He encourages it (Jn 14:13-14). As the apostle Paul exhorts in Philippians 4:6: “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your [emphasis added] requests be made known to God.” Conversely, in Mark 11:24, Jesus proclaims, “Therefore I say to you [emphasis added], all things for which you [emphasis added] pray and ask, believe that you [emphasis added] have received them, and that will be granted you [emphasis added].” Likewise, in John 15:7, Jesus said, “If you [emphasis added] abide in Me, and My words abide in you [emphasis added], ask whatever you [emphasis added] wish, and it will be done for you [emphasis added].” There is also Hebrews 11:6b, which reads, “. .. he who comes to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him [emphasis added].” The only question is: do you believe that?
It bears noting that Hebrews 11:6 is the only verse in the New Testament in which the word “rewarder,” “misthapodotēs” in the Greek, appears. The word refers to one who pays wages. For followers of Jesus Christ, to seek God, even for oneself, is not inherently sinful. God is not a rewarder, in a positive sense, of sinful behavior. He does not pay wages to prayers we offer that are borne from sinful motives (Jn 9:31). In fact, Scripture makes clear that the wages, or rewards, of sin is death (Rom 6:23). But, for believers, since Jesus Christ is our Mediator (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24), we have the same liberty to go to God on our own behalf as we do on behalf of someone else (Job 42:10; Gal 6:2; Eph 6:18; Col 1:9; 1 Tim 2:1; Jas 5:16).
And yet, that liberty is not to be taken advantage of as to be misconstrued as license to behave boastfully or pridefully. That you and I can go boldly to God in prayer (Heb 4:15-16) should create within us an attitude of grateful humility, motivated by a desire that our motives are right before God as we come to Him with our petitions (1 Jn 3:22). It is the heart that matters most to God (1 Sam 16:7). God knows the thoughts and intentions of our heart (Ps 44:20-21; 139:23-24; Prov 4:23; 21:2; 27:10; Acts 15:8; Rom 8:27; Phil 4:8; 1 Tim 6:10; Jas 4:2; Tit 1:5). And not only that, He knows our needs even before we ask Him (Matt 6:8).
The Holiness of God in Prayer
As children of God (Eph 1:5; 1 Jn 3:1) who, by His sovereign grace (1 Cor 1:30; Eph 2:8-9), have obtained eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 4:4-7; 1 Pet 1:3), God is to us a loving, generous, and faithful Father who is not only capable of meeting our needs but is more than willing to do so (Rom 8:15, 32; 1 Jn 5:14-15). Nevertheless, we are never to get so complacent or comfortable with Him that we behave irreverently toward Him (1 Sam 2:2; Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8). As the 19th century Puritan Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) reminds us:
There is in the human conscience the conviction that God is a God of holiness—for conscience, left to its natural bias, is ever in the interests of truth and righteousness, and, as the vice-regent of the soul, faithfully whispers in the ear what is right and what is wrong. But the highest and clearest views of the Divine holiness cherished by the unrenewed mind, in consequence of the sinfulness and darkness of the mind, fall infinitely short of what God is as the God of holiness.[5]
Conversely, the 17th century Puritan Stephen Charnock (1628-1680), commented:
The holiness of God is his glory and crown. It is the blessedness of his nature. It renders him glorious in himself, and glorious to his creatures. “Holy” is more fixed as an epithet to his name than any other. This is his greatest title of honor. He is pure and unmixed light, free from all blemish in his essence, nature, and operations. He cannot be deformed by any evil. The notion of God cannot be entertained without separating from him whatever is impure and staining.[6]
God is holy—infinitely holy (1 Jn 1:5). We, on the other hand, are not (Gen 6:5; Eccl 7:20; Rom 3:23; 1 Jn 1:8).
The graciousness of God is never partitioned from His holiness, nor His mercy from His justice (Ps 33:5). It is with that reality in view that we must never think of God so carelessly or informally as to refer to Him as “the man upstairs,” as even many professing Christians are apt to refer to Him, or, conversely, as if He were our personal cosmic Santa Claus, someone who at the snap of our finger is expected to grant us whatever our fleshly imaginations might conjure up. As the late R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) points out in his classic book “The Holiness of God”:
Two things that every human being absolutely must come to understand are the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. These topics are difficult for people to face. And they go together: if we understand who God is, and catch a glimpse of His majesty, purity, and holiness, then we are instantly aware of the extent of our own corruption. When that happens, we fly to grace—because we recognize that there’s no way that we could ever stand before God apart from grace.[7]
The Danger of Legalism
I alluded earlier to believers in Christ who were perhaps raised in an environment of theological or denominational legalism. In such a strict and statutory milieu all one ever really knows of God is His wrath. They know nothing, or very little, of His grace, an attribute which the 18th century English minister and theologian Matthew Henry (1662-1714) described, simply, as “the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God to mankind.”[8] An overly legalistic construct of the character of God can contribute to fostering an unbiblical estimation of God as a harsh, rigid, and perpetually merciless Father whose “undeserved goodness,” as Matthew Henry put it, we must incessantly strive to prove ourselves worthy and deserving. As Christian theologian and educator Dr. Steven R. Cook[9] explains:
Some reject grace because they have been conditioned by religious systems that emphasize rituals, sacraments, or law-keeping as necessary components for salvation. The Judaizers, who tried to impose the necessity of circumcision and the Mosaic Law for salvation, are a clear example of this (Acts 15:1-5; Gal 5:2-4). Many religious systems today perpetuate this legalistic mentality (Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.), making it hard for people to comprehend the simplicity of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (John 3:16; Acts 4:12; Rom 3:28; 6:23; Eph 2:8-9).[10]
Having a rigidly legalistic understanding of God’s character is a primary reason why many Christians are hesitant, and even afraid, to pray to Him, particularly with regard to themselves. They’re convinced that not praying for themselves demonstrates a level of virtue and piety that makes up for their own faults and failures. Though fully aware that that they fall short of God’s standard of righteousness (Rom 3:23) and, likewise, possess no inherent righteousness of their own that could endear them to a holy God, they are nonetheless weighed down with the reality of their inherent unworthiness and, having concluded—being convinced by their feelings rather than the truth of God’s Word—that God will not bother hear their prayers, let alone answer them. They fail to avail themselves of the free grace that is theirs through the vicarious, substitutionary, and propitiatory work of Jesus Christ on the cross, (Rom 3:25; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10).
Christ Our High Priest: The Foundation of Confident Prayer
But believers are assured of our gracious access to God in such texts as Hebrews 4:15, which declares, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence [emphasis added] to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” The 17th century English Puritan Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) affirms that truth in his book The Heart of Christ in Heaven Toward Sinners on Earth:
Christ, the head of the body, which is the source of all senses and feelings in the body, remembers those who are bound and in adversity, having once been in a human body himself. Thus, he compassionately identifies with them based on his own experience. . .. Christ not only possesses affections that are genuine and appropriate to human nature, but also affections that are stirred up in him based on his own past experience of similar struggles in a frail nature like ours. This sheds light on how all our miseries are allowed to enter Christ’s heart now and deeply impact and move him.[11]
Knowing the heart of Christ toward sinners, including redeemed sinners[12], should motivate us to pursue a heart-attitude of humility as we go to Him in prayer (Jas 2:1). As adopted children we have no reason or right to be prideful or arrogant as we seek the face of God in prayer. As the German reformer Martin Luther rightly noted, “We are beggars. This is true.”[13] King David expressed that kind of humility in Psalm 143:2-3, saying, “Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness! And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous.”
In that verse, David is acknowledging something I mentioned earlier—that God’s holiness is not partitioned from His graciousness. In other words, David is confessing to God something he inherently knows to be true—about himself and God—that God is holy and he is not. As John MacArthur (1939-2025) observes:
“Your view of God is really the benchmark of your spiritual maturity. Understanding the nature of God is critical to spiritual maturity because in the end you rest in the reality of your God. Superficial knowledge of God, a shallow knowledge of God, a limited knowledge of God contributes to limited understanding and limited faith and limited trust.”[14]
Doubt: The Nemesis of Effective Prayer
In his sermon “Solving the Problem of Doubt,” John MacArthur, in addressing the seeming doubts expressed by John the Baptist in Matthew 11:1-6, explains:
Our doubts come like John’s doubts. We convince ourselves that we belong to the Lord, and the Lord is going to care for us. And when something goes wrong, we really begin to doubt. We lose a child to death or we lose a child to unbelief, or we lose a – a husband or a wife, or a mother or a father, or a dear friend. Or somebody gets cancer or has a heart attack, or a child is struck by a car and crippled for life, and we begin to say, “God, is this what it’s supposed to be like when You care and love us?” If everything doesn’t go the way it should go, we – we wonder if God loves us and fall easily into doubt. And once we start thinking that way, Satan gets behind and just starts shoving. In our selfishness, ignorance, and failure to see the whole plan of God, and in our constant problem of getting tied down to this passing world, we doubt God. And we doubt that He cares and loves us. And we lose our job or something like that, and we just start questioning God. Well, John doubted because of difficult circumstances, and I understand that. I understand that. But you know what he did. he did the right thing with his doubt. he went immediately to the Lord. That’s the place to go if you have doubt over those kinds of things, go to the Lord.[15]
Sadly, limited trust in God is, in my humble opinion, the main thing that inhibits many believers in Christ from experiencing a more robust and fruitful prayer life. They simply do not believe God will hear, let alone answer, their prayers. If that is you, I pray you’ll be encouraged by these words from the 17th century Puritan Thomas Brooks (1608-1680), who exhorts:
“If ever you would be holy, then be much in prayer. Prayer is the most prevalent orator at the throne of grace. Many that have gone to that throne with tears in their eyes, have come away with praises in their hearts; and many that have gone to that throne with hearts full of sin, have returned with hearts full of grace.”[16]
Similarly, the 17th century Puritan John Owen (1616-1683) writes:
Many saints have no greater burden in their lives than that their hearts do not constantly delight in God. There is still in them a resistance to walking close with God. Why is this? Is it not because they are not skillful and so neglect having loving fellowship with the Father? But the more we see of God’s love, so much more shall we delight in him. All that we learn of God will only frighten us away from him if we do not see him as loving and merciful to us.[17]
The Struggle to Believe God
I wonder, dear brother or sister, do Owen’s words describe you? Could it be that you struggle to regularly commune with God in prayer because, not unlike the church at Ephesus, you have lost your first love (Rev 2:2-4)? Admittedly, it is not always easy to believe God, but believe Him we must, even when it is difficult (Mk 9:24). As R.C. Sproul said in his sermon “A Hopeful Vision,”[18],
“Faith is not believing in God; it is believing God [emphasis added]. The Christian life is about believing God. It’s about living by every word that proceeds from His mouth. It’s by following Him into places we’ve never been; into situations that we’ve never tasted; seeking countries that we’ve never seen, because we know who He is.”
What encouragement that is!
Faith vs. Feelings
Think about it.
How is it that you and I can profess to believe in a God we’ve never seen concerning such weighty matters as the salvation of our souls (1 Pet 1:8), and yet not trust Him with the everyday concerns we have in this temporal world that is passing away (Eccl 6:12; Matt 6:25-34; 1 Jn 2:15)? But, alas, such is the feebleness of our flesh. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:41b, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And yet even in times of discouragement, when we feel our prayers arise no further than the ceiling, we have these words of comfort and encouragement from the Puritan theologian William Bridge (1600-1670), who said:
The same God that hath commanded you to keep the ten commandments, commands you to believe when all means fail. . . . There is a time when the Lord does sometimes take away the means on purpose to prove thy faith. How does thou know, man or woman, whether this be not the day and the time? Thou sayest, thou canst not believe, because means fail; it may be it is the time of thy trial, God sending this time of purpose to try thee.[19]
In Colossians 4:2a, believers in Christ are commanded to, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.” The admonition to keep alert in prayer with an attitude of thanksgiving makes it clear to us that humility and gratitude are inexorably tied together (Jas 4:6). Yes, every Christian wants something from God. And you know what?—that’s ok (Ps 55:17)! Again, the issue isn’t necessarily our asking, but our motive in asking (Jas 4:3).
All too often what you and I desire from God is not what we should desire from Him. How many of us, me included, when we go to God in prayer, truly want what He wants for us? How many of us, when we pray to the Lord, can say, “Your will be done,” and actually mean it? I invite you to ruminate on those question against the backdrop of these sobering words from A.W. Pink (1886-1952), who opined:
The prevailing idea seems to be, that I come to God and ask Him for something that I want, and that I expect Him to give me that which I have asked. But this is a most dishonoring and degrading conception. The popular belief reduces God to a servant, our servant: doing our bidding, performing our pleasure, granting our desires. No, prayer is a coming to God, telling Him my need, committing my way unto the Lord, and leaving Him to deal with it as seemeth Him best.[20]
Conversely, John MacArthur, in a sermon titled The Fulness of God, comments:
We do not come to God in prayer fearing that He is some kind of indifferent, cold, unloving distant deity. We don’t come to God as some being to be appeased as the pagans do. We come to a tender, loving, concerned, compassionate, accepting Father who literally waits with anticipation in His heart for the moment that we enter His presence and eagerly embraces us.[21]
Along that same line of thought, the 17th century Puritan John Flavel who, it may interest you to know, happens to be my favorite Puritan, said:
Is [human] sense and feeling a competent judge of God’s actions and designs? . . . Do you not know [that] the sun still keeps on its course in the heavens even in dull and foggy weather when you cannot see it? And may it not be so with the love of God (Isa 50:10)? May not I as well conclude in winter, when the flowers have hidden their beautiful heads underground, that they are quite dead and gone because I cannot find them in December where I saw them in May?[22] Remember that this God, in whose hand all the creatures are, is your Father, and is much more tender over you than you are, or can be, over yourselves (Zech 2:8).”[23]
The Faithfulness of God
Is it a sin to pray for yourself? No, it’s not.
The apostle Peter affirms this in 1 Peter 3:12a, proclaiming, “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer.” It is on that text, 1 Peter 3:12, that the French reformer John Calvin said encouragingly, “It ought to be a consolation to us, sufficient to mitigate all evils, that we are looked upon by the Lord, so that he will bring us help in due time.”[24] It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to you and me by faith (Rom 4:5-6; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:26; Phil 3:9), and not any righteousness of our own (Isa 64:6; Eph 2:8; Tit 3:5), that makes us, and thus our prayers, acceptable to God so that He is attentive to our prayers. In Mark 10:51, Jesus asked Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you [emphasis added]?”
Could it be, believer in Christ, that the Lord Jesus Christ is posing that same question to you today? If so, take comfort in the fact that you serve is a good, caring, and faithful Savior (Ps 119:68; 1 Pet 5:7) and that, as His child (Jn 1:12-13), you may go to Him in prayer—confidently, boldly, yet humbly (1 Pet 5:8)—for it is He Himself who has promised to meet your, yes your, needs (Matt 6:8; Phil 4:19).
Soli Deo Gloria!
Darrell B. Harrison
Note: I was compelled to write this article subsequent to a conversation I had recently with my sister, who is battling some health issues, who revealed to me that she’d always believed that praying for others was the right thing to do, but that praying for yourself—in her case for physical healing—was sinful. As much as this article is meant to be a response to her misunderstanding about prayer, it is my heartfelt prayer that this article will perhaps be edifying to someone who, likewise, has been taught such error.
Related: Praying for the Right Things – John MacArthur
[1] Dwight L. Moody, Prevailing Prayer (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1884; reprint 1987), p. 79.
[2] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, A Wilderness Cry, sermon delivered August 4, 1878, in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 24 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1878), Psalm 63:1–2.
[3] Alexander Comrie, Distinguishing Marks of Saving Faith. Translated by Bartel Elshout and Edited by Joel R. Beeke, Reformation Heritage Books (2024), 185.
[4] https://gracequotes.org/author-quote/joseph-hall/ (accessed December 3, 2025 at 5:46 a.m. MT).
[5] https://www.gracegems.org/WINSLOW/og07.htm
[6] https://www.monergism.com/beauty-his-holiness
[7] https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/holiness-god-and-sinfulness-man
[8] Commentary on the Whole Bible: Ephesians 2:4-10.
[9] https://thinkingonscripture.com/about-dr-steven-r-cook/
[10] https://thinkingonscripture.com/2024/10/25/why-grace-is-hard-for-many-to-accept/
[11] https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/goodwin/The%20Heart%20of%20Christ%20(Modernized%20-%20Thomas%20Goodwin%20(1).pdf (p. 94 of the PDF).
[12] In 1 John 1:8 (NASB), the apostle John declares, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us,” in which the personal pronouns “we” and “us” refer to believers in Jesus Christ, to who the epistle of 1 John is written.
[13] https://www.1517.org/articles/we-are-beggars-martin-luthers-final-words-and-the-heart-of-the-gospel
[14] https://www.gty.org/sermons/42-157/pray-boldly
[15] https://www.gty.org/sermons/2285/solving-the-problem-of-doubt
[16] Works, 4:229
[17] John Owen, Communion with God, Abridged and Made Easy to Read by R.J.K. Law, Banner of Truth (2022), 37.
[18] https://learn.ligonier.org/series/faith-the-evidence-of-things-unseen/a-hopeful-vision
[19] William Bridge, The Works of William Bridge, Vol. II, The Banner of Truth Trust (2022), 312-313.
[20] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1930 (reprint 1969), p. 172.
[21] https://www.gty.org/sermons/1915/the-fullness-of-god-part-1 in a sermon titled “The Fulness of God, Part 1.”
[22] Keeping the Heart, Audible® audiobook version, 46:50-47:18, Chapter 9.
[23] Audible® audiobook, Chapter 7, beginning at the 54:00 mark.
[24] https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cal/1-peter-3.html