Last updated: February 2, 2026
Promises about prayer and its results.
"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."
Matthew 7:7-8
"And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."
Matthew 21:22
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
Mark 11:24
"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."
John 14:13-14
"In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
John 16:23-24
"For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 17:20
"And Jesus answered them, 'Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be taken up and thrown into the sea," and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'"
Mark 11:22-24
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."
John 14:12
"Is anyone 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 one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up."
James 5:14-15
"Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
Matthew 18:19-20
"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
Matthew 6:31-33
Clinical studies have found no statistically significant effect of intercessory prayer on medical outcomes:
This response suggests that when a prayer isn't answered, it may mean God hasn't done it yet. This interpretation makes the original promise difficult to test, since any amount of waiting can be attributed to 'God's timing'.
This response indicates that God may not answer some prayers if they don't align with His purposes. Believers point to verses like 1 John 5:14-15, which adds a conditional element ('if it's God's will'). However, many of Jesus's statements about prayer do not include such conditions.
Many Christians explain unanswered prayers using the framework that God always answers prayer with "Yes," "No," or "Wait." This framework has a structural problem worth examining.
Consider how the framework maps to outcomes:
This covers every possible outcome. But that's precisely the problem: a claim that is compatible with all possible outcomes cannot be tested.
For any claim to be testable, there must be some possible observation that could count as evidence against it. If no conceivable result would challenge the claim, it becomes difficult to evaluate its explanatory value.
The issue here is not whether prayer works. The issue is that this particular framework is structured so that it would appear to work regardless of what actually occurs. A framework that "succeeds" under all circumstances provides no way to distinguish between a prayer that was answered and one that wasn't.
The Bible contains statements about prayer being answered. Clinical studies and research data have not found evidence that intercessory prayer consistently affects medical outcomes.