I Googled bible verses about prayer. The first link I clicked went to Faithgateway.com, where the author listed 20 Bible Verses about Prayer. The list included several about how to pray and several that assert that God hears your prayers, but I was struck by some of the verses omitted from the list. A simpler list derived by keywords rather than compiled by the author reminded me of some verses that I heard repeatedly as a child, but that seem to have lost some of their popularity.

Here are a couple of the verses presented at Faithgateway.com:

• This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ─ 1 John 5:14
• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  ─ Philippians 4:6-7

The verses are categorized by topic as well. Here are the categories:

• God hears our prayers
• Lay your requests before God
• How to pray
• Jesus’s example
• Confession and forgiveness
• Give praise to God
• Pray for peace and for our leaders

The verses that were omitted were the ones about answering prayers. Here are the ones not on the Faithgateway.com article that I recall being very popular in Sunday school:

• And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. – John 14:13
• Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. – Mark 11:24
• If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. – Luke 17:6
• Most assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as 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 to you. – Matthew 17:20

We have had many tests of prayers. People have asked for things and they have happened, people have asked for things and they have not happened, and people have asked for things and something to varying degrees similar to their requests have happened at some time in the future. In response to these tests, Christians have concluded that God has three responses to prayers: Yes, no, and wait.

That pretty much covers every conceivable observation of occurrences consequent to one’s prayer. For the prayers listed at Faithgateway.com, thts conclusion about prayer are consistent, but for those that I heard as a child, this conclusion is inconsistent. We’ve observed reality and determined that certain verses, those that do not make claims about God’s response to prayers, represent what we can conclude about prayer. Those that claim that God’s response is predictable have conveniently been omitted from lists about prayer, at least those lists that are designed for broad, discerning audiences that are likely to compare the claims with reality. The Christians that I know will rarely make a prediction about how God will answer your particular prayer.

Contrast this “yes, no, wait” position on God’s response to prayer to the Christian convictions about salvation. There are disagreements among denominations about how one attains salvation, but while most moderate or progressive denominations appear to me to claim no knowledge about how God will respond to prayers, each, again in my experience, asserts with some confidence that they can know what it takes for God to give salvation (aka, eternity in heaven).

Ask a modern Christian what it takes to obtain salvation and they’ll salivate at the opportunity to answer it for you. Their answers may differ between claims about simply accepting Jesus (most common), being a good person (I hear this more often from hardcore progressives), or accepting Jesus while doing good works or living in some Christian manner (I find this relatively uncommon). There are a few other positions on salvation, like universalism and positions about not committing apostasy.

Whatever their position on salvation, Christians are happy to provide you with their assertion about what is required. Rarely do I hear a Christian say, “You can accept Jesus but there’s a possibility that if you don’t tithe you’ll end up in hell; I don’t really have any idea what God might decide,” or, “You can ask God to come into your life and save your soul but he might say no; God works in mysterious ways.” Instead I hear, “Accept Jesus into your heart and you will be saved.”

And this brings us to testable hypotheses. Any testable hypothesis about God is generally discarded for one good reason: it fails. God will give you the power to move mountains? No, while that’s clearly what it said, it must not mean that in context. God will give you what you ask for? Nope, you must be reading it wrong. You can pray and the world will keep spinning and something will occur? Now you’re talking! I’ll wager a bet on that!

Salvation has a trump card over prayer because it doesn’t have to be shifted into the realm of the untestable. It’s already there! So this is my difficulty with all of religion’s (not just Christianity’s) claims. When the rubber hits the road, there’s nothing there in reality but a bunch of fuzzy cause and effect relationships that, if you squint your eyes and blur the scene enough, seem like evidence of God, but aren’t very good evidence, and that are contradicted by a myriad of other occurrences in reality. Good hypotheses about how the world works are the ones that make

predictions and, under scrutiny, hold up. Many, many claims have achieved that, and those that haven’t have been discarded. Why can’t we hold religious claims to the same standard?

predictions and, under scrutiny, hold up. Many, many claims have achieved that, and those that haven’t have been discarded. Why can’t we hold religious claims to the same standard?