“There are three ways God answers prayer: Yes, no, and wait.” Have you heard this popular phrase? I grew up with this adage swimming in my head. It prompted me to approach my prayer life as if I was shaking a magic 8 ball: Which one of the three will God give this time?

While the sentiment can keep us from falsely believing a kind of prosperity-mindset in our prayer, it leads us into an altogether unhelpful view of prayer. It forces us to believe some of our prayers are successful and some aren’t. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Throughout Scripture, we don’t see prayer placed in the question-answer dichotomy, but as a means of grace. It’s a form of communion with the Father, that Christ himself modeled and taught us to practice. We discover it used as a response to celebration or sorrow, and rather than one concrete answer, we’ll find grace is the greatest aim of prayer (Ps 86:6; Heb. 4:16).

This grace isn’t one of many options we will receive: it is guaranteed. Whether we come with the smallest troubles or we repeatedly bring the same request to the throne of grace, we can be sure that we will receive abundantly. We might not receive the material solution we desire, but Christ will always say “yes” to his grace. This should push us to keep running to prayer, not only for an answer, but for the many gifts of grace God will give us in the process.

The Gift of Humility

Each time we come to the King’s throne with a petition, we are gifted the chance to sit in our humility. It’s important to remember that we don’t call upon an equal to help us, nor do we come with anything to offer. We come to the maker of heaven and earth (Ps. 121:2), the God who holds all things together (Col. 1:17), and the source of every good gift in this world (Jas. 1:17). Each appeal reminds us of the division between us, the created, and God, the Creator.

And this is always a good place to sit. It is the humble who receive grace (1 Pet. 5:5). Jesus tells us it’s only those who humble themselves like children who will enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 18:3-4). If we choose to come before our Lord in prayer sparingly, we are cheating ourselves out of key opportunities to grow in humility and grace.

In his book Teach us to Pray, Gordon Smith echoes this truth saying, “In our praying not only are we asking God to change things, but we are being changed”. One of the ways we change is in our humble recognition of how God is already at work in our lives.

When I’m intentional to pray specific prayers throughout my day, I often start to notice God’s sovereign hand at work more often. Something as simple as a conversation beginning with my husband, or a moment of discipline with my child would have been forgotten as I went about my day. I would have continued to see them as my own triumphs or even my own luck.  But instead, I see these tiny moments and am forced to realize they are not from my own hand.

Our time in prayer gives us the incredible gift of humbly gazing on God’s power, victory, and glory already present in each of our days.

The Gift of Himself

When we stop to pray we get another opportunity to meditate on the abundance God guarantees for his children. Our Father loves to give gifts to his children. Not only does he tell us to ask, but he tells us to “ask and it will be given to you” (Matt. 7:7). Jesus went on to tell the crowds if evil men know how to give gifts, how much more would our Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him (Matt. 7:11). These gifts aren’t just physical, they are the spiritual gifts we receive through Christ, right now.

Graeme Goldsworthy wrote, “There is nothing the believer will possess in glory that he does not now possess in Christ” (Gospel and Kingdom, 119). Can you believe that? When we come before our High Priest, we have access to all that is in Christ: his patience, his grace, his love, his mercy. It’s all ours now. No, we won’t have all we physically desire on this earth, but the Lord has promised to supply us with everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).

Are we worrying about a child’s struggle? God may not give them victory tomorrow, but as we pray we can remember he does promise us the fruit of patience. He bestows upon us a worth not based in our parental merits. He showers us with the beautiful body of Christ to help encourage and give wisdom in our lack. Are we exhausted from a burdensome season of difficulty? He may not remove every obstacle, but he does promise us the bread and water of his Word to strengthen, encourage, and revive our weary hearts. He freely gives the peace of a future hope and the comfort of his love for our mourning.

When we offer up our prayers, we are guaranteed something incredible—we are guaranteed Jesus. And this is the gift we need every moment, in the big and small requests. We need his grace, his mercy, his comfort, and his love. And as we come to him in prayer, as sure as the rains come he will give us himself (Hos. 6:3).

The Gift of His Ear

Finally, David Mathis describes prayer in his book, Habits of Grace, as “having God’s ear,” a phrase that proves to be one of the sweetest gifts we receive as we come before the throne.  It seems obvious, but the wonder of this statement shouldn’t be lost on us. If God is really the creator of the heavens and earth, we can’t help but marvel that he pays any attention to us (Ps. 8:4). Yet he does. He is “the God who sees” (Gen. 16:13), and beyond that he is the God who hears the cries of his suffering people (Gen. 29:33, 30:17; Ps. 17:6). Every time we pray to God, we pray to the God who listens to our cries.

Not only do we know that God listens, but we can see evidence in the Bible of how he listens to his people. For 430 years the Israelites were held captive by the Egyptians, and their cries went up to God for deliverance. The Lord responded by telling Moses, “I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel . . . and I have remembered my covenant” (Exod. 6:5). In his commentary on the Bible, Matthew Henry notes that God is “ever mindful” of the promise he made and considers this before any merit of the Israelites’ own.

As we pray we don’t have to fear that God listens in frustration, exhaustion, or impatience. He doesn’t receive our prayers with a sigh. No, he receives them as a merciful father, who sees our union with Christ because of the work of the cross. We don’t have to ever wonder if our lack of answers are for our good because our God is ever mindful of our promised sanctification (Phil. 1:6). When we pray, God remembers us as the bride he purchased with his Son’s blood. And whether we get the answer we want or not, we can marvel in the precious gift of his compassionate and merciful ear.

Pray and Receive

Many more gifts beyond these three await us in the midst of our prayers. They aren’t possibilities, but guarantees from the Father who loves us and tells us to bring our joys, struggles, and worship before him. Will we do it? Will we stop seeing prayer as the answer to one petition, and instead understand the humility and the spiritual blessings in Christ that this means of grace provides?

We have so much more than a magic eight ball. We have the ear of our sovereign Father—and whether we are praying for healing or to find our car keys, we’ll receive sweet gifts from the Lord when we pray. He guarantees it.