“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me. Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”<\/em>” (John 11:41-43).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis is a good illustration of needing to understand verses in their context. Jesus is praying to God. He thanks God for listening to him. Then he mentions that he is not saying this because sometimes God doesn’t listen to His Son, but rather Jesus mentions this for the benefit of those listening to his prayer. He wants the people around to know that God always listens to His Son. Since God only listens to the righteous, the implication is that Jesus doesn’t sin. Whatever he asks of God is always in accordance to God’s will.<\/p>\n
This isn’t like you and me. There are times that we sin and God isn’t going to listen to us. There are times when we want something that is wrong, and God won’t listen to us then. But Jesus told his disciples (and us) “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it<\/em>” (John 14:14). The promise is qualified. If we ask with Jesus’ approval, Jesus will answer that prayer.<\/p>\n\tQuestion:<\/h2>\n
You said that Jesus said “If you ask anything in my name I will do it,” but then what if someone was just to ask for something ridiculous in Jesus’ name?<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
“In his name” means with his authority or approval. When a person goes down to the bank with a check, the person who gave the check signed his name. It means the holder can withdraw the amount designated on the check with the approval of the signer. Therefore, to ask something ridiculous would not be answered because it would not be with Jesus’ approval. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures<\/em>” (James 4:3).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: In John 11:42 it says God always hears you, but in the verse, you showed me in “Should we pray for Satan’s salvation?” it says that God said that if people were to pray for the extreme idolaters then He would not hear their cries out to him? Answer: “Then they took away the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-29487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":88905,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-heaven-really-hear\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":0},"title":"Does Heaven Really Hear?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan Gulley Charles Swindoll tells about a Ziggy cartoon. \"Ziggy is standing, looking up at a mountain. The sky is dark, and there's one cloud up there. Ziggy says, 'Have I been put on hold for the rest of my life?' \" Swindoll continues, \"Sometimes prayer feels like that,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26445,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-jesus-hear-our-prayers-before-god-hears-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":1},"title":"Does Jesus hear our prayers before God hears them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does Jesus send our prayers to God? Does he hear them before God hears them? How exactly does it work? Does Jesus listen, and then verbally repeat your prayers to God? Answer: Speaking of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews said, \"Therefore He is also able to save to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19463,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-answer-every-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":2},"title":"Does God Answer Every Prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes; Vol. 56, No. 3; Jan. 19, 2007. Question: \"I believe that when we pray for something, in faith, God will give it to us. If we are sick, we can pray and God will heal us. He is able to do all things. So,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/prayer-2-1-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-respond-to-the-prayers-of-the-alien-sinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":3},"title":"Does God respond to the prayers of the alien sinner?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In my study of God's Word, I've come to the conclusion that God does not respond to the prayers of an \"alien sinner\" when asking for God's blessings on himself.\u00a0 However, what are your thoughts on whether God responds to an \"alien sinners\" prayers when praying for someone else?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-believe-in-god-and-not-believe-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":4},"title":"Can a Christian believe in God and not believe in prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian believe in God but not believe in prayer? I'm a member of the church but I don't believe in prayer? How do I overcome that? Answer: Let's work backward. You say you don't believe in prayer, yet the Bible says that Jesus taught, \"Then He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-satan-hear-our-internal-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":29487,"position":5},"title":"Can Satan hear our internal prayers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who can hear our silent prayers -- those prayers that are thought in our minds but not verbalized? Isn't God the only one who can read our minds and hearts? Satan cannot hear our thoughts, can he? Answer: In dedicating the temple, Solomon prayed, \"whatever prayer, whatever supplication is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}