Mike, I was on this trip last week w/ some Romanian Mayors and one of our students was talking to a mayor about the Lord and this mayor asked them a question which stumped them and as I thought about it… I thought I had an answer, but as I thought more about it… I wasn’t even too sure about my answer… which brings me to you.  The question he had was…”if I’m not a believer and I were to pray to God for something, will He answer me?”. My first thought was, spirit to spirit… would he be able to understand an answer from God? 1Co 2:14 Then my thought.. well, if he were to ‘call upon the Lord and you shall be saved’.. well yes… then he would have the spirit to begin to understand.. but… if he was referring to a prayer such as….”Lord give to me ??????, so that this problem will go away”…. still could that be considered…”calling upon the Lord”? And I also thought… why would a person who said he was a non- believer… want to pray to God in the first place for anything… how would he know if God answered him… or of course if  he was ‘calling upon the Lord for salvation’ So, what does scripture have to say that would be an answer to his question? Thanks a lot Mike! M____

Hi M____,
You pose a lot of qualifications to that question. But that really doesn’t matter. It should go without saying that God is not a hip pocket God who is here just to deliver us from having to reap what we have sown. We are, in fact, promised that the opposite is true for all men, believers or unbelievers:

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

God is far too loving to not allow us to reap what we sow. A parent who gives his children all they want without having to work for what they want is doing that child very great harm. A good parent allows his children to reap what they sow. That is love. I did not say that if a child falls into deep water before he learns how to swim that you ought to let him drown. That shows that maybe you should have taught the child to swim earlier. What the scriptures reveal is that “grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness” (Tit 2:11-12). Of course there is also this verse of scripture which bears on this question:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

So all the praying to God in the world will not change His Word when it comes to having to reap what we sow and be chastened when necessary for our own good. This is what God will do:

Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

God knows our hearts and is able to make just decisions beyond our knowledge of our own hearts. Here is the principle upon which He is now and always will be making those decisions:

Luk 12:47  And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Now to answer your question directly here is the verse which your Romanian mayor needs to see. This is the one verse which the TBN ministers and most Christians like to avoid. Nevertheless, this is part of the sum of God’s word on how God answers prayers and when this one part of the sum of His word is left out many of God’s people are  led astray, either by well- meaning, but ignorant brothers or else by ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing. Here is the answer for the mayor:

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

The clear inference is that if we ask anything which is not according to His will He is not going to give us anything which He does not will to give us. Maybe that is why He taught us all to pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I have no doubt that if an unbeliever prays that prayer then, yes indeed, God will hear a prayer which asks just to know and to do His will.
I hope this has answered you question.
Mike>