Does God Answer The Prayers Of Unbelievers?

            Some Christian leaders teach that God would not answer any prayer of unbelievers other than their prayer of repentance.

            The Bible portrays God answering the prayers of unbelievers:¹

Here are some passages dealing with prayer by an unbeliever:

The people of Nineveh prayed that Nineveh might be spared (Jonah 3:5-10). God answered this prayer and did not destroy the city of Nineveh as He had threatened.

Hagar asked God to protect her son Ishmael (Genesis 21:14-19). God not only protected Ishmael, God blessed him exceedingly.

In 1 Kings 21:17-29, especially verses 27-29, Ahab fasts and mourns over Elijah’s prophecy concerning his posterity. God responds by not bringing about the calamity in Ahab’s time.

The Gentile woman from the Tyre and Sidon area prayed that Jesus would deliver her daughter from a demon (Mark 7:24-30). Jesus cast the demon out of the woman’s daughter.

Cornelius, the Roman centurion in Acts 10, had the apostle Peter sent to him in response to Cornelius being a righteous man. Acts 10:2 tells us that Cornelius “prayed to God regularly.”

            Consider an instance wherein a Christian visits hospitals to pray for the sick. In such a situation, that Christian would pray for both believers and unbelievers who are sick. While praying with an unbeliever, he could advise the unbeliever to pray for healing in Jesus’ name. If the unbeliever prays earnestly to Jesus for healing, would not the living God answer his prayers?

        I am not remotely suggesting that God will heal every unbeliever who prays for healing in the same way that God need not necessarily answer the prayer of healing of every believer.

            But if an unbeliever pleads for God’s abiding presence, peace, encouragement, strength, and power to endure his sickness, would not the living God answer his prayers? Who knows, maybe the unbeliever would turn to Christ through this event as well.

            The living God, who healed Commander Namaan (2 Kings 5) – an unbeliever – of his leprosy, is sovereign in HIS nature.  An article on the Biblword website pertinently summarizes, “God is sovereign, and there is no limit to his power and ability. We cannot put Him in a box and say this or that is what He will or will not do. He knows what is in the heart of every man, woman and child. He hears the cry of their heart and He can choose to answer any prayer that He sees fit.”²

Endnotes:

¹https://www.gotquestions.org/unbeliever-prayer.html

²https://www.biblword.net/does-god-hear-the-prayers-of-the-sinners-and-unbelievers/

Websites last accessed on 30^th May 2022.