The key to answered prayer

Sharing my own personal study this morning...
These are purely my ideas and what I felt God was teaching me today.

In Matthew 8:1-4 there is a man with leprosy who approaches Jesus and says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” This man believes that Jesus has the power to heal him and he petitions Jesus for that healing. Jesus replies, “I am willing. Be clean.” In this way, Jesus answers the leper’s prayers.
In Mark 5:25-34 the woman with the issue of bleeding also desires to be healed. She decides to herself that if she could just get close enough to Jesus to touch His robe then she would be healed and that’s what she did. She didn’t ask. She didn’t make a scene. She touched His robe and because of her faith, she was healed.

I think the leper’s story represents our need to pray to God and ask for whatever petitions we have. If the Lord is willing, He will answer them.
Yet in the woman’s story, I see that she had faith great enough for her prayers to be answered. She didn’t even have to ask. (Of course the Lord already knows our needs.)

This is a little bit of a conflict for me.
I’ve always known that my spiritual gift is faith and I’ve drawn on that gift many times for myself and others.
Yet I’ve also always felt strongly that it’s important to pray to God about our requests and needs and wants.

In the Bible, there are many stories about Jesus healing people. He does it in all different ways. In some situations, He’s asked. In some situations, He merely speaks words and the person is healed. In some situations, He doesn’t even go to the person who is sick. He just commands it and it’s done. (See Matthew 8:5-13 The Faith of the Centurion) The only similarity in all these stories that I can see, is that for every person who was healed by Jesus, they had to first have faith.

[In Acts 3:1-10 Peter heals a beggar who didn’t ask for healing and had no faith prior to his healing. But yet the Holy Spirit healed the man through Peter. This is because of Peter's faith.]

This faith is not just hoping that God will answer our prayers, but it’s based on a fundamental belief that God has the power to answer any prayer if He is willing. But therein lies our problem.
I think because we have seen or experienced so much evil and tragedy in the world, we don’t always believe that He is willing to answer our prayers. How could God allow bad things to happen to good people, right? And that’s where our faith falters.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost sight of God’s loving-kindness.
Are there any examples in the Bible of Jesus denying healing to someone who sought it from Him? (The answer is no.)

The bleeding woman was healed without any prior petitions. Her faith was such that she believed she could draw on His power to be healed. She had no doubts as to whether or not Jesus was willing to heal her. She only had to walk closely with Jesus - not just close, but so close as to touch the hem of his robe - to have her prayers answered.

Am I walking that closely with Him? Is my faith strong enough that I believe Jesus is truly willing to answer my prayers whatever they might be?
It’s not until I believe He IS willing that then my prayers will be answered.
I must believe that God wants what’s best for me.

Matthew 7:9-11 - “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”

Matthew7:7-8 - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”