Yes.

When Solomon asked God to answer the prayers of whoever prayed toward his temple, God agreed. Solomon’s temple doesn’t exist anymore, but now we have Jesus. And he says you can ask him for anything, and he will do what you ask. All you have to do is ask for something in Jesus’s name, and God will give you whatever you asked for. Because God is willing to satisfy the desires of everyone and everything alive.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re like. God gives generously to everyone who asks, without finding fault. Ordinary human beings can control the weather, just by asking God. If you don’t have what you want, it’s only because you haven’t asked God for it.

And it’s not just God who will always give you what you ask for. Jesus says everyone who asks receives. So you could ask anyone for anything, even from someone evil, and you will definitely get what you want.

Maybe?

Elihu said you can pray and God will turn your life back around… at least if there happens to be an angel around and the angel decides to ask God to spare your life. That sounds like a pretty specific kind of situation, so it doesn’t seem like he’s saying this is how it will always be for everyone. And we don’t even know if Elihu is right, since God never clarified whether Elihu had spoken the truth about him or not.

When God agreed to Solomon’s requests about the temple, God said now he would be attentive to the prayers offered there. Is that unusual? Does he normally ignore the prayers offered in other places?

Jesus says even evil people know how to give good gifts to their children. So God will certainly give good gifts to those who ask him. But will he give bad gifts? What happens if you ask God for a bad gift? Jesus doesn’t say.

James states that if you ask anything of God according to his will, he’ll do it. That condition he’s added there pretty much negates the whole statement. Of course God is going to do what he wants, regardless of what you think he should do. But then when James attempts to restate the same thing, he forgets to include that condition, which means he’s saying something very different this time. Do these people even know what they’re saying?

No.

Obviously Jesus is wrong when he says everyone who asks receives. The Bible itself contains plenty of counter-examples.

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