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Thursday, May 18th, 2006

Prayer

This Wednesday night at church we talked about prayer and I thought it was very interesting. Many people assume that God has two (or three) answers to prayer

1) Yes
2) No
3) Maybe / Wait

The Bible tells us of two dynamics that God uses when answering prayer, the petition and the desire. The Petition being what you ask for and the desire is the goal of what you're asking for.

Answer the petition but not the desire

God may very well answer your prayer, just not like you wanted. The Israelites got sick and tired of eating manna when they were wandering in the desert. They asked God for some meat, so God gave them meat! Only, it was way more meat then they wanted.

Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” (Numbers 11:18b-20)

So be careful what you ask for, God just might do it—just not the way you want it.

Answers the desire but not the petition

This is shown when Abram asked God to spare Sodom as his nephew Lot was there. God did not spare Sodom, but did spare Lot's family (at least those willing to leave, minus his wife who was turned to salt for disobeying God's command).

God answers both the petition and the request

This is what we want, God to do what we want, they way we want. It is nice when God does this, but it doesn't always happen this way.

God answers neither the petition nor the request

God is never obligated to answer our prayers. There are many reasons we could be denied our request by God. A few of them include:

Carnality / Being Fleshly: If we have the wrong motive in asking God (it is to only honor us, or more honoring to us and our needs) God will likely not answer it.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. (Psalms 66:18)

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)

Lack of faith: Many people do not have faith when they ask. If you ask God for something, and when it is not answers you reply, "I knew God wouldn't do it!" You obviously didn't have faith. Faith the size of a mustard seeds (very small seed) can throw mountains into the ocean.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. (Matthew 21:22)

Lack of compassion: It is important to have compassion for others. If you are unwilling to help the poor and needy, why should God help you? The Bible is clear that you reap what you sow (you get back what you do).

Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be heard. (Proverbs 21:13)

Pride: God cannot be with sin. That is why 1 John 1:9 asks us to ask God for forgiveness. I would extend this as broad as any sin but for the sake of the study I will leave it at Pride. While the verse they used to support this was Elihu telling them that God cannot hear the proud, his counsel is not completely sound.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

lack of harmony in the home: This shows how important it is to make sure you have a proper relationship with your family, specifically your spouse. You cannot be perfectly in God's will and be at odds with your spouse. Make sure you reconcile your differences to have the right relationship with God.

Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7)

Not compatible of his will: While we may not understand it, many things we want are not what God wants. Cancer may seem horrible, and we may want a miraculous cure—surely God would too!—but that may not be the case. God may desire a person to have cancer whether it be to strengthen his faith, turn him to God, to strengthen another's faith, or for some other reason we cannot see. We can pray that God cure a person all we want but if it is ultimately God's will, he will do as is best. We cannot see how everything fits together like God and he knows what is best.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

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This script was last updated September 28th, 2006.

My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you. Proverbs 3:1-2