God answers prayer.
Last Night As Family of Five
8 years ago
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Reader Poll: Prayer
When I get my thoughts focused, scriptures found/read/analyzed, I want to write a post about a topic that has been on my mind for over a year. So let's start with one question. I want your candid answer, your first instinct if someone were to ask you this. What does it mean?
God answers prayer.
God answers prayer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
18 comments:
My thought is that He always answers, but the answer may be no, or in His time, not ours.
It means our God interacts with our everyday lives.
God answers prayer in His timing, if it's His will.
God holds everything in His hands, and if we invite Him into our lives and nurture our faith in Him, we'll find that He's right there with us.
Amen!
God desires us to have a personal relationship with him and one of the surest ways to do so is through prayer. While the answers to our prayers aren't always what we want/expect, He is always faithful and His answers to our prayers are part of His perfect plan. I think this is especially difficult to understand or accept when you're in the midst of pain or suffering.
The Old Testament mentions many times That God Answered their prayers..I really like the one I copied/paste for you to have....
# 1 Chronicles 5:20
They were helped in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.
1 Chronicles 5:19-21 (in Context) 1 Chronicles 5 (Whole Chapter)
When you look up the New Testament, I really did not find any that were blunt like the old testament in answering prayers...
I believe that God answers prayer. I think he will answer our prayers in His own time and it may not necessarily mean that He gives us the answer we want. I am praying for the RIGHT job, not just any ole' job, but the job HE wants for me. Even if I have to wait 5 years for that job, I have to trust and believe that He has my best interest at heart. I pray for another child and whether he blesses me with one or not, I will trust and believe that He knows best for me. Society has groomed us for instant gratification when what we need to do is bring our requests to the Lord and let Him know what is on our hearts.
It means that God hears and answers every pray that anyone ever has. We may not always like the answer, yes, no, not now, wait....but He will always answer.
God is always faithful. He hears our prayers and always answers them. It might not be in the way you had imagined, but He always answers in the best way possible. He knows exactly what we need.
My first instinct is Yes, He answers prayers, He knows our desires before we even form them into a prayer. This scripture comes to mind when I read this question -
"Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him…" Psalm 37:5-7
God will give us the desires of our heart, but first we must trust in Him and be patient and willing to let Him answer. This means that we must be content with whatever He wants for us in any situation if we are praying for HIS answer.
My initial reaction is: TRUE-ALWAYS! Just sometimes it's a big fat NO!
That he hears us when we prayer, knows our thoughts-even when un-spoken and provides answers to our prayers, even if they're not the answers we were looking for.
Like a good parent, He answers us, sometimes it isn't what we want. If we got what we wanted at any given moment we might be in the wrong relationship (it looked right at the time), living in the wrong house (it was so pretty in the sunshine, who knew there was an active railroad behind that line of trees), working in a job that is defeatist, etc., etc., etc.
(I hope you don't mind me commenting & following I found your link on "Go red for women" feel free to follow if you'd like.)
God does answer prayer. Absolutely. He certainly doesn't always provide the answer I'd expect and there's no certainty that He'll actually speak specifically to what I've prayed about. Although I have experienced His specific answers to my specific requests, I think the more I grow in my relationship with Him, I've learned that my prayers are so many times less about getting an answer to my questions and honoring Him with my time so that He can speak to me those words that He knows I need.
I have been thinking about this a lot since I saw it posted yesterday. This has really been a personal struggle for me lately and I think it is timely that you have posted about it. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I believe that God answers prayer, and it is a way to strengthen faith and your relationship with Him. It is hard when God doesn't answer prayer the way you hope, especially when dealing with pain and loss, but again, I think that is when faith has to come in, believing that He has your best interest at heart and knows what is best.
The best insight I've heard concerning how God answers prayer is from Beth Moore on a series called "Developing An Enormously Effective Prayer Life." The short (or not so short)version is this: God shapes our will with His words. As we study His word, we are abiding in Him and if we are abiding in Him, then our desires will merge with His and what we pray will be His will. John 15:7 talks about remaining in Him and asking whatever you wish and it will be given you, but those are conditional promises--it is not a genie in a bottle wish, it comes with strings attached and that is the part of "if you remain in me"......1 John 5:14-15 says "This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to HIS will, he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him." AGAIN, v 7 is the promise here--and that is when we are abiding in Him, it greatly effects our desires. So all this to say that yes, God answers prayer--He has a goal and His will is always good and always the result, but we may not be experiencing a powerful prayer life if our prayers come from our will and not His. Now it's your turn..I'm curious to read what you think ;o)
Post a Comment