Based on your experiences, are you fearful to continue hoping in prayer based on an ‘unanswered’ prayer? Do you doubt your amount of faith? Do you think if you’ve been more disciplined in prayer God may have responded more favorably?
“No, it’s more that God already is going to do what He’s going to do and not going to do what He’s not going to do, and my asking, begging, pleading, etc. is not going to change His mind and His will. In other areas, He is not going to override someone’s free will, and force her to become a believer. I know I should pray more, but sometimes it just feels a bit futile.”
Let’s begin with verse 14. When we approach God in prayer, what is our confidence based on? “that He hears us”
Psalm 135:15-17 speaks to how personal the God of the Bible is versus idols made by human hands. Read these verses, and… list four features idols have, and four things they cannot do.
1. “mouths but cannot speak
2. “eyes but cannot see
3. “ears but cannot hear
4. “mouths but have no breath”
2 Chronicles 7:14 – is there anything you need to confess to God? If so, right below, or on separate paper. “I need to play less and work and sleep more.”
Psalm 34:17 – Who does the Lord hear in this instance? “the righteous”
Psalm 55:17 – true/false: The best time to cry out to the Lord is when you’ve got everything together. “false”
Psalm 116:1-2 – The Lord hears our cries for “mercy”.
True/False: According to 1 John 5:14, we can ask of God we want according to our will and He’ll do it. “false”
Look back at 1 John 3:21-23. John mentions a couple additional insights into receiving from God whatever we ask. What are they?
“If our hearts don’t condemn us (21), we obey His commands, and do what pleases Him (22), believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ and love one another as He commanded us (23)”
Now turn to John’s gospel, verses 15:7-8. When it comes to answered prayer, Jesus describes the state of being that includes two realities:
● We must remain in “Jesus”.
● His “words” must remain in us.
What do these two mutual realities mean as they relate to prayer? Give this some thought.
“It sounds like the ‘abiding’ covered in the last video entry”
Now turned over to James 4:2-3. What does James say is wrong with the way we sometimes pray? “wrong motives (selfish)”
What one specific truth from these passages challenges or encourages you to pray more fervently?
“Either the second (we have what we ask of Him when we ask according to His will) or the fourth (what we ask will be given to us when Jesus’ words remain in us and we remain in Him), I can’t decide. More of the latter would lead to more success with the former.”
Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do.
Have you made 1 John 5:14-15 less than it says? If so, at what point do you not believe what he is saying?
“I hope not, but I suppose I don’t dream big enough.”
[starred for emphasis, with a note about “Heidi”] Our minds are so finite; we are so limited in our understanding that often when God answers prayer, His answer looks different than what we had in mind. But this doesn’t mean He’s not answering in the best possible way. And we as humans are on a certain timetable, but God’s timetable is entirely different than ours. So prayer also requires patience.
Describe a time when you prayed for something, and God answered your prayer in an entirely different way than you could’ve imagined, yet you are now thankful for it.
“I don’t remember how much I prayed about it and for yet, but I know I at least prayed before (about) and at the onset (for) of Kerstin and my trip to Dana’s. I was disappointed that we couldn’t see Aunt Betty en route by St. Louis, but then felt led to plan another trip, which then included Mom and Dad – so much better!”
Dearest Rachel –
I think I recall a sermon – not spoken precisely from our church’s pulpit, but referred to from it – entitled “Prayer Changes Nothing.” Of course, the title was what we would nowadays refer to as ‘clickbait’ – its point was that, more than it might change God’s mind (which you point out here it doesn’t actually do, and I would tend to agree), prayer instead actually changes us, causing us to want to be more within His will so that, when we do pray, we do so with the proper motives, and hence are more likely to receive an affirmative response. The more we walk in Him, the more righteous we are, and the more likely He is to hear us.
Granted, that sounds like a quid pro quo arrangement; we do what He wants so that we can get Him to do what we want. But in becoming more like Him, our wants and desires begin to align with His as well, and the things we ask for are more in line with His desires for us and those around us. If we really did look at it as a tit-for-tat arrangement, we wouldn’t actually be moving in that direction (since we would still have an issue with our motivation). It really is complicated, isn’t it?
But that’s the thing about God; there is so much more to Him and His plans for us that we simply can’t grasp with our tiny little brains, try though we might. All we can do is try to get as close as possible, and as we do, we know more of what He wants, and have the desire for those things to come to pass – it’s the whole “Thy kingdom come” request in the foundational prayer He taught us through His Son. In a way, we have very little idea of what we mean by asking for that, and what it would truly look like, but still, we ask for it, and do what we can to assist in making that request a reality in turn by making ourselves (and hopefully, others) a little more like the people He wants us to be.
Toward that end, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. You may be perfect now, but I’m going to need all I can get in order to get there.
Letters to Rachel 