Can you pray too much for something?
Just as we can never communicate too much with our loved ones, a person can never pray too much. Jesus pointed that out clearly in:
Luke 18:1-8–“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: ‘In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!”‘ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?'”
Talk with God. Let Him now your requests. He will never get tired hearing from you! Why? Because He loves you!
Rob Chaffart
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According to Luke 18, one’s request can be tabled before the Lord many times. If the unjust judge would avenge the widow of her adversaries, then if we keep asking from our Heavenly Father what we need persistently, He will answer us. The scriptures says that we should keep asking until our joy is full.
Luke 11:1-13 guarantees that our Father will grant our request no matter how difficult it is, provided it will glorify his Name.
Also Isaiah 62:1-3 encourages continuous asking from the Lord. Daniel was asking in prayers. The Lord was always answering him. At a time when the prince of Persia delayed an answer to prayer, he was still asking. And the answer came.
The devil is a thief, he will not want God’s children to keep asking because he knows that if he succeeds to put in the spirit of discouragement, fear, anxiety, lack of faith would come in as a weed.
As a matter of fact, as we ask, we should believe. As we believe, we should praise. Praise will bring down the glory to every request taking to the throne where our Father God is.
Blessings
Rev Debo Adeyemo
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My answer to this question is NO? One can not pray too much for something!
First, the Lord encourages us to pray until we receive as can be deduced from the illustration He gave in Luke 18: 1 – 8.
Second, because of the forces of opposition that are always at work, we need to remain resolute in our prayer until we get that which we desire. We can see the example of Daniel. If Daniel had stopped his praying, may be the angel would not have been liberated to come and show him what he wanted. Dan. 10: 1-13.
Three, persistence in asking for something from God, no matter how long, is a proof of our faith and belief that He will still do that for which we have been praying.
Jam. 1:6-8;
Heb. 11:6; Hab. 2:4.
And four, I feel Christians should continue to pray concerning something until God answers one way or the other, otherwise there won’t be any logical reason not continue in prayer.
Psalm 65:2; 62:5-8; 2 Cor. 12:8,9; Ecc. 3:11.
I am yours by His grace,
Adeolu Ogundare
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In my own personal experience I believe I can pray too much for something. When your focus on what you are praying for consumes you it becomes an idol in your life.
Linda
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I do not think we can pray to much over anything. Besides through prayers we find the peace that comes from the Lord God in heaven.
But we do have to learn and trusted in the Lord by turning our problems over to the him and not keep hanging on to them.
Tamara Davis
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Yes, I think sometimes we continue to pray for something over and over because we get so impatient for God to answer our prayers. We want things done right now and when we pray and don’t get them immediately we think God is not listening and we pray some more. I feel God hears our prayers the first time we pray. What seems like forever to us is only seconds to Him. And also I feel sometimes we pray for something we get an answer that is not what we want to hear so we pray again thinking God has not heard us. What He knows is best for us and what we want sometimes are two different things.
Thank you for your wonderful site. Pat Ray
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I do believe someone can pray too much for something. There comes a time when we must have the Faith that the Father God is all Knowing, all Wisdom, sees that sometimes the answer would be to our hurt…yet there are times when He will give us what we think we want to surrender to HIS PERFECT WILL.
One of my sons has a favorite sayings…”It’s surely a fish”.
Jodi
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You can’t pray too much for the same thing. Praying demonstrates your faith in the Lord’s ability to turn your situation around. God answers prayers in His desired timeframe, not ours. You can’t get discouraged when your prayers aren’t answered.
Sometimes the Lord says “no” because His Perfect Will is better than your will.
Mary
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This is a good question. We all know what happens when a child repeatedly asks for something it wants. The parent gets annoyed! I expect the person who asked this question had something like that in mind. Will we be ‘nagging’ God if we keep it up? When should we stop?
1Th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
That’s all very well but does this statement refer to a specific request or to a general attitude?
What did Jesus say about being brief in prayer?
Matthew 6:7-AV But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Matthew 23:14-AV Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Ecclesiastes 5:2-AV Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
It would seem here that God may well frown on repeated requests for the same thing. Elsewhere, we are told to ask and then believe we have received the request.
Mark 11:24-AV Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them].
1John 5:14-AV And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
If that is the case repeated ‘nagging’ would only serve to express doubt that we had been heard, or express impatience with God for not answering straight away. In line with His policy of chastening us that impatience on our part may well result in a delayed answer to teach us a lesson.
Has this ever happened?
Psalms 69:3-AV I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Psalms 119:82-AV Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
2Peter 3:9-AV The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
John 11:6-AV When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
John 11:21-AV Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
David was made to wait to test patience and courage. Jesus deliberately delayed going to His friend so that he would be well and truly dead when He arrived. He then resurrected Lazarus which was His plan all along, and something more special than just healing him. But what about long prayers? After all Jesus Himself prayed all night.
Luke 6:12-AV And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
This is similar to that first statement instructing us to ‘Pray without ceasing’. It is my understanding that there is a distinct difference here. On the one hand, if we have a request to make, we must first, as much as we are able, be sure we are asking correctly. That is, we should be ‘right with God’, not continuing in sin when we ask, not being deliberately disobedient, not asking for any selfish reason or for self gratification, and not asking contrary to the Will of God. Then, when we ask, believe that our prayer has been heard and WILL be answered (but in God’s time, not ours, and possibly in a way we do not expect). It should not be necessary then to continually ask, giving the lie to our belief that we have been both heard and answered.
On the other hand we have those references to pray continually. This then is an attitude we should adopt. In this mode we are not repeatedly asking for the same thing, but seeking communion with and the company of God. Enoch ‘walked with God’. Paul told us to ‘Pray without ceasing’.
Here are a couple more references along the same line.
1Chronicles 16:11-AV Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.
Luke 18:1-AV And he spake a parable unto them [to this end], that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
There have been cases of great men of God who pleaded with God to alter his plan or to show them the meaning of the future such as Abraham concerning Sodom, and Daniel concerning his visions. Moses spoke to God face to face and Jacob ‘wrestled’ with God all night in prayer, and prevailed to get God’s blessing. All these great men had achieved a closeness with God that could only come from an attitude similar to that expressed in the above two verses. It is that closeness that we must aim for.
Lance
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My impression is that we need to understand the law before we start to pray. It is said in the Bible that “according to your belief it is done upon you”. On the other hand, if you pray for something and believe, it is already given to you.
So, in this light, we need to be aware of our thinking process and thoughts that are present. If we pray with faith, there usually comes a point when we can feel that God has heard our prayer, and it is taken care of. After that point we need only trust and expect as the answer is on its way.
However, if we continue to feed negative thoughts, questions or we question the possibility of answer or even worse: start to wonder how God is going to do it, the power of prayer decreases as our thoughts are being focused on negative things…and the God has promised to give us according to our faith.
It is unnatural to be in the state of lack. This is very clear. It is natural to prosper in ways beyond our understanding. God created us to be fertile and happy. Anything that works against this is a sin. Prayer is like a tool between one and one’s parent.
You need to be able to communicate with your parent. If you like to have a toy car…you need to tell about that to your father. Your father hears you, but if you keep repeating and questioning if your father would buy you that toy…how would the father feel? Maybe he would feel that you don’t really want that toy car at all. Maybe he would think that you are unsure of your needs, and would wait until you learn what you truly want.
Sami Laitinen
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Once there was a conference in England, and a young man went to a prayer module and asked for prayer. “I have lost my train ticket home, please pray that it will turn up as I have no money to get home”. The leader promptly said “No, we will not waste valuable prayer time on that”! He continued “We have the means here without praying to God, everyone put your hand in your pocket and give something to this lad”. Within a few seconds the young man had enough money for a ticket, and the group prayed for something only God could supply…
Yes, we can pray too much, and for the wrong things. I heard a saying once “Things will start to happen when the Saints get on their knees”. I say “Things will start to happen when the Saints get off their knees” – Yes – Pray, then DO SOMETHING – What did God say to do?
Blessings… Bro’ Mike