Why do we bother praying for things (such as healings), when Gods will is going to be done no matter what?
Why do we bother praying for things (such as healings), when Gods will is going to be done no matter what?
Our God is not a tyrannical God who forces His will on us. This is a picture that the devil likes to portray about God, but which is completely untrue. The devil is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44) He likes to make us think that his own character traits belong to The One who is not at all like that!
What kind of a God are we serving? John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He is the kind of God who is willing to die for us in order for us to obtain eternal life. Quite the opposite from the description of a God imposing His will on others.
God created us to have our own free will. There were dangers attached to this, but He was willing to take these risks. Why? Because real love does not confine! In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote: “Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having…Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk.” (p. 48)
In other words, our God is a God who gives freedom because He is Love. The devil pretends to give us freedom, but once we go after the lusts of this world, we find ourselves prisoners of evil!
All throughout the Bible, God is a portrayed as the God who wants a relationship with His creation. He is the One who came to have fellowship with Adam and Eve, only to find out that they are hiding from Him (see Gen 3:8). He is the One who appeared to Moses to deliver His people from a cruel slavery (see Ex 3). He is the One who came down from heaven to reach out to us and lead us to salvation (see all 4 gospels). Our God is a God who wants to have a personal relationship with us.
All throughout the Bible He never acts without the cooperation of us humans, except for creating our world and the resurrection of Jesus. For example, He could have delivered Israel from Egypt all by Himself. But He preferred to do it in cooperation with Moses and Aaron. Another example is that He could be the One proclaiming the gospel message to the world, but He preferred to proclaim His message of love in cooperation with His children who have accepted him into their life (see Matthew 28: 18-20)
Is God imposing His will? No way! The ones who like to impose his will on us is the devil himself, from whom we have learned so many bad habits!
Why then, do we pray to God? Because it is our communication tool with our loving Father who wants to have an intimate relationship with His children. How many times did Jesus tell us to “ask”? I counted at least 12 times in the gospels alone! Think about it. The responsibilities within any type of a relationship are always two-fold. In this case, God’s responsibility is to give, ours is to ask. If you have something you want to give to your children, don’t you feel better about giving it to them when they ask? How often have I not done the same thing: had something wonderful to give my children, but waited until they asked!
But how do we know how to ask? Even here, God does not leave us alone in trying to figure out how to do this. He sent His Holy Spirit to guide us in our prayers! Rom 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
You want to know God’s will? Read His Word. His will is expressed in the Bible.
Are you tired of not knowing God’s will? Are you frustrated with the many so-called religions and philosophies of the world, which are confusing your mind? Do you really want to get to know you Heavenly Father? If you do, stop depending on fellow humans. Stop even depending on your church. We all have been touched by a terrible disease called sin (see Romans 3:23) and we all have some kind of distorted view of God.
Start relying on God. He is the truth! Truth is not a set of doctrines, it is a Person (see John 14:6). How can you rely on God? By starting to trust His written Word (see 2 Tim 3:16) and by asking God to guide you through His promised guide the Holy Spirit (see John 16:13). Invite Him into your life and watch and see your confusion disappear and instead be filled with inner peace, God’s peace (see Phil 4:7). Will you invite Him now into your life? Why don’t you answer the Saviour’s Call?
God loves you my friend!
Rob Chaffart
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This is a question; I suppose is coming from someone who has had experience of rebirth. However, the fact that you belong to a household (family) does not guarantee you your entire desires until you have made requests from your parents. God is our heavenly Father. He cares for us and loves us so much that he releases rain (general blessings) to those who are righteous and even to the unrighteous. When you ask in prayer you must receive from your Heavenly Father if you do not doubt. You are to talk to your heavenly father in prayer. This is the reason why he initiated our Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9- 14
He loves hearing you asking and praising His Holy Name.
A CALL TO ASK
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced his crops. James 5:13-18
Without much explanations you have seen why we should ask from the above scripture: It is self-explanatory.
ASK, SEEK, KNOCK
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7: 7-11.
Look at that!. A relationship built up between a father and mother of this world has been compared to the relationship you have when you gave your life to Jesus Christ and you become the son/daughter of God. What an allegory? Your father in heaven will give you exceedingly abundantly more what you can think or ask of him. However, he will want you to ask. Our early parents are limited in their supplies to the children. God is unlimited. He delights in blessing His children when you request him to do so.
Let’s look the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. When the prodigal returned, the father threw a party but the elderly brother was angry at the celebration. Examined the comment of the father to the elder brother
Luke 15:31-32 “My son, the father said, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
Can you see the fatherhood? The elder brother never asked for things that belong to him with his parents. He was always at home, may be feeling ashamed to ask his father for those privileges that he should enjoy. When you don’t ask you will not receive. Check your relationship. Is it OK with the Lord? If not repent today so you can establish your communication and enjoy all things.
YOU SHOULD ASK PERSISTENTLY
“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 pleas, ‘rant 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?” – Luke 18:1-8
You should not only ask, but you should continue to ask until your joy is fulfilled. God desires to hear you and also persistently too.
YOU DON’T ONLY ASK YOU ALSO PRAISE HIM!
“I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD’ let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” – Psalm 34:1-7
God desires to hear you praise Him for the things done and those yet not done. This will prove that you really the God you are talking to. The God of the living who will answer us concerning anything that concerns us.
PROMISE OF RESTORATION WHEN YOU PRAY
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” Jeremiah 33:3.
FINAL CHARGE
Jeremiah 29:11-14 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I ill be found by you declares the LORD and will bring you back from captivity”.
Are you saved? You must repent and turn to Jesus today. Tomorrow may be too late. Don’t delay your salvation. You must be born again! John 3:7.
Rev Debo Adeyemo
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Because we were told to. And because it is difficult for us to know the mind of God and what is His will is in every situation.
Jam 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
Jam 5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Jam 5:16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Jam 5:17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
Jam 5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
God has foreknowledge of everything. That is not to say that everything is predestined, only that God knew before the world began what each of us would do in a certain situation. For example, consider the ‘book of life’. The names of everyone who would ever live, and I believe that also means ‘conceived’, were written in the book of life before the world began. This broad statement includes all babies conceived in sin, as a result of rape, whatever. Here are some references to the book of life.
Phl 4:3 And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and [with] other my fellowlabourers, whose names [are] in the book of life.
Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Rev 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.
The sense of these verses is that the names of all of us were written in the book of life before the world began, and that depending on the decisions we make, our name will either remain written in the book or be blotted out.
Only those whose names remain in the book will enter the Kingdom of God.
If we take this kind of foreknowledge and apply it to prayer, it becomes apparent that before the world began, God knew that we would either pray about a situation or not, as the case may be. It is evident from many answers to prayer that planning has been put in place long before the answer became evident to the supplicant. Now, if it is God’s will that your prayer should succeed as a witness to you and others, and planning for an answer for you was in the pipeline before the world began, what would it mean if you should not pray? Simply that God would have known before the world began that you would choose to not pray and would not have factored in an answer for you.
Is this getting a bit heavy? Consider a couple of instances where prayer changed the mind of God. In both of these cases I will present to you, while God knew the outcome from the beginning, had the human not prayed as he did, there would have been a different outcome.
The first is Moses. Moses was up in the mountain with God and the people were worshiping a golden calf and debauching themselves down below. God determined to slay all the children of Israel and start again with just Moses. Moses prayed for the people and God relented. Exodus 32.
Good king Hezekiah was told by God through His prophet that he was to die.
Hezekiah petitioned the Lord to let him survive and God relented and granted Hezekiah another 15 years. Isaiah 38.
When we pray, we are giving the matter to God. If we pray in the right way with the right motives, (see the answered question on why prayer seems to sometimes be not answered), our prayer will be answered, though perhaps not in the way we would have hoped. Sometimes it may seem to our limited intelligence that the prayer is not answered, but if we pray and then trust God to do what is best for all concerned, and accept what comes as His will in the matter without protest, then we will know peace.
I mentioned earlier that God knows beforehand everything that will happen, even our prayers, and I mentioned that foreknowledge should not be seen as predestination. I would like to take this a step further by mentioning that we are ALL predestinated to be saved, because Jesus redeemed us all. However the decision rests with us. It is entirely up to us if we remain recorded in the book of life or not. We are ALL justified before God because of Jesus sacrifice, but it is necessary for us to accept our acceptance. We will not be forced. Brother and Sister, if you do not have the assurance that your name will remain in the book of life after you die your human death, or if you are not sure, answer ‘The Savior’s Call’ in this newsletter.
Lance Wearmouth
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My feelings is that the blood of Jesus was shed for our healing. I have received one healing and waiting on another. I feel that we don’t comprehend just how strong the blood of Jesus is for us today as it was when He walked the earth. Also, in the Lord’s prayer it says “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. There is no sickness there, but here we have a devil that is loose and he has come to kill, steal and destroy. We need to focus more on God’s Word than on what trials are going on in our lives.
God Bless You, RL RLange1234@aol.com
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In Luke 18:1 Jesus told his disciples that they “should always pray and not give up.” and then Jesus asked “…will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”
In James 5:14-15 we are told: Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15) And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
In James 5:16 we are asked to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” and then told that “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
In Mark 11:23-25 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24) Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25) And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
In Matthew 17:19-20 He says, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus’ teaching on prayer is clear and precise in the Bible. As long as we have FAITH in our hearts and souls and BELIEVE completely what we are praying for is not harmful and is good, He encourages us to pray pray pray. Pray without ceasing. Never give up! The Lord hears our prayers! He knows our hearts and He will answer.
MAY ALL BE BLESSED!
Love & Blessings, DeeDee Steinman
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God tells us that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much. we have influence with God. we will always get the answer to prayer as we pray according to his perfect will. maybe healing is the deal, and we won’t know until we use our prayer language, praying in the spirit. The Holy Ghost will guide us into all things, and especially prayer. He will pray the perfect will of God. we cannot miss that way. He gives us an example of chasing after God and begging him…. the king that was going to die added 15 years to his life by going before God. Perhaps God wanted him to do this.
Elaine Moore
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If I thought that is completely what He meant, I wouldn’t pray. I think it is His will for certain things if you never pray to Him.I really do believe that His will depends on your prayer and your love for Him. Just like my kids, the more I see them do right, the more I want to do for them. That is my will. I believe it works the same way with God.
God Bless, Pat