I don’t believe it! - Making the most of your prayers.
The problem is people don’t understand how the Kingdom of God works and they try to take short cuts and jump into prayer without taking the time to learn a few simple concepts that God has set forth. It is like trying to fly a plane insisting you don’t need flying lessons and how effective will you be in arriving at your destination? What I am writing here only scratches the surface of the subject of prayer, but if you follow the practical tips I give, you will have a dynamic prayer life.
What is Prayer
At it’s most basic level, prayer is communication between you and God. It is such a simple concept that some people have difficulty believing so they add layers of rituals to make it seem like it is something only a few can obtain. There are others who act as if God is deaf and so they only give a token effort. To them, what’s the point? I wonder how many people in the midst of an emergency would call the police and express themselves to the dispatcher like they express themselves to God? So it is important to set your expectations correctly and know that God hears every thought that occurs within you.
There are different types of prayer. For example a benediction is a bestowing of a blessing on a group of people. Here is an example from Numbers chapter 6 from the Old Testament.
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’ So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.” (Numbers 6:22–27)
Group prayer is where a leader speaks for a group of people and the people follow along as one. Then there is prayer you do individually which is directed specifically at God and it is this last form of prayer on which I will direct my thoughts.
Quantity Counts
There is an inherent cause and effect relationship between prayer and God answering prayer. You may say that is obvious, but to a person who has not experienced an answer to prayer, it is hard for them to make the connection in their mind. One of the biggest reasons for this is they literally don’t pray and so how will they see an answer to prayer? Being stuck in a loop of circular reasoning of their own making, it does not occur to them that they could pray and see if God answers. The apostle James wrote, “You do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2) The apostle Paul wrote about giving saying, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6) What Paul wrote here also applies to praying, so quantity counts when it comes to prayer! Who would wait in a line for an hour and when they get to the counter say nothing? The clerk would say, “Is there something I can help you with?” How many of us come to God with a bag full of troubles unwilling to tell Him what we need?
Doubting Thomas
After Jesus rose from the dead He appeared to many people. The apostle Thomas had not yet seen Jesus and here is the account of what happened.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:24–29)
This is where we get the phrase, “doubting Thomas.” If we think God does not hear, see and fully understand every word we speak with our lips and minds, then we need to ask ourselves how God could be God since He lacks the abilities to be God? The problem is not God’s abilities, but with the false premise that God does not see. Motivation and attitude can be huge stumbling blocks to prayer and if our attitude when lined up with the bible says the bible is wrong, then we need to change our attitude. Until we change our attitude, prayer will be a very dry place. Remember that God the Father is called the “Almighty” for good reason, so don’t approach prayer with the attitude that God is unable to do as you ask. Is it no wonder why people get bored with prayer who view God as less than being God! Give God the credit He deserves because He knows what He is doing and is perfect in all His ways. God has all power and authority and He has an infinite love for you! What a combination of attributes to have and you get to express yourself to Him and He will humbly listen to you.
Nothing Can Stop a Prayer
Prayer begins in the spirit part of our being at the moment we apply our will to the seed of a thought and make it a request to God. Again it is such a simple concept that many people dismiss or over complicate. Nobody can stop a prayer except by choosing not to pray. My experience has been God is more intimately concerned about our lives and the things we are going through than we can imagine. If God is concerned about what we are going through, is He really going to callously toss our prayers away? The core of the problem is rooted in the thought that says God is just like us and that He thinks like us. Since we wouldn’t listen to someone like ourselves, so why would God listen to us? That kind of thinking is presumption and will lead you to the conclusion that you are alone which is crazy talk in the eyes of God. When one of His children prays to Him, He gives them His full attention even to the smallest detail. Even though you do not yet see God, He most certainly sees you! So the moment you pray, is the moment God hears so only you can stop a prayer by choosing to not pray.
Things that Inhibit Prayers
There are certain behaviors that can lead to prayers not being answered. The root of such unanswered prayers is sin. We may be asking for something out of a sinful attitude or we want God to do something sinful (which is technically a sinful attitude). God will never do anything that results in sin, so don’t expect prayers that are rooted in sin to be answered. The key here is to learn discernment of what is good and evil and what pleases God. Here are some examples of sinful attitudes that inhibit answers to prayer.
Being demanding - Have you ever heard someone say, show me and then I will be believe? What is at the heart of such a request is a demand that puts God in a subservient position to us. Instead of being in a relationship with God, we are trying to be God’s task master and force Him to do our will. Because of sin we were condemned to eternal death and it was only by the gracious sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross that we can now approach God. So it was God who made the first move to show us He is real and we respond by saying now you show me? It is like a three year old child that throws a tantrum and at the end demands an apology from the parent. In most people’s prayers that fall under the category of being demanding, it is usually more subtle in that they don’t even realize they have a demanding attitude. For example, asking for a legitimate need to be fulfilled on their time table. Our vision of what is to come doesn’t extend very far, but God sees to the end of eternity and has infinite wisdom and knows exactly how and when to answer our prayer. Then who are we to demand “when” God should answer a prayer? In general it is not for us to set the parameters of how God should answer prayer.
Lust - We can ask for things just because we want them without regard to the consequences so that we can have it for our own pleasure. Have you ever prayed for a new car? What if you really don’t need a new car and you are just asking for a new car just because you like the “new car smell.” Such a prayer is based on selfishness and for God to answer such a prayer would reenforce selfishness within you which would lead to sin. Would God answer a prayer for a new car? Sure He will if it is asked with the right motive and there is no selfishness in the request. The apostle James wrote, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:3) Pay attention to your motives when you pray.
Regarding sin in your heart - Let’s say you are asking for something legitimate with the right motive, but you have an area in your life that you know is wrong and you refuse to do the right thing and repent. For example, let’s say a husband has knowingly treated his wife badly and then comes to God in prayer ignoring his bad treatment of his wife as if God does not see. When we regard sin in our heart by justifying it in our own eyes, we are setting up a separation between ourselves and God. It doesn’t mean God can’t see or hear us, but that God’s priority for us is to first deal with the sin. If God answer’s our prayer with us regarding sin in our heart, that will reward sinful behavior. If you know of sin in your life and you are refusing to deal with it before God, then that is the first thing you need to bring before God so you can be free in the rest of your prayers. Listen to what Jesus said.
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘you shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.” (Matthew 5:21–26)
What Jesus says here is of such importance and its consequences so profound, to ignore it is to drink destruction unto yourself. Knowingly ignoring sin in your life and then trying to pray is like walking against the wind of a hurricane. Take care of the sin through repentance so that your offering of prayer will be accepted by God.
Arrogance - One thing you don’t want to do is to use prayer as a vehicle other than prayer to God. If you are praying to God then speak to God directly. For example, sometimes people will use prayer to preach a sermon. By using the term “sermon” it does not mean a prayer that is long in duration, but a message is spoken that is meant for other people in the room and not for God. Put yourself in God’s position and someone is using prayer as a means to speak to someone else. Not only is it tossing God aside to do such a thing, but it is unfair to the person to whom it is being subtly directed at through prayer. Prayer is conversation between you and God and not a personal platform for ambitions. The example I have given here is not the only manifestation of such arrogance, but arrogance can have many faces. Another example is someone is angry at another person and they color the mood of their prayer with anger so they end up directing their anger towards God.
Boasting
Boasting, in the negative sense, is taking glory for oneself. Though one could take glory for themselves in prayer and that is not good, what I am addressing here is what happens after prayer. Consider when someone prays and then they go up to the person whom they were praying for and tell them they are praying for them for the sake of being noticed. Another scenario would be praying for someone and seeing an answer to the prayer and going up to that person and telling them you were the one who prayed for that. The problem here is the diversion of the glory from God to one who prayed. The one who prayed now has the praise of men as a reward which is temporal as opposed to the praise of God which is eternal. This is what I would term a “look at me” attitude where we want to be recognized as something beyond what we really are. Ask yourself the question, who answered the prayer? Obviously it was God who answered the prayer and does God need someone to go in and reap the praise for His sake? The answer is no He does not!
The consequence of repeatedly jumping in and taking the praise for yourself is that it is selfish and leads to regarding sin in your heart which in turn leads to a dry and empty prayer life. Boasting is such a rampant issue in the christian community and it leads to all sorts of errors. Consider the Pharisees in the time of Jesus where they would make lengthy prayers to be seen by men to gather praise to themselves. When you seek glory for yourself for a work of God, you spiritually neuter yourself. At that point the one thing you need to concentrate on is getting your heart right before God through repentance. In simple terms it comes down to keeping quiet and letting God have His way when you see an answer to prayer. If God wants to honor you in this life, He is certainly most capable of doing so. Listen to what Jesus said on this subject.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:1–8)
What Should I Ask For
In the bible there are no restrictions on what you can ask other than don’t ask for things that are sinful or out of selfishness. So you may ask for whatever you want from God. There is however a principle that you should take into consideration in that there are things you can ask for that are of greater value. Listen to the apostle Paul talking about this principle.
“All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.” (1 Corinthians 10:23–24)
It is the essence of selflessness to seek the good of your neighbor. That is what Jesus did on the cross when He died so that we may be forgiven. If your prayers are “always” focused on your own needs, then consider changing your focus to your neighbor’s needs in your prayers. This does not mean you can’t pray about your own needs, but learn to be mature in Christ and look forward. If your prayer for your neighbor is answered and that answer leads them to eternal life, your reward in heaven will be great!
The Challenge
The apostle James said, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (James 1:22) The challenge here is to begin praying the way God has laid it out in the scriptures. If you’re a person who says in their heart, “I don’t believe it,” then you have the opportunity to pray and see the reality of God’s love made manifest. It is written in the Old Testament, “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29) God Himself has laid out the parameters in that if you are earnest in your prayer, you will find Him. In other words, He will answer you and you will begin to know Him in ways that you never thought possible.
Nothing is impossible with God and no matter what situation you find yourself in, a single prayer can completely turn it around. The problem most people have is that they are dismissive of what can be accomplished through prayer. Listen to what the apostle James said.
“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.” (James 5:16–18)
When you know God is hearing your prayer, that is the essence of hope because with God all things are possible!