Does God answer all prayers?
A friend asked me:
"Greg, do you believe God answers all prayers?"
I took time to think through his question and to try to provide a response based on my recent life experiences. I'd like to share that with those that might be reading this blog:
"I want to directly answer your question, but I have to think through it a little first out loud: Prayer is a conversation. In our conversation with other people,what would you think of a person that is always asking for favors as a matter of conversation? I know my kids do this with us sometimes. Their only interaction at times is to ask for stuff(food, games, toys, etc.)
One recurring theme has been "I'm bored" which is asking--in essence--the favor to be entertained. So I threw the question back at the person that "was bored", my youngest daughter. I asked her to make a list of activities that she thought would be fun (ignoring her comment about being bored, of course). She came back with five. I challenged her to make a list of one hundred. Her first response and Jen's first response was that 100 activities were too many.
Then she, her older sister and Jen went off and came up with 100 activities. Just the pressure to think of new ones was essentially creative for them. And, yes, there were some repeats, but in most cases they exhausted the repeat ideas and had to think of something else.
That list has supercharged the three youngest kids. Now instead of saying "I'm bored", they ask for help in choosing an item from the list. Timothy--our youngest who can't read--is especially enthusiastic.
Imagine our conversations with God being exactly like that. We come to him asking for him to fix an 'itch' that we have like "I'm bored." Or "I'm unhappy". Or "I'm lonely." How many times is the most direct fix for those situations precisely what won't meet the need?
Am I lonely because there are no other people in the world? And if God were to put someone in my path, would I even notice? Or is the problem--our REAL need--self-absorption? So I think sometimes God waits on us to work through exactly what it is we need. And there are other times when he answers directly what we asked for. And still others where he puts something in our path that goes to the heart of our REAL need...maybe not even the one we've been praying for.
Are all prayers answered? I don't know. Does God listen and care about each person praying to him? I think so...especially if that person is dealing with God seriously and honestly."
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"Greg, do you believe God answers all prayers?"
I took time to think through his question and to try to provide a response based on my recent life experiences. I'd like to share that with those that might be reading this blog:
"I want to directly answer your question, but I have to think through it a little first out loud: Prayer is a conversation. In our conversation with other people,what would you think of a person that is always asking for favors as a matter of conversation? I know my kids do this with us sometimes. Their only interaction at times is to ask for stuff(food, games, toys, etc.)
One recurring theme has been "I'm bored" which is asking--in essence--the favor to be entertained. So I threw the question back at the person that "was bored", my youngest daughter. I asked her to make a list of activities that she thought would be fun (ignoring her comment about being bored, of course). She came back with five. I challenged her to make a list of one hundred. Her first response and Jen's first response was that 100 activities were too many.
Then she, her older sister and Jen went off and came up with 100 activities. Just the pressure to think of new ones was essentially creative for them. And, yes, there were some repeats, but in most cases they exhausted the repeat ideas and had to think of something else.
That list has supercharged the three youngest kids. Now instead of saying "I'm bored", they ask for help in choosing an item from the list. Timothy--our youngest who can't read--is especially enthusiastic.
Imagine our conversations with God being exactly like that. We come to him asking for him to fix an 'itch' that we have like "I'm bored." Or "I'm unhappy". Or "I'm lonely." How many times is the most direct fix for those situations precisely what won't meet the need?
Am I lonely because there are no other people in the world? And if God were to put someone in my path, would I even notice? Or is the problem--our REAL need--self-absorption? So I think sometimes God waits on us to work through exactly what it is we need. And there are other times when he answers directly what we asked for. And still others where he puts something in our path that goes to the heart of our REAL need...maybe not even the one we've been praying for.
Are all prayers answered? I don't know. Does God listen and care about each person praying to him? I think so...especially if that person is dealing with God seriously and honestly."
Go to full article...
posted by greg.w.h@11:05 AM link-to-post
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