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."
"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."
posted by greg.w.h@11:05 AM link-to-post
7 comments
7 Comments:
Greg:
Yes, God answers all requests. Just like you do with your kids; some this way, some that.
Romans 8:26 tells us that any glitch in the system is how we pray, not how He answers.
And you have great taste in blog templates!
Bob:
Thanks! I would like to admit that our choice is by divine Providence, but my main goal was not to expose my almost complete lack of taste.
I am afraid that I wasn't clear in how I was using the word "know". By faith I accept that God does hear and respond. But unless I am God, I can't claim to know that every prayer is answered in the sense of cataloging responses or carefully checking of traceability of prayers to answers (I'm a systems engineer after all...so I am very careful about making too broad claims.)
So I am left expressing trust in God to deal seriously with us when we are serious with him (again very much based on passages like the passage you mentioned.) And I believe sometimes that what the people in our world need to hear most is that when the going gets tough--when we're going through the grinder--we still trust God.
Greg
I'm loving the idea of having the kids write a list like that. GREAT PARENTING TIP!
Obviously when a lot of people ask if God answers all of our prayers they mean does he answer them in the affirmative.
THere IS actually one way to have every single prayer answered affirmatively every single time:
1 John 5:14-15
14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
I agree of course. But then that raises the question of how we REALLY know his will for us. And while I am hadly a perfect person, I can stand before you and tell you that there are times when God's "will" in my life was entirely invisible to me and only detectable at best in hindsight (if not in heavenly sight.)
The list was a spur of the moment inspiration. I therefore blame God for it since I'm not sure I'm that smart.
Greg
Great question! I agree with John Macarthur on this one.
His will is that we do the things commanded of us in scripture and that we do not do the things forbidden for us in scripture. Outside of that we have liberty.
Sometimes I think Christianity is horribly complicated, and other times I think it is pretty simple. Depends on how hard I am trying to make it usually!
:)
hmmm-after posting that i realized my answer was not complete.
For example, lets say your want to pray for God to heal your wife of cancer. The Bible doesnt say what God's will is on that matter.
So I would pray, "Father God, I am begging you to heal my wife of cancer. Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done."
Then my prayer would be answered affirmatively. His will would be done. I would know what His will was once it happened.
Kinda stinks though that he doesnt let me know ahead of time. That faith stuff. Sometimes I hate it.
Thanks for the continued comments, David. I'm going to try and formulate another post as the reply to what you and Bob are getting at and why what I am saying is not in disagreement, but different. Bear with me and I'll get that out in the next day or two I hope!
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