Praying for Personal Needs
.... In the model prayer that Jesus gave, He set the 'agenda' for our prayer times as we speak with our heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9-13). After an opening time of honoring Him, and once we’ve disciplined ourselves to discuss God's own priorities (which we described in our previous posting), we will again feel a shift in focus as He prepares to move on to the next item on the ‘agenda’. He is now prepared to discuss our own, personal needs and requests:
.... "Give us this day our daily bread."(Matthew 6:11)
.... Remember that our entire prayer is a conversation with God. Because of the respect we've already shown in the opening of our prayer, and the discipline we've displayed in seeking first His kingdom 
and His righteousness, God is much more willing to hear and meet our personal requests now. In fact, before we even speak, He anticipates our needs and has already arranged to provide for our necessities:
.... "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
(Matthew 6:25-33)
.... In fact, beyond meeting our actual, daily needs, God has told us that if we ask within the scope of His will, He will grant whatever personal requests we make of Him:
.... "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."
(1 John 5:14-15)
.... So this is what the promise comes down to. If you are asking for something that is not compatible with His will, you are asking amiss, so in that case He will not grant your request (James 4:3). But many other requests fall into a vast, gray area. They may not have been His perfect will for your life; but if there is a way to grant your request that does not conflict with His ultimate will, He may still be willing to do it for you.
.... So if you are making a request and you perceive that His answer is ‘No’, yet it seems tentative, and it seems to invite further discussion, try searching your heart and examining your motives over the days to come. Would your request bring Him glory, or would it actually draw you further away from Him? Maybe a few carefully considered revisions is all that your request needs -- a realization that some valid precautions are in order, or an awareness of some basic conditions to keep in mind -- and then you can ask Him again:
To proceed to the next lesson, click here.... "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
(John 14:13)
Daily Bible Reading: Acts 23
posted by loren at 12:17 AM
6 Comments:
Do be mindful that God know all things, and you do not. So don’t kid yourself if His ‘No’ seems pretty firm and final. Accept His will graciously, and humbly ask what else might be in His will for you instead.
By
loren, at 10/10/2005 11:20 PM
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Rose~, at 10/11/2005 10:56 PM
Hi Rose,
First a background question. What if God sovereignly decided to give man a free will? Of course, He could also sovereignly override that free will as often as He wished, or reserve certain areas to Himself -- and in my opinion, this matches the whole counsel of Scripture best.
Although your apprehensions fit 'Tulip' to a 'T' (get it?) I think it is too simplistic to believe that every little detail is preordained, without any flexibility whatever, because it is 100% God without any regard at all to what any of us think, ask or do. For one, that doesn't sound like much of a relationship to me.
In fact, in a curious way, using that sort of understanding to upholds God's sovereignty doesn't really do Him justice. It implies that if one thing little is changed by the will of man, His whole 'plan' could be ruined in a chain reaction. But the Bible itself shows us that this would not be so. Check out Amos 7:1-6 for example. All kinds of things can change, and God can still gather up the bifurcations just fine. Now that is a truly sovereign God! And this understanding does far more justice to both His power and His love for us.
So then: Why pray and ask Him for something if it's all preordained anyway? The answer is that there is plenty of flexibility within His will, and all of this is 'at play' when we are in prayer. James says "you do not have because you do not ask." (2:4) and "the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." (5:16). We pray because it can make a great deal of difference!
In saying this, I would not disagree that it is, primarily, for ourselves, because a relationship is being built, and we are getting to know His heart and mind. In the final perspective, it is all about Him. But part of His heart's desire is that He cares about us, and He knows how to give good gifts to His children:
"Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
(John 16:24)
The question of 'God is sovereign, so why should I bother?' applies in many other situations as well. For example, why should I risk ridicule by sharing the gospel with someone, if they are predestined to be saved anyway? Or if they're not predestined, I'm wasting my time too. (So then, predestination is the power of God to salvation, rather than the gospel? Rom 1:16)
Questions like these fret against God's counsel, His very heart and mind, as persistently shown to us throughout Scripture. For example, if our prayer is academic, how do we account for the heart and mind of Christ in telling us:
"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
(Mark 11:24)
To account for this and so many other like sentiments, we must explain them away. So at what point do we finally stop and say, "Hey, God is true and every man a liar." and question our own premise, instead of explaning away His?
I know a major shift like that is never pleasant or easy, but I also know that God meets us with our honest questions, so we should never fear to ask Him in reverence. He loves it when we seek to understand Him.
By
loren, at 10/12/2005 2:58 PM
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Rose~, at 10/12/2005 3:45 PM
Hmm, well. 'T' in 'Tulip' stands for total depravity, which - in the sense I meant it- means man cannot contribute anything, God must do everything. That seemed to be the problem you were facing.
I've had many of my requests granted, and many that were not. Usually, in hindsight, I can see it was better they were not. And some are still unresolved.
Some prayers (like seeing loved ones saved) haven't happened yet, but I'm still praying. Yet at some point, they must decide for themselves in this. They cannot be saved on the basis of a 'proxy faith' that comes through my prayer for them.
I do know that one day, whent he Day of Judgment comes and we are looking back on all of this, God won't be the one squirming under our opinions. We'll completely understand why things were the way they were, even if He, too, considered them unfortunate. Don't know what else to tell you, short of that day.
By
loren, at 10/12/2005 4:05 PM
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Rose~, at 10/12/2005 4:18 PM
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