Tag: Bible

Why Do Some Prayers Go Unanswered?

Friday, October 6, 2017

Matt 7-7

Before I even begin to try to answer this beast of a question, I want to say that it’s a question that is still tough for me, and you may find my answer completely inadequate. That’s fine. I just want to share some of my thoughts on the matter.

First, I want to go slightly off topic and talk about hearing the voice of God. Some people have the opinion that there are far fewer people in the world today that God chooses to reveal himself to than there were in the times of the Bible. However, I believe that even in the times of the Bible, God rarely let anyone hear his voice. The Bible has stories of a few select people to whom God chose to speak directly, people like Moses, Samuel and the other prophets and Jesus. This is only a handful of people and I don’t think it is any surprise that the vast majority of us will live our whole earthly lives without ever actually hearing God’s voice. There is no verse in the Bible that says that God will stop speaking to man, so I see no reason to exclude that possibility, but I think it is highly unlikely to happen to any one of us.

Now when we pray for something and that prayer goes unanswered, that can be hard to deal with. We can feel hurt and betrayed when we are praying for something particularly important, like the health of a loved one. When this kind of prayer goes unanswered, how do we reconcile that with 1 John 5:14? That verse says that if we ask God anything according to His will, that he will hear us. Does this mean that when we pray for healing and that prayer isn’t granted that for someone to stay unhealthy is God’s will? I actually don’t believe that. In fact, I believe very strongly that God desires with all his heart for us to live long, healthy and fruitful lives (Deuteronomy 6:2, 1 Kings 3:14, Ephesians 6:3). The reason, I believe, that prayers go unanswered, is because he is very hands-off with the Earth since creation. I know many people disagree with this, and there are certainly examples of God interacting with the world and providing miracles, but on the whole, the world behaves as he planned for it to. When we pray for something to happen, God uses us, people, to do his work. When we pray for healing, he provides humans, their brains and a logical world that makes sense when observed closely that have led to the development of medicine that can be used to provide healing. When we pray for a new job, he can change our minds so that we use the skills that he intended for us to have when he created us. In this way our prayers are answered. When they go unanswered, it isn’t that God has been answering your prayers up until now and has decided that this prayer is unworthy of a response. It is that what he has provided to answer those prayers (his servants), aren’t able to fulfill that request.

Like I said in the beginning, you may not find this answer adequate. That just means that we need to study further, because I believe that God always provides us with answers. If we can’t seem to find one, then maybe we aren’t looking in the right place (Matthew 7:7). Keep looking and keep praying so that we can become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

-Nathaniel Johnson

 

 

 

What Happens When We Pray?

Thursday, October 5, 2017

psalm 145 18

We know that God already knows our thoughts and prayers before we ever lift them up to him (Matthew 6:8), so why do we still need to pray? Yesterday, I promised you an answer to this question and today I will do my best to provide you with one.
I first want to start with a story from when I was in elementary school. Back in those days, I was too young to drive, so I would use my bike to get around. For my birthday one year, I got the coolest green bike from my parents. I loved that thing and would ride it up and down my street or take it to my friend’s house. Then one day while I was at my friend’s house, my green bike was stolen out of his driveway. After this happened, I prayed for weeks that God would give me a new bike. Firstly, I don’t know what I expected God to do. Did I expect a new bike to show up in my garage overnight? Did I expect him to take control of my parents and have them go and buy a new bike?  Regardless, what ended up happening was not what I asked for. Instead of getting a new bike, I had a change of heart.

 

After days of praying about this, I realized that what I was praying for really was not necessary. So what does prayer do? God works through prayer to change us. Whenever we pray in Jesus’ name, we are actively being made into new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now there are certainly special cases where God physically interacts with the world to answer our prayers. This has a special name: miracles. I absolutely believe that God has the power to grant any kind of miracle, but I also believe that he rarely chooses to do so. He is our Father that knows what is best for us (Matthew 6:30), and will not neglect us. However, most of our prayers will be a medium for God to work in our own hearts and minds to change us. This is why we must commit ourselves to constant prayer. On the one hand, if we have important issues on our mind and in our prayers at all times, then our actions will start to reflect those things and through our actions, God can answer our prayers. On the other hand, if we spend our time praying for frivolous things, we will be able to realize that by the amount of time we spend thinking and praying about it.

 

This of course leads to one more very difficult question: if God knows what we need and won’t neglect us, than why do some of our prayers, especially those for healing, go unanswered? We will dive into that topic tomorrow. But for today, focus on prayer and being made into a new creation.

 

-Nathaniel Johnson

How to Pray: Words

Wednesday October 4th, 2017

Lord's Prayer

Unlike when we discussed the posture you should have when you pray, the Bible actually has a lot to say about what words you should use when you pray. Jesus gives a great lesson on prayer in Matthew 6:5-15. I want to start by looking at what the Lord’s Prayer can show us.

We can split the topics of prayer into three categories:

  1. Praises (Matt 6:9)
  2. Petitions (Matt 6:11)
  3. Repentance (Matt 6:12-13)

You might notice that this is one category more than we usually talk about when we pray at church. Jesus himself says that we need to pray for repentance, so make sure you don’t forget to add this to your prayers. Praises and petitions are a lot more familiar to most of us, though. When we praise, we thank God for who he is and what he has done and petitions are when we ask God to provide for us.

Another thing Jesus says is to not babble (Matthew 6:7). Repeating yourself does not make yourself heard. Keep your prayers to the point. Especially when you are praying for a group of people. You don’t need to make your prayer sound special and eloquent. God already knows what needs to be said, so you don’t need to repeat yourself. This is not to say that you shouldn’t continue to pray for something.  If something is on your heart, you should pray for it continuously. In my opinion however, the reason for this is not so that God will be more likely to consider your prayers. More on that tomorrow.

Here a few interesting things to note. Discussion can be a form of prayer. In Luke 9:18, Jesus is praying and talking to his disciples. I believe that when we discuss our prayers with each other, we are participating in a form of prayer. Another form of prayer is music. We can praise God in our songs or we can ask for His help; we can even repent through song.

Jesus gives a few more commands regarding how we should pray in Matthew 6.  For one, he says that we should pray in private. But he also says that God already knows what we need before we ask him (Matthew 6:8), so why do we need to make these prayers in private? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to hear the answer to that one, but I’ll give you a hint now. It has to do with our memory verse: being changed.

-Nathaniel Johnson

 

How to Pray: Posture

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2017

PRAY!

Today we finally get into how we should go about praying. I’m sure we’ve all learned different ways of prayer; some of us grew up bowing our heads and folding our hands or perhaps kneeling to pray. For some people, what we do when we pray changes depending on where we are or who we are with. Maybe you hold hands when you pray before a meal. When a group is preparing to leave on a mission, it is common for a church to put their hands on them as they pray.

But what does the Bible say we should do?

As it turns out, there is no single way that the Bible tells us to pray. We can find some examples of how people in the Bible prayed, however. In Genesis 24:45, it says that Rebekah prayed in her heart. If you read this with the understanding that ancient Egyptians (and by implication, the Israelites) believed that the heart was the center of thought and knowledge, the verse says that Rebekah prayed in her mind. So silent prayers are absolutely fine! Matthew 6:5 speaks of praying while standing and in Luke 22:41, Jesus prays while kneeling. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me.

Personally, I have never understood the practice of closing your eyes and bowing your head. If prayer is a conversation with God, then I want to stand tall and meet his eyes, as I would for any person that I respect. If I were to meet the President of the United States, I would stand, shake his hand and maintain solid eye contact. For me, this is the highest form of respect in our culture. For me, when I close my eyes, I look at myself. How can I have a conversation if I’m only thinking about myself? At that point it is a monologue and no longer a prayer.

The long and short of prayer posture is: it all comes down to you! Pray in such a way that you can keep your focus on the prayer. If closing your eyes causes your mind to wander, than open your eyes. If having your eyes open causes you to get distracted by what you see, then shut your eyes. Maybe some of us need to try praying in a different way than we have before. After all, anyone who is in Christ should be a new creation!

-Nathaniel Johnson

Why Should We Pray?

Monday, October 2, 2017

Luke 18-1

I don’t want to spend any time talking about what prayer is or how we should go about it before I even convince you that we should be praying.

So why should we pray?

I think this is a pretty easy question to answer. Jesus commands it. There are a few verses that explicitly command prayer: Matthew 6:5-15, Matthew 26:41, Ephesians 6:18 and Luke 18:1. I want to look a little closer at the verse in Luke today.

”Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).  If we strive to be disciples of Jesus, then we should always pray. Being a disciple is essential to being “in Jesus,” just like our memory verse says. If we commit ourselves to constant prayer, than we can become a new creation.

Seems like a pretty easy step right? All we have to do is pray! Tomorrow we’ll talk about what that looks like.

-Nathaniel Johnson

 

Transformation!

Sunday, October 1st, 2017

2 Corinthians 5-17

Weekly Introduction by Nathaniel Johnson

If any of you have known me for very long, you know just how awful of a child I was. I was a little fireball of emotion. I would kick and scream when I didn’t get my way and I would hurt anyone that got in my way. Thank God for the transformation that occurred when I decided to be baptized! However, baptism wasn’t the only thing that changed me. A life filled with Bible study and prayer is what changed me. Paul described my situation perfectly in his letter to the Corinthians when he said, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

 

Our memory verse for the week will be one that I have always felt very close to, 2 Corinthians 5:17. Throughout the rest of the week, I look forward to spending some time talking about prayer and how it is intimately related to this verse in 2 Corinthians.

God’s Will

Friday’s devotion

Romans 8-26

Romans 8:26–27 tells us, “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will”

What is God’s will?

As humans, we are always interested in the here and now—what will benefit us temporarily.

God, however, sees things a bit differently. He is also interested in the long term and the eternal.

In other words, God has a bigger plan than my personal happiness in the given moment. He desires my holiness as I am conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

It’s my prayer that we would be conformed into the image of Christ! 

-Jennie Montgomery

Who Can Be Against Us?

Thursday, September 28

Romans 8-31b

 

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:31–34)

There is nothing that we can be accused of or any shame we can ever bear that Jesus has not interceded for on our behalf. Jesus was condemned in my place, and my only hope is to plead his righteousness. Jesus himself is my one defense.

In the gospel, I have found the beautiful, glorious, freedom that comes with knowing that my righteousness is settled. I have freedom to confess any sin, accept forgiveness, and deepen my love for the One who forgives. I don’t have to fear condemnation or shame because of Jesus Christ who took on the punishment of sin. We serve a God who loves us and who is for us. Who can be against us?

-Jennie Montgomery

 

Separation

What can separate us

 

Romans 8:35-39         Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What can separate me from the love of God in Christ? Romans 8 says, “nothing,” but I have my doubts.

I bet I prayed “The Sinner’s Prayer” twenty times growing up. I was always so afraid I’d missed something, or paranoid I’d somehow nullified my salvation since the last time I said the magic words. After walking with Jesus, I now know: there is nothing magical about it.

My words don’t save me. Jesus saves me. My response is to repent of my sins and believe He saves me.

We focus on the exact words we said, the exact time and place we knelt. We make our coming to Christ about our circumstances rather than our Savior. It was never about what I was doing. It was always about what He did for me.

The depth of our need for Jesus is so vast that even our act of coming to Him is flawed, but He is never surprised by this. He knows us fully and loves us still. He came to make everything right, including our half-heartedness and our ill intentions.

Come as you are and bare your soul. Cry out like David cried out in Psalm 51, confessing honestly and openly before the God who made you and promises to make you new, who loves you and stands ready to save. Then come back day after day. Walk daily in the grace you first received, knowing there is nothing you can do or not do to reverse the rescue the cross secured.

-Jennie Montgomery

Learn a Lesson from the Lions

Romans 8 12,13

Tuesday – Romans 8

 

When I was a kid, I saw adorable baby lion cubs at the zoo and ever since, I have tried to convince my parents to let me get a pet lion. Because my house was not suited for a large dog, much less a 500 pound cat, my parents of course said no, but many people have actually gone about raising an exotic animal like a lion cub. However, many times, they become national news after their precious baby lion cub ends up attacking them. Surprised, they question why something that they played with, dressed up, and nurtured one day attacked them out of the blue? You know why? BECAUSE IT’S A LION. It is in its nature to grow up, get big, and attack no matter what setting it is raised in. A lion is TRAINED to kill.

 

I can’t help but think this is true about sin in my life. I start by thinking that small sins, like a lion cub, are harmless and cute and then I play with it and nurture it and one day it eventually attacks me. I buy into the lie that some sins are okay and will not do much harm, but soon enough they turn on me like sin is created to do. Sin is created to DESTROY.

 

So in turn, we must be diligent about destroying our sin. Paul speaks on this idea of killing sin in Romans 8:12-13 as it reads, “So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Paul calls us to live by the Spirit and put to death our fleshly desires.

 

John Piper, in “How to Kill Sin,” Pt. 1, on DesiringGod.org explains, “Putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit – the daily practice of killing sin in your life – is the result of being justified and the evidence that you are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law.” He adds, “If you are not at odds with sin, you are not at home with Jesus, not because being at odds with sin makes you at home with Jesus, but because being at home with Jesus makes you at odds with sin.” The idea is this: the more we delight ourselves in the Lord, the more diligent we will be about killing our sins. We must starve the flesh, but at the same time we must also feed the Spirit.

 

So rather than making our walk with God about the “don’t”s, we should make it about the “do”s. Do spend time in the Word. Do spend time in prayer. Do surround yourself with Biblical community. Do get plugged into a church. And when we grow in doing these things, we will be so delighted in the Lord, we will have no appetite for sin. The more we walk by the Spirit, the less we will live in sin.

 

My prayer today is that the Lord would be our ultimate delight. As we spend time in scripture and in prayer, let’s ask the Lord to feed our Spirit and starve our flesh.

 

-Jennie Montgomery