The
problem with us believers is that we have a wrong conception about what prayer
is. Most see prayer to be an application for God to do something for them. Thus
they only pray when there is trouble springing up. That is wrong! We are in
fellowship with God, thus it is as a result of this fellowship that we can pray
to God. Prayer is a fruit of our fellowship with God. It is a medium of
communication, chit chatting with God, talking with God, not only asking God to
do something for you when you need him. Having gotten this straight, the big
question now is, when we ask God in prayer for something, does he answer us?
The answer is in the Bible, let’s find it out!
Firstly,
people think that the parable of the wicked judge and the widow ( Luke 18:1-8) implies that every
believer must push God persistently on a request for Him to respond. Now that
is wrong. This scripture is showing us that if a wicked or an ungodly judge can
have pity on a widow and respond to her because of her persistence, how much
more won’t God respond to his children who call to him? A God who is love, and
who is full of compassion and faithful to His children? Luke 18 v 8 says that He will
avenge them speedily. So because God responds speedily to our prayers, we
need not give up praying, but pray more because as we pray God speedily answers
without delay and without us having to persist as if God were a wicked judge who
needs persistence to respond Luke 8:1.
God is not a type of the wicked judge. Jesus was by this parable giving us a
reason and a joy to pray because prayer becomes a burden and unenjoyable if
answers are not received.
God will not answer you because you prayed
hard, No! He answers you because His Word says so, ASK, AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE!
Someone will say that because I fasted for 30 days, God is supposed to grant my
request, NO! God will grant your request based on His Word, not your Works,
this is what we call the grace of God at work. So we need to know that, God
answers our prayers because His Word says so. Matt 7:7-10
Secondly,
God says ask and receive so your joy may be full. Jn 16:24. This tells us that God desires to answer our prayers more
than we even want them answered. He desires that we receive answers to our
prayers so that our joy may be full.
Matt 7:7-8
says ask AND receive. Many a times we ignore the truth in this scripture
because of its simplicity, and secondly because of our experiences. We don’t
receive every time we ask of God, because at one point in time, we asked and we
didn’t receive. This resulted in people believing that if we didn’t receive
from God, then God didn’t answer because it is not His will. That is a mere
assumption erupting from our experiences, but God’s Word says that. EVERYONE WHO ASKS RECEIVES. Mat 7:8
J This is the truth and
reality, not our experiences.
Thirdly,
there is also a misconception about praying according to the will of God. John
14:13-14 says we should ask anything IN
THE NAME OF JESUS, and God will do it. Thus what you ask for in prayer is
not limited, but how you ask for it is what determines you receiving. WE ASK IN
THE NAME OF JESUS, that is HOW we are supposed to ask. As for WHAT to ask,
Bible says ANYTHING. Hallelujah! God is bound by His Word, thus what God cannot
do is operate outside His Word. Thus anything you should ask for should be in
His Word, eg: good health, good marriage, schooling etc, anything you ever need
for life and godliness. Hallelujah!
So
having known from God’s word that the issue is not God answering our prayer’s,
now let’s move on to the main issue, How do we receive what God has answered?.
COMING
UP NEXT…..
Gifty
Sitsofe Amewor
