Getting Prayers Answered -- Friends Sharing Scripture

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

Subject: Getting Prayers Answered

Author:
Hillbilly

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 16:51:08 06/27/13 Thu

Psalms 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

What is our greatest delight in this life. Do we seek after wealth? Fame? Pleasure? Health? Creature comforts? What is our greatest goal in life? Is it one of the above or is it possibly just to give the best we can to our children?

Do we often pray for financial matters? Do we pray for health of self and loved ones. Maybe we are fervently praying for the sick or those who don't know God to be brought into the fellowship of His love and security.

These desires can be good or selfish depending on what our aim is with these desires. The text above tells us to delight ourselves in the LORD and He will give us what our heart desires. When we think of verses such as this we probably are reminded of what Matthew 7:7-8 says: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Passages such as this always come with a caveat. James gives one in James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. We again here from James on this matter in James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. We see then that scripture must be understood from "scripture with scripture". It is evident that receiving is dependent on attitude when we pray.

David said to delight ourselves in the Lord first and then He will give us the desires of our heart. Think on that statement for a while. Digest it and if it won't digest then chew on it some more. What does it mean to delight ourselves in the Lord. When we were all courting and moonstruck with the love or our heart what was the most important thing to us? Wasn't it being with our true love and pleasing him or her? This was number one in our desires. We would have moved heaven and earth if possible to please our true love. Well!? Wouldn't we? Sure we would and did.

This is what God wants. He wants that relationship with us that we shared with our potential spouse.
If we delight in the Lord aren't we going to want to please Him? Aren't we going to want to be like He wants us to be. Our attitudes change. When I was dating my wife many things that were important all of a sudden became much less important. I loved to hunt, fish and play baseball. They were the most important things in my life until I met my future wife. After we started dating do you think I would pass up a date with her to hunt or fish? Not on your life!

Now when we delight ouselves in the Lord our attitudes will change. What was once important now takes a back seat to pleasing Him. If we are in love with God as much as we were in love with our future spouses then don't you know it will be a pleasure to God to answer your prayers in the affirmative. You see what is important now is things that are important to God also. When we are of one mind and accord with God He grants the desires of our heart because our heart is not centered on the selfish and vain things of this life.

A man said one time: "I got saved and now I can do all the things I want to." When challenged on it he simply said: "Those things I used to want to do I don't want to do anymore." God had changed his heart and therefore he wanted those things that were of God.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: This was really good, Hillbilly

Author:
dori
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 21:43:04 06/27/13 Thu

This part spoke to me:
"Passages such as this always come with a caveat. James gives one in James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. We again here from James on this matter in James 1:6-7 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. We see then that scripture must be understood from "scripture with scripture". It is evident that receiving is dependent on attitude when we pray."

When my mom was in a coma for a week in the hospital, my sisters and I prayed fervently for God to let her live. She lived, but never came out of the coma. She was that way for 2 years before she finally passed away from pneumonia. I was very mad at God. My Great-grandma talked to me a lot about Biblical things when I was growing up and she always recited the verse that says, whatever your needs, if you take them to the Lord and you really believe, he will listen. What I didn't understand then is that I didn't bring it to the Lord in the way you describe. I wasn't close to the Lord and I don't think I truly believed she could be saved, so I didn't have that right attitude. I was angry at God for over a year, but then I missed having him in my life and I started paying attention to that inner voice that knew I wasn't really in a good place to bring it to the Lord. I'm just glad I came to my senses.

[> [> Subject: Thanks Dori for sharing that

Author:
Hillbilly
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 07:13:19 06/28/13 Fri

There is a saying that is common and I'm sure you have heard.

"Be careful what you pray for, you might just get it."

Every one of us have an appointment with death and your mother was evidently at the gate. God may have answered that prayer and your mother lived for two more years but wouldn't it have been better if she had gone on before laying that long in a coma.

I read one time of a mother who prayed for her son who was deathly sick and at the point of death. Her prayer was; "No matter what Lord, just let him live". The boy recovered and you heard of him as Al Capone.

We don't know about tomorrow but we certainly know who holds tomorrow. We therefore as Christians need to put things in God's hands and let go. Hard and seemingly impossible at times? Absolutely but faith is believing Romans 8:28; "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

[> [> Subject: Yes, indeed!
Author: dori [ Edit \| View ]	Date Posted: 12:41:11 06/29/13 Sat We do need to keep those words--be careful of what you pray for--in mind, Hillbilly.

[> Subject: Hilbilly and dori
Author: Gerryb [ Edit \| View ]	Date Posted: 08:38:19 06/28/13 Fri One thing which many people don't understand about prayer is that God always answers our prayers. Sometimes the answer is "yes." Other times it is "no." Sometimes the answer is "wait." We always get an answer, not always the one that we want to hear. God will not give us something that is going to be bad or hurtful for us.

[> [> Subject: Very true, Gerry
Author: dori [ Edit \| View ]	Date Posted: 12:42:58 06/29/13 Sat Over the years I've come to know that, but at that time, I wasn't really knowledgeable about the Lord. I expected miracles because it was MY will, not God's. I know better now, in my old age. *-)