musterion
Well-known member
Oh, I get your drift. But observation tells us that MOST prayers are not answered.
From our point of view? I won't argue it. Never have.
Why? If He invites you to make your petitions known to Him in everything, and if you're His daughter...why chalk it all up to coincidence? That's a form of fatalism, beloved, and does not honor our Father (keep reading to see why I say that).I have said thousands of prayers...And the ones that I think might have been answered can be racked up to coincidence.
Yep.In fact, we are told that we groan in these bodies until the resurrection or rapture of our bodies.
I disagree, partly. Believers who really are believers -- those who are in Christ via Paul's Gospel -- have free access before God. We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies NOW. God hears us -- nothing stands between He and we except our own lack of trust or lack of knowledge.Believers and non-believers alike can be said to experience an answered prayer, so I don't believe any believer has an upper hand on health, safety, etc.
Does that give us guaranteed answers? No...but we ARE guaranteed He will meet all our needs. What WE think and what HE knows our needs are is beside the point...no one besides those in Christ can claim what we've been freely given.
100% agreed, but ours work toward our ultimate good and, again, we have access to the Father in the Son. They do not. That access does not equal every petition being answers as we'd like, but it does mean we're invited to make those petitions "in everything" because He hears us and is listening and, if He chooses, He will answer.We are all in the same boat as far as the troubles of this world are concerned.
HE WANTS US TO ASK! HE INVITES US TO ASK! AND WHEN WE SEE HIS ANSWER, DON'T WRITE IT OFF AS COINCIDENCE!
Re: fatalism
Only a few years ago, when a mix of circumstances, sin, depression and ignorance led me entirely on my own to conclude (I later learned) as Jordan has, I decided there was NO POINT in praying. So I didn't. At all. Such a grievous, needless, selfish, bratty error that I fell into, I regret it to this day. But by His grace, I came to realize, and rest upon, the fact that God IS my Father...and it took me being a father myself to slowly learn what that means. He treats me infinitely better than I could treat my own daughters, which if I say so is pretty good. I'm starting to think that's why I have girls and not the boy I wanted...I've got to have a softer touch with them than I know I'd have with a boy. Yet God's touch is even softer with me, even when I'm being trained. Hard to put this into words...but do you know what I mean?
The point is, God cannot lie. So how can I not pray to Him as He invites me to? How can I expect Him to never answer when He invites me to make every need known to Him? What kind of father would I be if I did that to my girls?
That ain't our Father, sis!