Where In The Bible Will I Find:
The Purpose Of Prayer In The Christian
Life?
God tells us to pray
(Phil. 4:6; Col. 4:2; I Thess. 5:17), and Jesus makes a promise, "Ask,
and it shall be given you..." He promises that He will hear, and
answer, the prayers of His people (Matt. 7:7; James 5:16; I Peter 3:12). All
genuine believers believe in the power of prayer, but prayer will not set aside
the laws of God: Not in the physical realm, nor in the spiritual.
When Miriam sinned
against God, all the prayers of her brothers, Moses and Aaron, could not set
aside God's law that she remain outside the camp for seven days (Num. 12). Paul
prayed to the Lord to remove the "thorn in the flesh," but the
answer was "NO" (II Cor. 12:8-10). Sometimes God answers
our prayers in this same way, because He knows what is the best for us.
When sickness and
death come, when troubles and trials beset us, we pray to God, and we should
for "...he careth for you ... The prayer of a righteous man availeth
much" (I Peter 5:7; James 5:16). God states some conditions for prayer
to be acceptable to Him. First, we must be willing to listen to Him: "He
that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be
abomination ... God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God,
and doeth his will, him he heareth" (Prov. 28:9; John 9:31).
To expect God to hear
our prayers while we refuse to obey Him is to expect too much. "And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in his sight" (I John 3:22). The same
apostle writes, "...if we ask any thing according to his will, he
heareth us" (I John 5:14). Jesus faced the agony of trial, humiliation
and death as He prayed in Gethsemane, "Saying, Father ... not my will,
but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).
That must be our
attitude as we pray, "Thy will be done." Not ours, we must
hear God's will, worship God, ask according to His will, and then we will have
the assurance that God will hear and answer our prayers. His answer may be
"yes," or "no," or "wait a while," and it may not
be to our satisfaction, but we can be assured that which ever answer He gives,
it will be the one which will be the best for us, for God has all power, all
knowledge, all wisdom, and He knows better than we what will be the best for us.
Believe, obey God's
gospel plan of salvation and then he will hear and answer your prayers (John
9:31; Heb. 5:9; Matt. 7:21).
