We should absolutely expect our prayers to be answered if we are praying for things which Jesus has explicitly commanded us to pray. Obeying his commands to pray for specific items eliminates the question of whether or not I am praying in the will of God. Last week I wrote the first of two articles on praying as Jesus commanded. I wrote about the prayer for those who abuse or persecute us and the prayer for laborers for the harvest.
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Prayer is, for many Christians, too much of a mystery. Of course, part of the problem is that we don’t consult God’s word sufficiently when we face questions about prayer (and many other subjects). Probably the most common question about prayer is, “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?” This article (and the one to follow it) won’t answer that question, but it will identify prayers that will be answered when we pray them regularly. They are the prayers that Jesus specifically commanded us to pray.
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Researchers tell us the church in the West, and particularly in the United States, is in major decline, and the younger generations have written it off. Because of this, many church leaders have a “Woe is me” attitude toward the church’s future. There is even a very depressing book titled “The Great Evangelical Recession” by John S. Dickerson. I’ve not read it yet, but I have read comments about it. Taken from the proper perspective, it can be helpful because it is always best to view the situation with facts and not just pie-in-the-sky hopes and positive attitudes.
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God desires that we have intimate knowledge of him and a faithful love toward him and others rather than religious activity on our part. Twice in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus quotes this passage from Hosea 6:6. Jesus’ command to the Pharisees was, “Go and learn what this means,” and then quotes Hosea 6:6a, “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13 and 12:7). So, it makes sense to me that we should take the hint and make sure we also know what this means since Jesus was obviously not happy that these Pharisees did not comprehend its meaning.
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Matthew 13 might be called the Kingdom chapter. It contains nothing but parables about the Kingdom of God. It includes the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds, the Mustard Seed and the Leaven parables, the Parable of Hidden Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Parable of the Net.
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Jesus said we cannot plunder the strong man unless we first bind the strong man. In the grand historical-redemptive picture, I believe Jesus spoke of his life, death, and resurrection that defeated Satan and his minions, thus allowing sinful humans to be set free, i.e., plundered from Satan’s kingdom of darkness. I also believe there is a more localized application
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