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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There are some passages of Scripture that are difficult to understand if we don’t have a solid “Biblical Theology.” What’s that? The term systematic theology is more common and refers to the systematic study of topics throughout the Bible. For example, we can look at the attributes of God. We look at what we learn of God from Genesis to Revelation and systematize those truths. It is in systematic theology that we see God’s omnipotence, his omniscience, his omnipresence, etc.
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We always have a choice. We can either retreat into our place of safety (which is really not safe but puts off the inevitable). Or we can be servants of the kingdom of God and risk. In reality, the greater risk is to retreat. Retreat results in isolation, and none of us does well alone. We are social creatures, and as believers in Jesus, we are members of his body. Have you ever known of a severed hand prospering? How about an eye-ball removed from its socket? Does it see well? Severed body parts die. So, according to the analogy, members of the body of Christ that retreat are effectively severed from the body and die. I’m not saying that they lose their salvation and go to hell. I am saying they will shrivel up and be of no value to the kingdom of God.
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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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How I live affects how I pray and the results of my prayers. That statement will probably get some pushback from some of my readers because we are so focused on the grace of God and a walk of faith that we get the idea that how I live doesn’t affect my relationship with God. Sorry, but that paradigm is incorrect.
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