When a person gets to his 60s as I have, sometimes he learns that the prayers he thought he wanted answered yes were far better answered no.
We don’t always know what is best for us. Often we don’t know what is best for others.
Even a man with faith as great as Paul prayed for something to be removed and the prayer was answered no.
Strange that after that it never states in the scriptures that Paul prayer again. I assume he did of course but after learning that hes prayer came unanswered he might not have prayed again.So? Throughout scripture prayer never works. Never. God wants us to pray yet it doesnt work. I dont get it
The ones of mine that get answered positively are in ways and times that I do not expect, and certainly do not get answered according to my prescription. God is not a vending machine that we can plug our prayer coins into and expect a particular product in return. He is a loving Father that knows what is best for his children.
A frequent answer to prayer is “Wait patiently and trustingly.” Do a word search in the Psalms on “wait”. We are also not to complain.
Nick,
Scripture records prayers being answered. There are many examples.
And Paul did say he prayed in his later letters. For example:
For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers
Those “prayers” whould have been answered anyway because these people played a vital role in Gods plan to bring the Messiah. For example. Daniel. If the Lions ate him actually then he would not have been the prophet that did all these things
Those prayers related to the Messiah are certainly interesting and worthy of recording.
Yet God interacts with regular people. My wife, for example, has experienced some supernatural events that we are convinced came from God.
I have dozens of “co-instants” accounts that are answers to prayers.
You may recall this one:
I’m a little afraid that others’… and my… experiences of answered prayers may be discouraging to you. That is certainly not my intent!
That might actually be overstating it some, but I most certainly do have multiple dozens of instants that display God’s sovereignty over timing and placing in my life and that he is a trustworthy Father. That is what I want to encourage you with!
Even when things are difficult and your own performance may be disheartening, there is a bigger plan in place. For instance, I dropped out of college after my freshman year (and on academic probation) and enlisted in the U.S. Navy for what turned out to be six years.That’s the short story. The longer story is that it was ultimately a major influence in my life’s path and includes many smaller stories illustrative of our Father’s faithfulness.
One of those smaller stories that fits wonderfully into a larger one is my going to med school when I was 43 (
), not finishing, but …especially in retrospect… enjoying Father’s hand confirming both my matriculation and my exit. Not long prior to the latter, I was prostrate on the floor of my apartment in prayer with anxiety like I had never experienced before or since. (That I was not enjoying!) I don’t even remember what I was praying for or if it was explicitly answered, but I was being taken care of!
If you want to speak about personal experience. Some weeks ago i gave my exams for this semester. I studied as much as i could all year. I failed the semester miserably. In every subject the night before i was praying with tears in my eyes. After my second subject which i wrote close to 0 (the top is 10) i prayed with half heart and tears in my eyes ,not for success,this time i prayed for strength. After my third subject which again it didnt went well i was devastated. I didnt even gad the courage to go write my last one. So the prayer about spiritual and psychological strength failed. My God “abandoned” and left me unanswered in one of my most important events of my life. After all of this my depression i have didnt help as i was thinking suicidal again. After two days i did finally came to my senses. All those personal experienced i attribute them to"luck" if you want to call it that way. God seems to care less for prayers
You didn’t infer my failures implicit in the account above, actually starting in high school, then my first year of college and then in med school. There was depression involved in all of those. Again, God is not a vending machine that has to respond exactly as our prayer coins expect. He is a trustworthy Father, although in the short term it may seem that he has failed you. Good fathers don’t give their children anything and everything that the children want.
God doesnt give spiritual strength to his children? Because he is not a vending machine? Is that your argument?
I’m not sure what you think of spiritual is, exactly. He doesn’t give gifts upon demand. He does tell us to be patient and to wait for him, not complaining. Those are evidences of obedience.
What to do with something i needed it in the past?? I dont need comfort any time soon in the future
I needed strength to at least not get so sad when i failed my exams . I needed it two weeks ago. Now is uselles
There is never a time when we don’t need patience – with others, with God and with ourselves, including now.
How about strength? Pshycological and spiritual. I think i needed that two weeks ago. Anyway my point is that even if prayer works you dont know what to pray for. Theres no guidance. You dont even know what God approves or not(expect you know the common sense one like more money etc.These are not approved of course. But yeah…
I don’t think you should hold either yourself or God responsible if you are suffering from a psychological or psychiatric condition that is diminishing your powers of concentration, confidence and/or ability to make sense of or assimilate new learning. We are biological first and powers of cognition and affect can be interfered with at that level. I was deeply depressed one time and the effects can be overwhelming, and that isn’t the only blip that your organism could be struggling with.
Does God prevent His believers from breaking legs or getting cancer? Does that make you feel those people are doing something wrong as Christians or that God isn’t doing His job right? Probably not. But when something goes wrong with our organism which is harder to see it’s really the same thing. Some difficulties are par for the course. There may not be a quick fix available and it is surely not a failing of your theology or will power. Suffering is still suffering but there may be nuggets for you on the other side of wellness that give you a greater appreciation of each precious good day to come. Hold on, better days are coming. But make sure you getting the best care you can.
My counselor didnt told me depression can interfere with learning. If so how? I studied a lot. It interferes with memory maybe?Anyway i dodnt ask for deliverance from my suffering but at least the strength to not break down when bad things happen to me. My depression makes every unfortunate event worse.
So your natural resilience and ability to keep matters in perspective are out of whack. When I was depressed I lost all ability to read people or take part in casual conversation. Unfortunately I didn’t seek any help and so it went on longer than it might otherwise. I hope you are seeing a medical doctor trained in psychiatry in addition to talking to a counselor. That can help you cope but if your leg was broken it wouldn’t help with that. Same goes with imbalances effecting our brains. It is really pretty common. There is no reason to gut it out on your own.
I think often people confuse prayer for something instant and magical. They forget it’s in his will, and when you read scripture the majority of prayers are for others, and not yourself.
One aspect of prayer is to get answers and often that answer is already in scripture and requires studying out.
Such as when a woman/man who is having an affair with a married man/woman and they pray to god should they try to make it work… the answer is already in scripture and it’s not stop being adulterous.
I also like to remind people of what he says about birds in Matthew 6:25-end. It’s linking that to prayer and people praying for their needs. Says look at the birds he takes care of them. But we also know millions of them die a year. So prayer does not mean the absence of bad times.
Don’t we all think Jospeh probably prayer all two years he was in the dungeon before they were answered?
Often God does not answer a prayer because he knows how it would not be good for you. We need to be careful what we pray for.
Rachel prayed for a second son and she died after giving birth to him. Genesis 35.
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
This is a place for gracious dialogue about science and faith. Please read our FAQ/Guidelines before posting.