To All,
Praying is having a talk with the Lord. It is "speech with God". It is not talking at Him, or to Him, but with Him.
This means there's communication going on. Actually, "prayer is nothing but communication". There's a dialogue. I speak and the Lord answers.
His answer or His part in the dialogue comes in one or more of the following ways:
1. He may give me a better perspective or clearer understanding of whatever it is that I may be praying about. I may suddenly see or remember something I had forgotten.
That is why we are told: "To pray signifies in the internal sense to be revealed".
A solution may present itself that was not apparent before. We see an example of this when an angel came as a result of Manoah's request to understand what was to be done with his son Samson.
When answering a prayer, sometimes the Lord may give me a sense of hope, when that is what is needed, and I may not have even realized it.
Other times I may feel comforted or consoled. Weep no more, the Lord has heard your prayer. Consider Hezekiah. After hearing his death sentence, "he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying 'Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart....' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then it happened, before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Return and tell Hezekiah..., Thus says the Lord...I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you'" (II Kings 20:1-5).
There also may be times when, as a result of my praying, the Lord will fill me with a sense of well-being and even joyfulness, for that is one of His wishes - that I may have life and have it abundantly.
On occasion the answer to a prayer may be dramatic. Elijah's request for fire on Mt. Carmel was certainly that.
Now what if I pray and then receive or feel none of these good things? Could it be that the Lord has not heard and therefore not answered? Impossible! He must hear. He always hears.
When we don't feel a prayer has been answered, it may be that the answer is simply, No! Or it may be that the message is, "I won't help you. Don't talk to Me. "I tell you I do not know you ... Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity" (Luke 13:27). Because of the wickedness of the people, the Lord told Jeremiah: "Do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you" (Jer. 7:16).
There was once a Phoenician woman, a Canaanite, who had a daughter possessed by a devil, and she came to the Lord asking for help (see Matt. 15:23). She spoke - if you like, she prayed to Jesus - knowing "that He was God” Himself (AE 815:5). But He answered first with silence and then a rebuff. There was, therefore, something about her request or state that was not acceptable to Him and needed changing.
Whether by silence or by a rebuff of some sort, the Lord does answer! So, after praying, if we do not feel any response, any new understanding, any idea of hopefulness, any consolation, or any sense of joy, the Lord may still answer by bringing into our consciousness a recollection of that story about the Canaanite woman.
Another story we suddenly may find ourselves remembering is that of Saul coming to Samuel to complain about the Lord's not answering his prayers! "Saul [said], 'I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me any more'" (I Sam. 28:15).
How could the Lord answer or help Saul after he had not once but twice deliberately rejected the Lord's instructions? On top of that he filled his heart with hate and vengeance against David. "If I cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66:18).
The Lord's apparent silence may bring to mind, by His secret touch, one of these stories in the Word, for, we are told, "no announcements or responses are ever made from heaven except through outmosts such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word" (TCR 222; AE 1089e; AC 6047:2, 8694:3).
Or the Lord may bring to mind another teaching from the Word that tells us about two conditions that are to be met before prayers can be answered. One condition has to do with our general attitude. It must have humility in it.
The other condition has to do with the subject of our prayer. It must show concern for one's own regeneration and the happiness of others.
If either condition is missing, then the prayer is "mere babbling". It is seen in the spiritual world as a "bad-smelling odor", or as a mere "vocal sound".
If we have not humbled ourselves, how can the Lord enter our hearts? We are then like Moses before he took off his shoes at the burning bush.
We are like Nebuchadnezzar boasting about his accomplishments just before he became a wild animal.
We are like Peter telling the Lord what to do, just before he, Peter, was called Satan!
If we do not pray for things that will help in our spiritual life or promote the Lord's kingdom, how can He possibly respond?
We are then like Saul asking the Lord to essentially maintain his reputation and glory.
The Lord cannot and will not "heed prayers that are contrary to the end, which is salvation".
If we find our prayers go unanswered, we are going to do one of two things. Either we will give up, at best just going through the motions, just because the Lord requires us to pray daily," "morning and evening, also at dinners and suppers, or we will learn to be humble, to change our state, so that we may come into the temple of the Lord's holiness to speak with Him.
Bringing us into a state of humility is, in fact, a primary purpose of prayer. It is, therefore, a wonderful way of helping us to be humble. "He who supplicates is in humiliation". When there is humility, then prayer works, "the Divine can flow in and be perceived".
To be continue
Praying is having a talk with the Lord. It is "speech with God". It is not talking at Him, or to Him, but with Him.
This means there's communication going on. Actually, "prayer is nothing but communication". There's a dialogue. I speak and the Lord answers.
His answer or His part in the dialogue comes in one or more of the following ways:
1. He may give me a better perspective or clearer understanding of whatever it is that I may be praying about. I may suddenly see or remember something I had forgotten.
That is why we are told: "To pray signifies in the internal sense to be revealed".
A solution may present itself that was not apparent before. We see an example of this when an angel came as a result of Manoah's request to understand what was to be done with his son Samson.
When answering a prayer, sometimes the Lord may give me a sense of hope, when that is what is needed, and I may not have even realized it.
Other times I may feel comforted or consoled. Weep no more, the Lord has heard your prayer. Consider Hezekiah. After hearing his death sentence, "he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying 'Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart....' And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then it happened, before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Return and tell Hezekiah..., Thus says the Lord...I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you'" (II Kings 20:1-5).
There also may be times when, as a result of my praying, the Lord will fill me with a sense of well-being and even joyfulness, for that is one of His wishes - that I may have life and have it abundantly.
On occasion the answer to a prayer may be dramatic. Elijah's request for fire on Mt. Carmel was certainly that.
Now what if I pray and then receive or feel none of these good things? Could it be that the Lord has not heard and therefore not answered? Impossible! He must hear. He always hears.
When we don't feel a prayer has been answered, it may be that the answer is simply, No! Or it may be that the message is, "I won't help you. Don't talk to Me. "I tell you I do not know you ... Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity" (Luke 13:27). Because of the wickedness of the people, the Lord told Jeremiah: "Do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you" (Jer. 7:16).
There was once a Phoenician woman, a Canaanite, who had a daughter possessed by a devil, and she came to the Lord asking for help (see Matt. 15:23). She spoke - if you like, she prayed to Jesus - knowing "that He was God” Himself (AE 815:5). But He answered first with silence and then a rebuff. There was, therefore, something about her request or state that was not acceptable to Him and needed changing.
Whether by silence or by a rebuff of some sort, the Lord does answer! So, after praying, if we do not feel any response, any new understanding, any idea of hopefulness, any consolation, or any sense of joy, the Lord may still answer by bringing into our consciousness a recollection of that story about the Canaanite woman.
Another story we suddenly may find ourselves remembering is that of Saul coming to Samuel to complain about the Lord's not answering his prayers! "Saul [said], 'I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me any more'" (I Sam. 28:15).
How could the Lord answer or help Saul after he had not once but twice deliberately rejected the Lord's instructions? On top of that he filled his heart with hate and vengeance against David. "If I cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66:18).
The Lord's apparent silence may bring to mind, by His secret touch, one of these stories in the Word, for, we are told, "no announcements or responses are ever made from heaven except through outmosts such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word" (TCR 222; AE 1089e; AC 6047:2, 8694:3).
Or the Lord may bring to mind another teaching from the Word that tells us about two conditions that are to be met before prayers can be answered. One condition has to do with our general attitude. It must have humility in it.
The other condition has to do with the subject of our prayer. It must show concern for one's own regeneration and the happiness of others.
If either condition is missing, then the prayer is "mere babbling". It is seen in the spiritual world as a "bad-smelling odor", or as a mere "vocal sound".
If we have not humbled ourselves, how can the Lord enter our hearts? We are then like Moses before he took off his shoes at the burning bush.
We are like Nebuchadnezzar boasting about his accomplishments just before he became a wild animal.
We are like Peter telling the Lord what to do, just before he, Peter, was called Satan!
If we do not pray for things that will help in our spiritual life or promote the Lord's kingdom, how can He possibly respond?
We are then like Saul asking the Lord to essentially maintain his reputation and glory.
The Lord cannot and will not "heed prayers that are contrary to the end, which is salvation".
If we find our prayers go unanswered, we are going to do one of two things. Either we will give up, at best just going through the motions, just because the Lord requires us to pray daily," "morning and evening, also at dinners and suppers, or we will learn to be humble, to change our state, so that we may come into the temple of the Lord's holiness to speak with Him.
Bringing us into a state of humility is, in fact, a primary purpose of prayer. It is, therefore, a wonderful way of helping us to be humble. "He who supplicates is in humiliation". When there is humility, then prayer works, "the Divine can flow in and be perceived".
To be continue