Why don't prayer work as intented?

[Bellicus]

Anyone saying: Whatever you pray about you will get, is clearly not being honest, even if this is what the bible say. And still taking into consideration things like lacking faith and maybe just asking the wrong thing, or not having the patience to wait for the answer, one can still say without feeling dishonest: Prayer just don't work like it should, and people saying they get answers is really so few that they almost disapear in the masses of people that never get any answer. Still there is really a lot of christians suffering from things they theoretically could be free from, but never see any solution to.

So there is basically just two answers:
1: God does not exist, so therefore he cannot answer prayers
2: God exist, but he don't answer prayers even if he say he do, for reasons unknown.

 

[miguel_de_luis]

As intended by whom, Bellicus, us or God? He is not a tame lion.

 

[Bellicus]

As intended by whom, Bellicus, us or God?

The bible? If your read your bible, you see that those asking for something in prayer, will get it, right? So why don't they get it?

 

[sunlover1]

Anyone saying: Whatever you pray about you will get, is clearly not being honest, even if this is what the bible say. And still taking into consideration things like lacking faith and maybe just asking the wrong thing, or not having the patience to wait for the answer, one can still say without feeling dishonest: Prayer just don't work like it should, and people saying they get answers is really so few that they almost disapear in the masses of people that never get any answer. Still there is really a lot of christians suffering from things they theoretically could be free from, but never see any solution to.

So there is basically just two answers:
1: God does not exist, so therefore he cannot answer prayers
2: God exist, but he don't answer prayers even if he say he do, for reasons unknown.

3: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,
that ye may consume it upon your lustsb.
4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
b lusts: or, pleasures

There are many more answers than you've considered.

sunlover

http://christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=47828435#_ftnref2

 

[Uphill Battle]

James 4:3
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.


case closed.

 

[Uphill Battle]

dang Sun, you beat me to it.

 

[simonthezealot]

What more could one ask for than the Spirit, if we seek and ask we will be given the Holy Spirit. He is our all in all.

 

[Bellicus]

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.


case closed.

So when I ask God for my child to get a better apetite, and start eating his food, then I use the wrong motives? And how about me asking for getting well from my mentall illness, so I can do something else then just sitting inside all day feeling terrible, is this the wrong motives? I talked to a blind girl once, she asked God to give her vision, is it wrong motives that she wants to see?

 

[Uphill Battle]

possibly. I have no idea what your motives are.

 

[simonthezealot]

So when I ask God for my child to get a better apetite, and start eating his food, then I use the wrong motives? And how about me asking for getting well from my mentall illness, so I can do something else then just sitting inside all day feeling terrible, is this the wrong motives? I talked to a blind girl once, she asked God to give her vision, is it wrong motives that she wants to see?

Are you a born again child of God?

 

[Melethiel]

Interestingly enough, my pastor preached a sermon on this topic yesterday. People get frustrated because they expect God to be some sort of Magician in the Sky, and that if you nag Him long enough, he'll give you exactly what you want. Others teach that it's all dependent on YOU, and if you have enough "faith", God must grant you what you want. The key, however, is that there is no "Power in Prayer" per se - God is not obligated to give us what we demand. Rather, as we grow in the faith, the Holy Spirit will change us so that what we ask will be according to God's will. Remember, even in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying to be spared the Cross, he said "Not according to my will, but according to your will." Jesus also taught us to pray "Thy will be done." God always answers prayer, just not always the way we demand. Sometimes the answer is "wait" or even "no." However, we can always trust that it will always work out to our best spiritual benefit in the end, even if we don't see it in the short run.

 

[Chesterton]

If God was going to answer every prayer to cure a disease or solve a problem, why would He allow diseases or problems to exist in the first place? I think the problem of why there is evil in the world is the more preliminary question you might want to ask.

 

[Bellicus]

Are you a born again child of God?

I think so, I belive in Jesus and I want to follow the Holy Spirit, but I certainly are not a good christian, I even don't live as I should as a christian and I can't see how to improve this. But anyway I've also asked people that probably are much better christians then me to pray, but that didn't change anything.

If God was going to answer every prayer to cure a disease or solve a problem, why would He allow diseases or problems to exist in the first place? I think the problem of why there is evil in the world is the more preliminary question you might want to ask.

I do see your point, but unlike evil in the work (witch there is no real solution for until the world ends) some of the problems a christian got should be solved trough prayer, but is not.

 

[simonthezealot]

A suggestion is to immerse yourself into the "Theology of suffering"...
Think Job, Paul, Jesus and many many more...

 

[Bellicus]

" Jesus also taught us to pray "Thy will be done."

Yes. of course, Gods will be done, but hey, why do it have to be Gods will that my kid does not want to eat. What about parents with children that got cancer that they pray to get better, but see no solution. His will be done, but can this really be his will?

 

[Bellicus]

A suggestion is to immerse yourself into the "Theology of suffering"...
Think Job, Paul, Jesus and many many more...

I've read Ecclesiastes probably 50 times, and even wrote it down to understand it. So I do understand that the world is suffering. But this just seem to collide with the possibilities of prayer. The promise that lies within prayer just make the suffering unbearable. "some people escape suffering and get better lives because of prayer", I think, so then i also ask myself why this won't happen to me. Do God care more about others then me?

 

[Melethiel]

Yes. of course, Gods will be done, but hey, why do it have to be Gods will that my kid does not want to eat. What about parents with children that got cancer that they pray to get better, but see no solution. His will be done, but can this really be his will?

God's will is not always to provide us with the perfect life on earth, but to strengthen our faith.

And remember:

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9(A) For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Isaiah 55:8-9

 

[simonthezealot]

I've read Ecclesiastes probably 50 times, and even wrote it down to understand it. So I do understand that the world is suffering. But this just seem to collide with the possibilities of prayer. The promise that lies within prayer just make the suffering unbearable. "some people escape suffering and get better lives because of prayer", I think, so then i also ask myself why this won't happen to me. Do God care more about others then me?

Friend my heart aches for you with your troubles, but it is when you realise that "God is more than enough" that your will and His will can be in tune.
God is good and He will take care of us and satisfy us and get us through struggles. But it is He whom is our treasure...

WE are to strive to desire nothing but Him in Heaven above or earth below
HE is our portion.

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him, even in the midst of suffering this can bring a peace that surpasses all human understanding, and once you begin to see what His will is in you there is much hope and joy.

 

[Bellicus]

Friend my heart aches for you with your troubles, but it is when you realise that "God is more than enough" that your will and His will can be in tune.
God is good and He will take care of us and satisfy us and get us through struggles. But it is He whom is our treasure...

WE are to strive to desire nothing but Him in Heaven above or earth below
HE is our portion.

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him, even in the midst of suffering this can bring a peace that surpasses all human understanding, and once you begin to see what His will is in you there is much hope and joy.

I do feel pretty sure about that I would never trade away God for anything on earth and i feel sure there is no bigger treasures then the one i want in heaven. But I do not feel like God is getting me trough my struggles. You might feel it like that, that when you are down a day then God stays with you trough it (this I feel too) and then you get "back to normal" and life is bearable again. I don't feel like this. I live in the valley of death and no shepherd show me the way out of it. And I don't see what His will with me is, i really don't. And if His will is that I stay like this for the rest of my life, I will probably never understand it, but just have to accept it cause i have no other choice.

But anyway, I still don't see anyone that have been able to explain why some people are left alone with their trouble while some get help with it. I could understand the theory about "spending it on pleasure" if the problem were that I didn't get a million dollars from God when i asked for it. I do, however, not understand why people have to struggle their whole life and maybe not see anything good in life at all, when God could have just said one word. The bible don't give all the explanations the people here have been answering, so it seems more like excuses or defense for God, instead of honest opinions about what the truth is.

 

[Thekla]

But anyway, I still don't see anyone that have been able to explain why some people are left alone with their trouble while some get help with it.

Hi, Bellicus !

my husband has a difficult long-term physical condition which causes chronic pain. Our son has a mental illness.

A nun once told me: sometimes, God allows us a 'struggle' for our own spiritual growth. Sometimes, God allows us a 'struggle' for the spiritual benefit of those around us.

I am sorry to hear of your struggle; I can only say that witnessing the struggle of my husband and our son has been a great witness of Christ to me -- in seeing them bear their difficulties, my heart melts and becomes more open to God.

God bless you, Bellicus !!!