Wednesday, April 11, 2007

There's something I want.

I pray for it and ask others to pray for it for me.

Is God swayed one way or another by how often or how many people are praying for that something for me?

Does prayer make him change his mind about giving it to me or not? (ie. Prayer changes things).

If I ask lots of people to pray for something for me, are my chances of getting it higher than if I had just asked one person?

Does it matter if I am praying for it selfishly or (in my judgement) unselfishly?

If I believe with all my heart, not doubting, that I will get it, will I get it?

What do you think?

5 comments:

Glenda, saved by grace said...

I believe that God's will WILL and nothing else...Maybe in our praying about a specific thing continually and being in constant contact with the Lord, our mind changes, conforms to HIS Will. He tells us to pray and to ask for things, the desires of our heart, salvation of a loved one ect. I guess to be honest, I'm not sure. That is a good question. I know I pray for Chad to be released or at least to know his status, and I have lots of friends and family that pray for God's will for Chad, but to be honest I sometimes wonder if God even hears me because I am not content and I don't feel like God has given me an answer. I continue to pray and "I lean not on my own understanding."

Glenda, saved by grace said...

I wrote more of my thoughts on my blog...

Carol said...

If we truly love God and delight in him, wouldn't the desires of our heart be for his will to be done in every situation, whether we like it or not? I sure can't say that I have reached that place in my walk, but wonder if that's what verses like this one mean:

Psalms 37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I think sometimes we can turn our prayers into a work, trying to earn what we want from God by praying as fervently as possible, asking as many people as we can to pray, etc.

I remember praying for Adam to get well one night as fervently as I could muster up and trying to make the prayer a long prayer, even opening my eyes occasionally to look at the clock to see how long I was praying. Ha. What a joke of a prayer. I really was trying to 'impress' God into giving me what I wanted. (As if I could impress God by anything I did, or do). --Obviously he had other plans.

What if I wanted Adam to come back to life and prayed and prayed for that? That would be silly, wouldn't it? But that would be a desire of my heart, if it's just what "I" want. But then, that might be a bad thing. Adam might be in heaven and much better off now.

I don't know, I guess I think the Lord's prayer basically explains it .... thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Lord knows best and his will is being done.

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

eileen~ said...

I think you have it right Carol, THY WILL BE DONE is always the prayer of our heart, we simply do not always know what His will is and so we pray.

I don't believe that our prayer changes God for He is unchanging, thankfully so. Just think if we thought He changed His mind about even one thing, would we be fearful that He would change His mind about us?

I'm always comforted when I know those that care for me are praying for me, aren't you, even though we know He has already decreed the outcome.

Good thoughts Carol!

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