Pray 'bout it Brudder...

[HAMel]

Over the years I've personally spoken with pastors regarding situations that have arisen in my personal life and I'm sure that most of you have. Usually, my efforts have resulted with the following..., "Pray 'bout it Brudder..."

Okay, one of a half dozen things here. The pastor doesn't have the time; he doesn't have a clue; he's not a social worker; he simply doesn't know what to say; etc.

Prayer. As you, I've listened to a lot of prayers over the years. Some are loud and demanding with much emotion; some are quiet and subdued; many are so obvious; some stumble and fall during public prayer; some as to win the lottery, etc.

At this link http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/prayer/ is an interesting article but I can't seem to find who's behind this website and that bothers me some.

In the article however the question is asked..., Can we demand and is God obligated? Well, of course not. Our Lord can do what He wants. Makes me kind of wonder if our understanding of "prayer" is really grounded?

The Lord considers our heart..., not our loud mouth.

I find that I'm often speaking with the Lord and not even realizing it. This, of course, happens within my mind and not on public display.

At the link the following is provided. "Petition. Though prayer also includes adoration (e.g., Pss. 144-150 Luke 1:46-55 ), confession (e.g., Psalm 51 ; Luke 18:13 ), and thanksgiving (e.g., Psalm 75 ; 1 Thess 1:2 ), Christian prayer has always been essentially petitionary. Indeed, the simple and almost naive petitioning that marks New Testament prayer is reflected in all its humanness in the psalms the liturgical inheritance of the early Christians well as in the rest of the early church's Scriptures. Petitions are made for rain and fire, relief from famine and plague, resurrections from the dead, and so forth (e.g., see 1 Kings 8:35-40 ; 17:20-22 ; 18:26-39 ). In fact, most Hebrew terms used in the Old Testament for prayer refer in some sense to petition; prayer in the Old Testament more frequently expressed supplication than anything else.

...are modern day Christians abusing this opportunity we have to fall under the leadership of our Lord or are we using "prayer" to demand? Do we fail to understand "prayer"..., it's purpose and it's intent?

Our Lord considers our heart..., not our demanding attitude.

 

[exscentric]

Know what you mean about not finding something about someone's site.

Statement of Faith
We believe that there is one God, eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Bible is God's written revelation to man and that it is verbally inspired, authoritative, and without error in the original manuscripts.
We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, death on the cross to provide for our redemption, bodily resurrection and ascension into heaven, present ministry of intercession for us, and His return to earth in power and glory.
We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, that He performs the miracle of the new birth in an unbeliever and indwells believers, enabling them to live a godly life.
We believe that man was created in the image of God, but because of sin, was alienated from God. That alienation can be removed only by accepting through faith God's gift of salvation which was made possible by Christ's death.
---
The domain is owned by Salem Communications corporation.

Their list of authors is mostly old timers that are standard reference to most of us I'd guess.

Google shows the main organization to be BIG but little on who they are. One board member is SBC.

Now, here memory may be incorrect but I think they did the Goshen forum/resource site a number of years ago but I could well be wrong.

 

[exscentric]

To the OP. We sure can demand but God is under no obligation to obey as you indicate. I'd say the quote is good (did not look up the verses). We ought to pray realizing His will is the determinant.

On the same hand I think we should be bold to ask for our needs. Years ago we were moving cross country and owned some self exploding tires. We had gotten three replaced but the fourth had not come in at the Sears catalog store. It was to come in on the Friday AFTER we had left. On Wed. I asked the family to pray about it. Our littlest said, "and God please get the tire here tomorrow so we can be safe.

In my mind I in doubt said and how ya gunna take care of that one Lord? knowing it wasn't supposed to be there till Friday. Thursday I went with the little one just to be sure it hadn't come in. The store manager hollered "It came in!" I looked down and saw the biggest grin on my son - kind of figured if I could have seen there was a big grin on Someone else above.

 

[HAMel]

exscentric, regarding your auto tire I've had similar experiences. I suppose we all have. Quite obviously the Lord knew what we needed and provided accordingly.

Prayer is good for us and endorsed. Prayer is an avenue of communicating even though the Lord knows what we need before we ask. He is omnipotent.