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[EKnight]

I don't see the point in praying for God's will to be done when it's going to be done regardless.

However, if praying "Thy will be done" is merely an acknowledgment that God knows what is best, then I understand.

Eileen

[Ninny]

Eileen,
Remember Ray says if you pray for God's will to be done then ALL your prayers will be answered! I like that! The answer may not be what we expect, but it will be done! God's will that is! It shows that we are submissive to God!!
Kathy

[kenny]

Eileen
A lot of the time when i am praying for someone are about some thing the Lord will let me know everything is going to turn out OK, it that's his will too,
I have allways felt the more i get involved with Gods life then he will be that much more involved in my life.

thanks Kenny

[Deborah-Leigh]

Hi Eileen

I believe prayer is part of the Lords Process through which we come to experience and know Him better. In the secular world communication is vital. In the Spiritual realm, Prayer is our communication to our invisible and present God that forms an essential part of our connection to our Father.

Ray expresses many treasures and shares rich insights in this subjuect. Here is an excerpt that I think relates .... quote...


http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,9177.0.html
Question: Why bother to pray if God's will must be done, and God never changes His mind about anything?
 
Background:
I'm on a prayer team at church, and receive dozens of prayer request each week.  Am I wasting my time?  Also, how To respond to the prayer request? (we send out acknowledgment cards). It seems pointless and rude to write:
 
"God has already decided if your (child, mother, father, spouse) will live or die.  If your prayer is for what God has already decided, it will be given. If you pray for them to live and yet they die, it's God's will. Sorry, but I can't do anything about it."
 
Not very comforting!! LOL.  Am I missing something?  I'm getting ready to give up this ministry if my all prayers are in vain....... :-(
 
PS: LOVE YOUR SITE!


Dear Cathy:  The Christian Church has so screwed up our minds, that it is almost impossible to think rationally if one is to cling to their absurd and unscriptural doctrines and teachings.
 
Ask yourself:  "Have I or anyone I know ever fervently prayed for something or some one, that was a good and loving request, and yet God did now answer your request?"
 
Yes?  Many times?  Probably.  But why?  Why would God answering some benevolent loving requests, but not others, and certainly not all?  Let me first make what I consider a very profound statement that I came to understand when I did a Scriptural study on prayer:
"God has never ever answered a prayer that WASN'T FIRST PRAYED!"
 
But the question remains:  "Would God have performed that same task for you if you had NOT prayed for it?"  He may have, but then it couldn't be counted as a answered prayer.
 
When God desires to do good things for His people, he inspired them TO PRAY.  When you understand prayer, no prayer of yours will ever "be in vain" as you suggest.  Yes, God exactly what He will and what He will not do in the next hour, day, or week, and absolutely nothing in heaven or earth will ever "change" that--God does NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, EVER!  But we don't know what a new day will bring, and so we pray.  Many if not most of God's ways seem strange to we humans.  We are not yet on His level of wisdom and spirituality.  God wants to hear from us.  God wants His children to talk to Him about all their needs and desires.  God wants to hear us thank Him for all He has given us.
 
It is not the least discouraging to me that I cannot change God's mind about anything.  Imagine if God answered all the billions of prayers of all the billions of people around the world?  What utter chaos there would be.  God could never prophesy or foretell the future, as it would be constantly changing by the changing of His Own mind, answering all of those billions of prayers.  Was Jesus perfectly obedience to God His Father?  Did His Father "remove the cup" that Jesus prayed about?  NO, no He didn't.  Was Jesus' prayer, therefore, "in vain?"  I think not.
 
If God has determined to heal or bless someone because you or someone else prayed for it, then you will HAVE to pray that prayer in order for God to answer it, and therefore, prayer is never in vain unless we are not praying according to God's rules.  Hope this helps you a little, and I will pray that it does!
God be with you,
Ray
 

There are more very important and most enjoyably encouraging teachings on this topic and can be accessed at subject title Prayer  http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,3108.0.html

Arc

[Roy Martin]

 I get so much clutter in my mind that I don't know what or how to pray sometimes. I pray daily, mostly just saying thank you God for all of your blessings, but even then I feel as if I'm leaving things out, but I acknowledge this To God and ask Him to lay it on my heart to pray according to His will and not mine, to help me pray in Spirit and not with my carnal mind.
Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Roy

[cherokee]

Roy,

Here is a scripture that helped me with some of the same problems.

(KJV) Rom 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

(CLV) Rom 8:26 Now, similarly, the spirit also is aiding our infirmity, for what we should be praying for, to accord with what must be, we are not aware, but the spirit itself is pleading for us with inarticulate groanings."

[EKnight]

Roy,

Here is a scripture that helped me with some of the same problems.

(KJV) Rom 8:26
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

(CLV) Rom 8:26 Now, similarly, the spirit also is aiding our infirmity, for what we should be praying for, to accord with what must be, we are not aware, but the spirit itself is pleading for us with inarticulate groanings."

So if I am inspired to pray for something, does that mean God will answer that prayer?

Eileen

[mharrell08]

So if I am inspired to pray for something, does that mean God will answer that prayer?

Eileen

No...prayer is all about having the will of God, first & foremost, in your heart.

If "His Will Be Done' is the greater desire in all your prayers, your prayers will ALWAYS be answered. Christ's greater desire in all His prayers was that the Father's Will be done, even up to death on the cross. That is how we are to pray: His Will be done above and beyond anything else in this world, including death itself.

It's about dying to self...we die of 'lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life' daily in the same manner that Christ died on the cross. And this includes in our prayer life.

Hope this helps,

Marques

[Marky Mark]

So if I am inspired to pray for something, does that mean God will answer that prayer?

Eileen

Hi Eileen,

  I always look at prayer as something that we use to communicate to the Father with,kinda like a Spiritual phone,if you will.Sometimes we may get a busy signal and some times we will get through.The idea is not whether or not the call is answered but rather that the call was made.The call, none the less, was compleated from your heart and Father knows this, but it is of His will and purpose as to whether or not he answers your call.He is in control,not us.

He owns the phone company .


Peace...Mark

[Kat]

Hi Eileen,

To me prayer is more than just asking or even thanking God.  I think of it as  drawing near to our heavenly Father and needful contact with the heavenly realm. 

James 4:8  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...

Heb 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

Isn't praying giving reverence to God and acknowledging that we really believe He is there and that He has the ability and willingness to listen to us?  It is for me.  When our children are little they chatter about all kinds of things, it certainly doesn't always make sense.  But we shouldn't want them to shut up, as they are developing communication skills and need to practice, just as we do in praying to God.

We understand that God is sovereign and has His plan for this creation already laid down and it will be carried out exactly according to His plan and will.  So in praying that 'His will be done' aren't we showing respect for His great and wonderful plan/will for this creation, above our own usually selfish will?  Isn't His wisdom so much greater than ours... indeed we have no wisdom at all.

Rom 11:33  O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

But because His wisdom and knowledge is far superior to ours, does not mean we should not pray.  We need to "draw near to Him," and we come to a better understanding in doing so.  I desire to pray to my Father even if I don't know exactly what to pray for, I believe the spirit is helping me and I am learning to get my thinking in-line with His, so I add 'according to Your perfect will.'  Surely I/we only want what is the best good, even if it doesn't match up with my/our will.  So I want 'His will to be done" always above my will.   

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.
v. 27  And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Hope this is of some help to you.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[cjwood]

some time ago, i can't recall the exact year, but i was given a word from the Holy Spirit. i was going through a hard time physically and emotionally at the time, and i heard the Still Small Voice that said "when asking in prayer that God's Will be done, what could EVER be better than that. since God loves me above and beyond anything i could ever imagine, then His Will is the ABSOLUTELY best thing for me and my life, no matter what i was going through. i/we may not know what His Will is for any of us, but we can be assured that it IS for our BEST.

claudia

[aqrinc]

some time ago, i can't recall the exact year, but i was given a word from the Holy Spirit. i was going through a hard time physically and emotionally at the time, and i heard the Still Small Voice that said "when asking in prayer that God's Will be done, what could EVER be better than that. since God loves me above and beyond anything i could ever imagine, then His Will is the ABSOLUTELY best thing for me and my life, no matter what i was going through. i/we may not know what His Will is for any of us, but we can be assured that it IS for our BEST.

claudia

Claudia,

That does sum it up quite nicely, thanks.

george.

[judith collier]

Aren't we supposed to pray without ceasing?

[cjwood]

Aren't we supposed to pray without ceasing?

yes. and to always add to our petitions that may God's Will be done.

claudia

[EKnight]

I don't want to start a whole new thread because this all ties in to the same thoughts I am having. 


8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Is cancer discipline/chastisement?  If so, who is being disciplined the afflicted or the loved ones? 

Eileen

[aqrinc]

I don't want to start a whole new thread because this all ties in to the same thoughts I am having. 


8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Is cancer discipline/chastisement?  If so, who is being disciplined the afflicted or the loved ones?  

Eileen

Eileen,

These Scriptures should answer those questions.

1Pe 4: 12-19 (YLT)
12  Beloved, do not be astonished at the fiery trial happening among you for your testing, as if a surprise were occurring to you;
13  but according as you share the sufferings of Christ, rejoice; so that you may rejoice exultingly at the revelation of His glory.
14  If you are reviled in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because "the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you." Truly, according to them, He is blasphemed; but according to you, He is glorified. Isa. 11:2
15  For do not let any of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as a meddler in the affairs of others.
16  But if one suffers as a Christian, do not let him be ashamed, but to glorify God in this respect.
17  Because the time has come to begin the judgment from the house of God; and if firstly from us, what will be the end of the ones disobeying the gospel of God?
18  And "if the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear?" Proverbs 11:31
19  So as indeed the ones suffering according to God's will, as to a faithful Creator, let them commit their souls in well-doing.

I used The GNB translation for v: 18,19 here below, because i think the language is clearer.

1Pe 4: 18-19 (GNB)
18  As the scripture says, "It is difficult for good people to be saved; what, then, will become of godless sinners?"
19  So then, those who suffer because it is God's will for them, should by their good actions trust themselves completely to their Creator, who always keeps his promise.

george.

 

[hillsbororiver]

Is cancer discipline/chastisement?  If so, who is being disciplined the afflicted or the loved ones? 

Hi Eileen,

The short answer is BOTH! 

Prayer is not about God aligning (changing) His will and desires with ours, but aligning our will and desires with His.

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Peace,

Joe

[EKnight]

Ray has cancer and is suffering.  God disciplines his sons whom he loves.  But what about Manuela?  Is this for her too?  What if Manuela was not a believer?  Would Rays suffering still be for her discipline or is this solely for Ray?  This, of course, is just an example of my main question in regard to cancer, who is God disciplining if anyone at all?

Eileen

[aqrinc]

What do you think is the right answer Eileen , please share your thoughts so we can discuss the question from your perspective, with the Scriptures as our guide.

george.

[hillsbororiver]

Hi again Eileen,

One thing that has given me comfort through difficult times is that although we may not appreciate or understand this "strange work" (Isa 28:21) as it unfolds here in this life we will certainly understand why it must have been deemed essential by God in the next age.

This is where faith comes into play.

Peace,

Joe