Prayer Problems
Randall Caselman
1/7/98
Prayer Problems
Prayer is the most talked about aspect of our faith, but we never seem to practice the extent of our belief. Some have given up on prayer. Some are simply are out of the habit. Others use prayer only as a crisis management tool. What are some of the attitudes that contribute to our
talking the talk without walking the walk in this matter of prayer?
Thoughts of insignificance. We conclude that our world is too small for God’s concern. Perhaps we have concluded that God is too busy to be interested in an intimate conversation with us. Is God above it all? I don't think so.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father... Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows.
There are many more birds in this world than men, yet God cares for each and not a one dies outside of His will and His notice. Science tells us we lose fifty to sixty hairs a day. Think of it. Each hair is numbered times five billion people and each losing fifty or more a day. Only God could master such mathematics.
He is sovereign. He sustains and controls the universe, yet no one, no thing in our life is too small for His concern.
God already knows my needs. The question is why pray if God already knows? And He does. Jesus said as much,
your Father knows what you need before you ask. Yet God wants us to acknowledge Him and our need for Him. He wants us to come to Him for blessings like children to a father.
No man ever pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, what a silly, empty thought. Only the devil’s pride could instigate such a concept. Paul told the Athenians,
He gives life to all, and breath, and all things... In Him we live, move, and have our being. Church, our not praying says
God, I don’t need you, I can manage by myself. Admitting our dependence on Him doesn't push us away from prayer, but it pulls us deeper into it.
My prayers are not answered. This keeps a lot of us off our knees. Great men of prayer no longer pray because, in their mind, God did not answer. There may be an explanation:
Our heart may not have been right.
The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous... The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
Our prayer may have been selfish. When you ask, you receive not because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasure.
Our praying may not have been persistent. Sometimes we are like children on Halloween. We ring God’s door bell and if He doesn’t answer promptly and with what we want, we disappear in disappointment. Luke says Jesus gave the parable of the persistent widow
to show that we should always pray and not give up.
Our prayers may not have been in faith. Ask in faith without any doubt, for he that doubts is like the surf, drawn and tossed by the sea... Let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Let me caution you here. Our faith must be in God, not in prayer; faith in God, not faith in faith. In our prayers we must believe that God will do right by us.
This brings us to three other possible points about apparent unanswered prayer.
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God may be saying no. Trust Him. Have faith in Him. He knows best. He promises that all will work to our benefit as obedient believers.
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God may be saying wait. Abraham and Sarah waited years for an answer to their prayers for a son. We must remember we are on God’s timetable, not ours. Trust Him, His timing is perfect.
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God may have something better in mind. I thank God everyday that He has answered my prayers with what I needed, not what I wanted. We must have faith in God, not in our own wisdom.
We must know that the successful
prayer life cannot be measured by the number of times God has granted us
just what we wanted. This is where we fail in measuring the effectiveness of prayer.
Remember this,
if we being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children; how much more shall our Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask.
—Randall Caselman
