Answers To Prayer

THE DAILY WORD
By Jim Seekamp

Friday January 25, 2008

James 4:1-3 (NIV)
1. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2. You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

These verses point out an interesting aspect of prayer. First of all, when we pray for something that God's Word has not promised, or that Christ has not already bought for us by His work at the cross, we can't be sure of the outcome. Verse 3 above states "when you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives..."

The very fact that it IS possible to ask God for something and not receive it, means there are reasons that God will not answer particular prayers. In this case, it was "wrong motives". Another case could be ignorance. But the reason for God not answering a prayer is always on the end of the person praying!

John 5:14,15 (NIV)
14. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15. And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him.

The lone stipulation given here is that we must pray according to God's will! If we don't know God's will for a situation, we should pray until we find out what it is!

James 1:5 (NIV)
5. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Once we know what God's will is for a situation, we can pray a prayer of faith, with full confidence in that prayer being answered!

Of course, there is no need to ask whether it is God's will for someone to be healed, or to get saved; God has already told us in His Word that He desires ALL to be saved, and that Jesus took up our infirmities and carried our diseases at the cross. (Matt 8:17,Isaiah 53:4) We can always pray for someone's salvation, or for someone's physical healing, with full confidence that it is God's desire that the person receive it!

PRAYER
Thank You Father for Your Word, which tells me so much about You. Thank You for loving me so much that You sent Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son, to pay the price for my sin. Thank You for answering my prayers when I ask according to Your will.
In Jesus' Name, Amen

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