Chapter 3: When God Answers…You prayed the wrong prayer
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That God will not answer prayer under certain
conditions is just as clearly taught in the Bible as is that He will answer the prayers of His children
at other times. Even though they had
prayed, James said: “Ye ask and do not
receive, because ye ask amiss, to consume it upon your lusts”. (see James 4:3)
There are two
kinds of prayer to which God answers, “You prayed the wrong prayer.” First, there is the prayer that asks for the
wrong thing—which God in His holiness never would grant. But then, there is the prayer to which God
would have answered yes, except that it was for the wrong reason.
Wrong Motives
The reason God
sometimes answers no to our prayers is that we prayed with the wrong
motives. Although the things for which
we ask may be good in themselves, we want them for the wrong reasons. So, even though we do ask, we do not receive.
This was an amazing
chapter. I pray all the time, but
honestly have not thought about my motives.
This is something that I want to stop and take a good look at as I
pray. Evelyn even gives some examples of
our motives that would not be good.
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Here are some
of the common, everyday motives that creep into our praying; praise, fame, love
of power, love of display, love of preeminence, status over others, ease,
comfort, personal satisfaction, self-pleasing, self-vindication, gratification
of sinful desires, and revenge.
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A wrong motive
makes it a wrong prayer—which, of course, God won’t answer.
So I want to stop and look
at the prayers I have prayed recently and how or if God has answered.
My Prayer:
I have been praying for my
son Jeremy for quite some time, but it does not seem like God is
answering. He seems to be getting worse
and not better. I need to spend some
time thinking about my motives in my prayers.
In fact, I want to pray for God to show me my motives. This is going to be challenging for me, but I
need to find answers.
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It is possible that
we are deceiving ourselves, as well as other people, about our motives in
prayer, but never God. He is aware of
our hidden attitudes and motives –many times unrecognized even by ourselves.
Please pray for me as I
learn to discover my motives in my prayers.
Merry Christmas to all of
you! Thanks for following my blog this
year. You have blessed my heart on this
Journey. I was not alone. My thoughts and prayers will be with all of
you.
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