BORN AGAIN (are we)

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Permalink Reply by Sathish Kumar ( Dan) on December 4, 2011 at 2:20am

cool topic chris but the fact is --- > PRAYER IS TAKING TO GOD JUST LIKE U TALK TO UR DAD OR MOM :)

we all have needs and god knws them very well ; but we need to ask him in order to maintain a close relationship with him :)

Faith with our work is death --- James 2:17

so if u ask for GOD for an Car in prayer don't just sit idle learn to drive first he will make a way ; GOD will equip u first and give all the blessing :)

1 John 5:14-15 says

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

but ultimately its GOD'S WILL that counts even if u pray for some thing which is against his will faith u wont get it :)

James 4:3-10  says

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

So if ur prayer is to do GODS WILL then all ur prayers are Answered and they are YES AND AMEN :)

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on December 4, 2011 at 4:02pm

What I've started to believe about prayer is that it can't change anything and it doesn't move God. God receives our prayers and hears them and what I believe is this: when we feel the desire to pray, God is giving us that desire and when we pray, our prayer is received by God and it is the way we communicate with Him about what is on our heart but we know that God has a plan and nothing we pray is going to change His mind or get Him to do what we want. He will always do His own will. As we become closer and closer to Him and know Him more and more, what is on our hearts to pray will be in more and more alignment with His will and His plan and we will see answers to our prayers--we will see happening what we have asked and Him granting our supplications and acting on our behalf.

So we really can't say that prayer makes no difference at all just because God's plan will never be altered and everything is already determined and our freewill and good works don't have any effect. Nor can we say that our prayers will make God change His mind and change His will.

So what good is prayer?

My personal belief is that God is very patient and longsuffering and He waits for us to pray before He acts according to His will. For instance, it was God's will to save me. The Father called me and revealed Jesus to me and enabled me to see my sin and see who Jesus is and He led me to the place of repentance where I was truly sorry for all my horrible sins and realized my separation from God because of sin and that Jesus is the only solution, the only way I can go to heaven. Yet, I was not born again until I prayed and received Jesus and asked forgiveness and confessed my sins. God chose to save me and opened my heart to believe in Jesus and yet waited for my prayers to receive Christ before I was born again.

A good example (but a very poor one)  is like setting all the food on the table for supper and it is all there and everyone can help themselves but maybe the table is too far for you to reach across and so you have to ask your dad if he will pass you the potatoes, and he answers your request but if you had not asked for the potatoes, your dad would not have handed them to you at all until you asked him.

It's a little different with God because He already knows what we are going to ask before we do ask and sometimes what we ask is not God's will. In the case of the potatoes, they were on the table and it was the dad's will for anyone at the table to have them.

I don't know. I could be wrong. It's just my present understanding of prayer now. It's the way we talk to God, the way we pour our hearts out to Him. Our relationship with Him through prayer goes both ways. We talk a little while and then listen. He speaks to us, too, through His Word, through His creation, and through His Spirit.

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on December 4, 2011 at 7:03pm

Another way I have started looking at it is this: The Lord's Prayer shows us some of the things that are "already on the table" and the Lord showed us how to ask the Father for these things. The reason those things are on the table is because of Jesus, through Jesus, and in His name. It does serve as a model for praying. I pray it when I'm having trouble finding my own words.

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever.

Amen.

These things are the things we know that God will do for us. So ask, believe, and receive them.

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