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These are all of the articles tagged with the keyword "prayer".
Does prayer work?
Posted: April 30, 2008
Category: Pastor Steve's Blog
Comments: 1 Comment
TAGS: prayer
Do you pray? Many more people claim to pray than claim to be a part of a church family in the United States. Yet, prayer causes people to ask the hard questions about themselves and about God? Does God answer prayer? Why does He answer the way He does? Why someone else and not me? are just some of the questions that come to mind as people engage in prayer.
John 14:13 says, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” This verse immediately causes us to question prayer and God….because all of us have prayed and not received what we desired. Here Jesus says He will do whatever we ask. So, at first glance, we have a promise that we may have felt that Jesus didn’t keep. Others of us may say that we have experienced this as absolutely true and perhaps we’ve used prayer in Jesus as our personal vending machine for our wants and desires.
Here’s the thing about this verse. If I’m listening to the whole verse…I can’t miss what Jesus says when He says, “In My Name!” That very verse begins to challenge our understanding of prayer. It begins to shift our thinking from ourself to Jesus. In His Name brings about the presence of God, the power of God, and kingdom of God into our midst. To do anything in Jesus Name means to go where He is…not bring Him where I am. This drives us back to where Jesus is present…in His Word. The more we are in the Word, the more we are in Jesus. It brings us into the presence of Jesus and into His kingdom. Very important to note that this does not become a secret way to get what we want…but rather, it brings us into a different way of thinking and it changes us. To be in Jesus Name now brings us into “His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Therefore, to be in His name changes our way of thinking and praying. As we are aligned with Jesus will, we begin to pray in a different way and of course He does what we ask, because we ask in light of what He is doing in His reign and rule. Therefore, it drives us to be in the Word more…and to pray more….and to seek His will more. In that, the Father is glorified….prayer is no longer our means to change God…but another way that we see God moving us by His Word. More could be said…but a place to start as we think about prayer.
