I was walking down the street the other day and couldn't help thinking about prayer. What an amazing thing. The ability to communicate personally with the creator of the universe. Honestly it seems too good to be true, and a lot of people fall into that trap. If you believe in the Bible, then you believe that God loves us so much that He sent His only son to die on the cross for US. Obviously if you don't believe, then this is impossible.
My point today is less about the validity of this, and more about the content of our prayers. This will be a rather short post (hopefully) haha. I had a small revelation about what people pray about. Think about it, do you pray for health? Do you pray for financial gain? For things of this world? I definitely do. While God already knows what we are going to ask for before we even ask (Matthew 6:8), we are still encouraged to ask anything our hearts desire with the promise that God will fulfill this.
Now a big "gotcha" point that a lot of non-believers try to point to is how God never actually "answers" prayer. You get the scenario of the aunt or grandma that had cancer, and even though the family prayed and prayed, well, she just didn't get any better. BAM GOTCHA, proof that God doesn't exist? Right? RIGHT?! I don't agree.
First of all let me start with my own experience. There are many prayers that I send up everyday without even giving them a second thought. "Lord please have today go smoothly, I have a rough schedule" "Please help my ears be unplugged" etc etc etc. So many times these things are given to me and I don't even accredit them to God. I can easily justify anything away with logic. "Oh the kids were in a good mood today, so it felt easy" "I went up a mountain today so the altitude helped pop my ears".
It's not that I'm even thinking to discredit God, I just don't even connect 2 and 2 that I had prayed about it, and my prayers were answered. Sure sure, I know what you're thinking, it's a coincidence. You're projecting onto God and stuffs. Nah bro, I see Him in my life. Of course I don't physically see Him (if I did then I would have to die, see Israel when Moses went up the mount of Sinai), but I look for Him in my life, and I see true evidence.
Beyond this it is my true belief that God answers prayers when the timing is best for us. Think about it, even in a logical argument, is someone that's asking for $1,000,000 probably ready to actually receive $1,000,000? Even if they're homeless and without food, someone with that type of prayer in mind doesn't have the right attitude to come before God. Their priorities are wrong, and even if God granted their request, they wouldn't appreciate it.
Praying for health is not so much different in my opinion, it's all part of prosperity Gospel. I've had conversations with friends about this topic, and while it's a tough pill to swallow sometimes (no pun intended), if you believe, God has full knowledge and power, and allows certain situations to happen using that which we do not possess.
I think a lot of times people get WAYYYY too caught up in this life, and how important it is to them. Am I saying I don't value my life here? No, of course not. But you have to understand that God sees past this life, into eternity. Is someone passing from this earth sad? Yes, to those of us who lose that connection, however, if that person has earned salvation then there is no real reason to be sad. Did God allow that situation where your aunt passed from cancer to allow you to grow closer to Him? Did you?
Or maybe the opposite happened, you became near sighted and angry at God. Your heart became hard, and therefore showed your true nature towards God. There are many examples of this in the Bible, not un-notable would be the pharaoh of Egypt hardening his heart towards letting the Israelites go. Did God actively go into his heart and make it so he said no? No, but he allowed the situation to arise where pharaoh would have the chance to fall into his own denial.
Look closer at your prayer life, and what you pray for. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21) I know I have.
Anyways, thanks for reading everyone! I'll definitely post again soon, take care!
No comments:
Post a Comment