The Power of Prayer

"Jesus told his disciples to "keep on asking,""Keep on seeking,""keep on knocking." Those who did would recieve, find, and have the door opened. He taught almost desperate perseverance in prayer. Much of our prayer is half-hearted not desperate.
We are to keep on banging on the gates of heaven until we have an assurance in our hearts of one of two things: either God says no, or God says yes. If He says no, then we must recieve His will and get on with our lives. If He says yes, we should begin praising Him for the answer which we know is on the way. Sometimes He will show us things that need to be fixed in our lives before the answer comes." excerpt fr. Pat Robertson's book, Bring it on.
Things that hinder our prayers are lack of faith, sin in our lives, and unforgiveness. And even for these the answer is also to pray!
Ask God for more faith, repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness, ask for help to forgive.
In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit came on the disciples when they were all gathered together in a big room and had been praying constantly for days (Acts 1:14)
God isn't a genie who comes out to do our bidding whenever we rub the lamp of prayer 3 times or more. We are to keep praying however long it may take to get an answer. The bible says that those who come to God must beleive that He is, and That He is a rewarder of those who dilligently seek Him.
In Psalm 34: 4 it says: "I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him."

Hey Mary,
It's cool that I've seen your posts cuz I believe in God too and I'd really like to talk about religion with someone. I've got a question: Do you think God will punish us for our sins? I'm just asking cuz I have OCD about offendind Him and being punished, but at the same time I think that if he did so, he would punish all the people who kill others or make wars. And if I read your posts, for example, I am quite sure that He does not want to punish us at all. I would really like to have a second opinion !
Thank you in advance, it was a bit difficult for me to post this, but... OK. :wink:
FlipFlop

Dear flip flop I will try to answer you as best as I can. First of all let me say that I also struggled w/the fear of sinning and losing my salvation for a long long time. It is easy to sin and I felt like God just would look at me and stop loving me because of it. But part of the reason why God sent us his son, Jesus was because God understood how hard if not impossible it is for us to stop sinning. He knew we could not do it on our own and so Jesus came to pay the penalty for us, he died so that we could live. When you believe in Jesus and give your life over to him, you are then helped to keep from sinning by the Holy Spirit, the bible says "the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, and also our comforter and helper." I havent gotten to the point where I don't ever sin but when I do, I feel conviction and ask God to forgive me, and every time he does. That doesn't mean that you can just sin allways because you have forgiveness, but it means God understands when you do and is there to help you. You try to do your best but if and when you mess up there is forgiveness and help. God doesn't ever stop loving you though, it is like a good parent who loves his child regardless of what that child does, he still loves him. So it is with God. He loves you just as you are.
When I struggled with this, I would pray and God would speak to my heart and tell me, "Mary, Mary..don't you know how much I love you?" and he said it with such tenderness and sadness because I could not see his love for me. Even in my sin and filth, he loved me so much. Of course God doesn't want us to sin but he is right there to help us if we do. He has made a way out for us through his son and with the Help of the Holy Spirit. The bible says a righteous man will fall many times in one day and many times he is forgiven. It also says God's mercy is new every day. I hope this answers your question and if not let me know and I will continue to try to answer it to your satisfaction. you can also pm me anytime and also anyone else who wants to ask a question and if I can help I will. God bless you! One last thing it is so important to pray to keep having communion with God and recieving all the help we need!

"There is a story about an eccentric minister. Walking outside one morning, he saw a man going to work and said to him, "What a lovely morning! How grateful we ought to be to God for all His mercies!" The man said he did not know much about God's mercies. "Why," said the minister, " I suppose you always pray to God for your wife and children, don't you?"
"No," he said, "I don't know that I do."
"What," said the minister, "do you never pray?"
"No."
"Then I will give you ten dollars if you will promise me you will never pray as long as you live."
"Oh," he said, "I will be very glad for ten dollars to get me some beer."
He took the money and promised never to pray for as long as he lived. He went to work, and when he had been digging for a little while, he thought to himself,"That's a strange thing I have done this morning--a very strange thing. I've taken money and promised never to pray as long as I live." He thought it over, and it made him feel wretched. He went home to his wife and told her about it.
"Well John," she said, "you may count on it that it was the devil. You've sold yourself to the devil for ten dollars." This so wieghed the poor wretch down that he did not know what to do with himself. All he could think about was that he had sold his soul to the devil for money and would soon be carried off to hell. He started to attend places of worship, beleiving that it was of no use, for he had sold himself to the Devil. He was really ill, bodily ill, because of the fear and trembling that had come upon him.
One night at church, the sick man recognized the preacher. He was the very man who had given him the ten dollars! The preacher probably recognized him, for the next text was, "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36) The preacher remarked that he knew a man who had sold his soul for ten dollars. The poor man rushed forward and said, "Take it back! Take it back!"
"You said you would never pray," said the minister, "if I gave you ten dollars. Do you want to pray?"
"Oh yes, I would give the world to be allowed to pray."
That man was a fool to sell his soul for ten dollars. But some of you are bigger fools, for no one gave you ten dollars, and yet you do not pray. I dare say you never will, but you will go down to hell having never sought God." I long for you to say, "Oh let not such a curse rest on me, for I may die this year, and I may die this day. O God hear me now!" Ah dear reader if such a desire is in your heart, the Lord will hear you and bless you with his salvation."
This was an excerpt from the book, "Power in the blood." By Charles Spurgeon. I am not trying to offend or insult anyone so please do not take offense, this was just copied from a book I read and was put because
it shows in my opinion how important it is to pray and not take the gift of prayer for granted.

i have a question >>>why does god want us to pray to him all the time & ask for his forgivness?? shouldnt he just accept us the way we are? i dont get it! :?

Hello gg, I don't think its that God wants us to pray all the time for forgiveness, its more like we NEED to pray for forgiveness because we are allways sinning..the bible says, "There is none just or righteous." That we have all sinned and turned to our own ways, all of us. It also says that we have all broken God's commandments, His laws and we are all guilty of this. That is why Jesus had to come and pay the penalty for the laws we all broke, for our sins, God knew we weren't capable of doing it on our
own. Or being "good enough" on our own.
I think its like if you had a child, and were a good mom, you would love that child no matter what, but if that child did terrible things or constantly disobeyed you and turned away from you, you still love him but you are hurt by his actions. So is God w/us, He Loves us right now, just as we are, w/all our problems and imperfections, He loves us. But that doesn't mean He is happy w/our choices and decisions we make. He knows there is something better for us if we would listen to what He has to say and let ourselves be guided by Him and is probably frustrated and saddened that we don't. Like any good parent. His love is unconditional.

It's interesting to note that many theologians are now saying that god 'trancends' space and time and is out of the reach of any physical observation. Which I guess is their way of 'moving the goal posts' once more, as science steadily plugs the gaps in its knowledge of the natural world.

If this is the case then what is the point of prayer? For anybody's prayers to be answered or sins to be forgiven, it would surely require God to interact in some way with the physical universe ('miracles' and the like). In which case it should be possible (at some point in time) for science to detect this interaction. This is probably what fuels the theological 'change of tack' when it comes to gods position in the universe.

Theologians are probably waking up and finally realising that science will - in all probability - never detect the presence of a god, simply because a god -in all probability- does not exist. So in order for the existence of god to fit the theological 'evidence', theologians are pushing God right out of the way and beyond the reach of science and the physical universe.

refined_rascal said:

It's interesting to note that many theologians are now saying that god 'trancends' space and time and is out of the reach of any physical observation. Which I guess is their way of 'moving the goal posts' once more, as science steadily plugs the gaps in its knowledge of the natural world.

If this is the case then what is the point of prayer? For anybody's prayers to be answered or sins to be forgiven, it would surely require God to interact in some way with the physical universe ('miracles' and the like). In which case it should be possible (at some point in time) for science to detect this interaction. This is probably what fuels the theological 'change of tack' when it comes to gods position in the universe.

Theologians are probably waking up and finally realising that science will - in all probability - never detect the presence of a god, simply because a god -in all probability- does not exist. So in order for the existence of god to fit the theological 'evidence', theologians are pushing God right out of the way and beyond the reach of science and the physical universe.

Click to expand...

Hmm. Interesting point!