Prayer is a Christians vital breath. Prayer is talking to God. Prayer is worship. The simple act of communicating with our Father in heaven is the topic of our study today. We consider what prayer is and what prayer is not.
For this blog post I want to spend a little more time on the topic of God answering – or not answering – prayer. For starters we know that God answers every prayer offered in Jesus’ name that is brought before the throne room of heaven. Jesus says anything that we ask in his name, the Father will give to us! That’s an amazing promise. It takes the pressure off of us and moves prayer into the category of grace. Think of it, would you go to your earthly father after crashing the car, losing the dog, and getting kicked out of school? Maybe, but you wouldn’t ask for $20 of movie money after that wake of disaster. The way the Father handles our prayer isn’t based on our performance, it’s based on Jesus’ performance. That’s a great place to start and gives us confidence as we consider our prayer life.
What that leaves unsaid is what happens to the prayers that are said apart from Jesus’ name? Take for example the prayer wheel of the Buddhist? As the passerby spins the wheel he believes that the prayer is being uttered. As harsh as it may not sound, as we read Scripture the only conclusion we can come to is that God does not hear that prayer. That gets into the topic of God’s omniscience. Does God know all things? Of course… That doesn’t mean that God listens and answers the prayer of an unbeliever. We have God’s word for it in the prophet Isaiah.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s lesson – Offering from our study, Worship Windows.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.
Please click HERE for the other lessons from our series Worship Windows.