Prayer...Leaving you're Troubles in God's Hands.. 2-13-22 Pastor Gilman Jones

 

Why doesn’t God answer our prayers?

How do I leave my troubles and concerns in God’s hands?

Refer to Philippians 4: 6-7

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Lets pray……….

Lord,

Restore and refresh our faith daily as we approach your work as we live for you and walk the path of righteousness..

Please grant us peace of mind and calm our troubled hearts.

Often  My soul is like a turbulent sea. I can't seem to find my balance so I stumble and worry constantly. Give me the strength and clarity of mind to find my purpose and walk the path you've laid out for me.

Bless our gathering today and open our hearts and minds to your word…

We ask these things in Jesus’s name,

Amen

Why doesn’t God answer our prayers?

God tells us that we should pray to Him with thanksgiving and make our request known to Him…

But how we reply to this complex question will very much depend on who is asking, and we need to be ready to admit that we don't have all the answers, while at the same time, through faith, praying that God will draw close to the person we are praying for and meet their needs. A number of issues are raised by this question:

Who is the God we are praying to? How do we see him?

Today many people are taking time to explore spirituality and prayer. Our Jesus is very different to the Gods worshipped by other world religions. What we think about "who God is" will determine whether we pray, how we pray and what we pray for. Are we ultimately able to trust this God? How would you describe Jesus to someone who wants to know more about the God to whom you pray?

What is prayer?

Prayer is essentially a conversation between us and God. Prayer is listening, talking, watching and waiting in the company of our Father. To seek His priorities for our needs, and the needs of those around us and of our world, we come as God's child to our Father in heaven through Jesus (Ephesians 2.18) with the help of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.3).

Living selfishly is a barrier to seeing prayers answered.

Sometimes our prayers will not be answered  if there is wrongdoing in our hearts. Our holy God is not able to answer our prayers if we are disobedient to what He may have asked us to do (1 John 3.21-22), if we have wrong motives in our asking (James 4.2-3) or if we haven't stopped to find out what is His will in a given situation.

Our view of time is different from God's view

We have to learn to wait for God. Most of us find this hard. I believe God does answer prayer, but He does not always do so in the way that we want. He sees the bigger picture and He knows how it all fits together. I find the image of a tapestry helpful. When we look at the wrong side, it is hard to imagine that there is a picture in the making for we feel anxious and worried.  But our prayers like thread is waiting its turn to be woven in to make the picture complete.

God communicates with us in different ways.

We need to be aware of how God speaks to us. It could be through reading scripture, talking with other people, books, the media or day-to-day circumstances. We need to recognize His prompt, nudge and voice in our daily lives (John 10.27). Often He does speak, but we are too preoccupied  to hear or understand.

Answers to prayer vary

God may answer very quickly, in a way that makes the answer very obvious. On other occasions it is not such an obvious "yes", and we get a sense that we need to continue to wait for clear guidance (Matthew 7.7-8). Sometimes an answer comes, but in a completely different way to what we are expecting. Then there are the times when it appears that we get nothing but a brick wall. And as we carry on with life, it is often only by looking back on a situation that we discover it was actually a "no". I remember Billy Graham's wife Ruth recounting the story of how she prayed and prayed for the man she thought she wanted to marry, and is today so grateful to God that He did not answer her prayer. For at that time she had not yet met Billy and realizes what a disaster the other marriage might have been.

WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR

Sometimes the answer appears to be a straight "no". Fiona Castle, speaking after the death of her husband Roy, said, "I would never underestimate the value of prayer. I really believe that although perhaps prayer was not answered the way we would have liked to see it answered, I honestly believe that through the prayers of the faithful people who prayed for Roy, he was strong, he was faithful to the end. I believe that through prayer we were given opportunities to share our faith." I believe that she is right…

We need to remember that God always has our best interests at heart even if the answer is not what we want to hear; that we will never understand the complete will of God in every situation.

And sometimes there is seemingly no answer at all.

Sooo….Prayer: Does it Make any Difference?,

We may cite many times in the Bible when prayer was unanswered, such as King David praying for his son to live; Moses, Job, Jonah and Elijah all praying that they would die; Jesus' disciples praying for deliverance; Paul praying for the removal of his "thorn in the flesh". God did not answer their requests, and we learn a lot from watching how they coped and how God always brought good out of those often desperate situations. He will do the same for us..even if we don’t always understand the process.. God’s way is not our way…

Isaiah 55 ….."For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

When our desire is to live in step with His plan, we can have confidence that, even when bad things happen, God is still in control. When we feel out of control, God is in control.. When we feel darkness and injustice around us, when we are fearful we can put aside our anxieties and fears and give them up to God in prayer; God is in control….

The important thing is that we want to encourage anyone wrestling with this big question not to give up but to keep on talking both to God and  friends as to  find a way through. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and He will direct your paths" (Proverbs 3.5).

Father, teach me how you want me to apply “Your” word in my life. Show me where I need to specifically change so that I look more like Jesus.

We are grateful for this fellowship together and for your continued presence with us..

Bless our humble bible study this morning…

Amen.