This weeks verse is Psalm 102:
Here are my thoughts:
The psalmist begins with, “Hear my prayer, O Lord,” Have you ever felt like God does not hear your prayers? Have you ever prayed for days, weeks, months and maybe even years and still never felt like you hear back from God? I think to often we believe that God is too busy for our minute problems or that He has no concern at all for what’s on our hearts. I personally think that there are at least two areas that tend to help us come to the conclusion that God is not listening. One area is that we tend to use God only as a problem solver. I find it interesting that we, like the psalmist, tend to cry out to God in our times of distress and very rarely continually have a conversation with God. Not to steal the often used cliché’ but God becomes our, “Genie in a bottle,” (Please refrain from singing any songs that pertain to being a genie in a bottle, that would not be beneficial to your spiritual walk!) God is like our cosmic daddy who is suppose to bail us out of jail every time we end up locked up in some situation. This leads to a horrible relationship ship. No relationship can be one sided. Think about it, as you and I use God for our own needs, we will soon begin to either neglect God and become indifferent to him, almost like those girls on the Sweet Sixteen show on MTV, or we become abusive to God. He becomes that junior higher we pick on to do our great will and when God says no or remains silent we become angry at the thought that He would not listen to us. If we don’t become indifferent then we tend to become ashamed. This may be do to lack of continually praying or the fact that we only show ourselves to God, even though He sees and knows everything, when we are in a weak situation. This leads to the only communication being done in a state of brokenness. We only know of God from the perspective of being down. How depressing of a relationship is that? Who wants a friend that only complains and calls you when they are down?
God wants to hear everything. God desires to have an ongoing conversation with you. Think about it, why else would He take the time to make us in His own image? Why else would He go to an, “Old rugged cross?”
What are your thoughts?
Questions for discussion:
· What is the purpose of prayer?
· Is there a time that God does not hear or listen to our prayers?
· Does God listen to the prayers of those people who are not saved?
Hey It's Kasey!! I’ll be the first to comment! I like the title of our blog! Good job Joshua. Very creative! I noticed as I was reading the scripture that I was very into the beginning! I was thinking, “Hey, I feel like this guy sometimes.” Then as I a little past verse 12, I was easily distracted. I began to think about classes and what I could be doing. It’s funny how when the subject has to do with you, we pay more attention but as it moves on, you start to stray away or lose interest. (Or at least that’s what I did.) I continuously had to pull myself back to what I was reading.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that God hears people who aren’t Christian’s prayers because he hears everything, including all of his creations cries. He does hear us every time we pray….I sometimes forget this.
Like you said, I think the purpose of prayer is communication with God. So just like communication with anyone else, this sometimes involves us not talking at all. It means we need to just be quiet and LISTEN.
ReplyDeleteI think God hears all of our prayers, and I think He hears everyone's prayers. But ultimately, God will do His will, and not ours. So going back to the first question, "What is the purpose of prayer?" The real purpose of prayer is communicating with God in such a manner that we get to know Him. And when we come to a place where we must ask for something from Him, we will ask it according to His will and His plan, not what we want.
Great definition Luke. I thank you and Kasey for you insight. I would like to maybe take it a step further and ask another question or two, I am good at the question game.
ReplyDeleteIf God hears everyone's prayers, then what, if anything separates how He responds to a believer verses a non believer? Is there any kind of system that God uses to filter the believers from the non?
I liked the thought about praying enough to get to know Him (God) but how does that happen? How do we communicate enough to get to know a God who works in, "mysterious ways."
'I liked the thought about praying enough to get to know Him (God) but how does that happen? How do we communicate enough to get to know a God who works in, "mysterious ways."'
ReplyDeleteI'm not quite sure how this happens, yet. I think that we can never really KNOW how God works. Maybe it's more about being close enough to God that we might not understand His answer to our prayer, but accept it because we love Him.
I don't say any of these things because I know. These are things I'm learning for myself right now.
Honestly, I am having a hard time with the fact that God hears both believers and non believers prayers. First, I thought, what seperates a believer from a non...and that is sin. A non believer is seperated from God, because of sin. Believers are with God, because of Christ. So, to say that God hears the prayers of non believers is hard for me. Im not sure I agree. We must go through Christ, who erased our sins, to get to God...non believers have not done that...
ReplyDelete@Sheri,
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just a matter of language. I agree that God responds differently to people who are in His will than those who are not.
But I don't think that He doesn't hear the prayers of everyone. I think God hears everyone.
I believe that God hears both believer and nonbeliever prayers. However I think the term nonbelievers can be split into different categories.
ReplyDeleteThere are the people who might not believe in a higher being and those who believe in one, but they don't have a definition for him. I believe that they might not be intentionally praying. Like a formal prayer that we would do starting with Dear God and ending with Amen. I think their prayers would be in the forms of hopes. However the a few of the people that I have encountered who are like this don't really seem to have a path or just think that an unanswered/answered prayer is just something the luck/karma or their own power caused or created. I don't see how they would think that. I was just in Physics class and we where studying gravity and it just seems like no Big Bang or just random occurrence created everything.
Another group would be the people who recognize another power, like Buddha, they may be praying to another God, but I believe God hears them and can use their prayers to another God to call them closer to him.
However I know people don't split into perfect categories and I as a Christian realized how little I pray now. I guess being around non believers and getting caught up in my own little world distracts me. It always seems like I sit am to busy thinking about what I am about to do next and what is going on around me that I take just plain forget.
I still just have a problem with that...I know that God is omniscient, so i know he "hears" there prayers...but i dont think he acknowledges them or listen to them. So to answer the original question, "Does God listen to the prayers of those people who are not saved?" I think the answer is no. We cannot be in the presence of God without going through Jesus, because He cleansed our sins, and non believers have not accepted that cleansing.
ReplyDeleteSo..
ReplyDeleteLuke, I agree with you, we seem to be going round and round about what it means for God to, "hear the prayers," verses God, "answering prayers. I guess maybe I should ask the question in a more directed way. Before I do, let me get my brain running on all cognitive cylinders.....
Alex, are you proposing that praying to, "a god," is heard and maybe even responding by the one True God? If so, I think that opens a large can of Open Theism and Universalism. However, if you are merely stating that the person does not realize that they are really seeking after the One True God, then maybe we are barking towards the right tree.
Sheri, I tend to lean on your side of the fence. Let me say why. The Bible describes us as being dead in our sins and wanting nothing of God. Now, that does not mean God cannot hear but I am unsure if God would fulfill the wishing of an unregenerate individual. I will have to do some scriptural research and get back on that one.
So, more directed question.....
Does God answer and fulfill the prayers of lost people?
Is praying to another god really the same as praying to God? (Kind of like dialing the wrong cosmic phone number?)
I think the answer to both of those questions is no. God does not answer and fulfill the prayers of lost people. I believe God does not even answer our prayers all the time. If we are full of sin, we can not be in the presence of God, we must first get forgiveness and repent from our sin. I believe it is the same for both lost people and believers, we just have Jesus to cleanse our sins and lost people do not.
ReplyDeleteI also do not think it is the same thing to pray to Buddha and to God. If so, then why be a "Christian"? You could be whatever you want...which would mean the whole Bible is a lie. We are to have no other God. if buddha is your god, that means God is not.
1) Does God answer and fulfill the prayers of lost people?
ReplyDeleteThis is a tough question, cause I think a person that is absolutely lost will not pray to God in the first place. However, with someone who is "lost", but is actively pursuing something from.
Here’s an example that comes to my mind. Let’s take a man who has known about Christ his whole life and has chosen to reject Him. Until…something tragic comes. And remember, he has known about the Truth his whole life, but has rejected it. And God uses this tragedy to bring the man to Himself. This man cries out to God in prayer because it’s the only thing left he has to turn to. At this moment, he is lost. But it’s possible God could answer the man’s prayers because He is initiating a relationship with this man.
So I think God answers and fulfills the prayers of lost people. I’m not saying everyone, just some.
2) Is praying to another god really the same as praying to God? (Kind of like dialing the wrong cosmic phone number?)
I will definitely disagree with this. Praying to any god is not the equivalent to praying to the one true God. One example that comes to mind is when Elijah was on Mt. Carmel. The false prophets were praying to Baal, and God did not hear those prayers. But He heard Elijah’s prayers (and consumed the whole sacrifice and licked up the water the was drenched over it).
@ Luke,
ReplyDeleteI think we agree, we are just using different terminology. I think if we or non believers call out to God he hears and answers. That is the difference though, if a lost person is just praying to win the lottery(I know that is a lame example, but whatev), then God ignores that. However, if a lost person is crying out TO God, that is another story.
Yeah, we're saying the same thing.
ReplyDeleteYour intentions must be pure when praying. :)
Great thoughts,
ReplyDeleteSo where does the Holy Spirit work in all of this whole process of prayer? Are we supposed to get better and more efficient in our prayers? And How does on make sure they are praying with a pure heart?
I would encourage you to look at Hebrews 10:19-21; I John 2:1
These are some examples of who Christ is and His role in our lives. Does knowing these things change your view on how or why we should pray?