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POC777
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United States
January 13 2004
8728 Posts
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This question has been on my mind for days, no, weeks now. In no way shape or form am I doubting or even denying my faith in Christ. The day I do such a thing will be the day either Jesus skeletal remains are found in Jerusalem OR if I'm convinced by an atheist author(like John Loftus, like that ever will happen) this whole "Christian" thing has been a hoax since the Day of Pentecost and has been a deceitful cover-up for over 2,000 years now.
But if it has(and I strongly believe it has not) why all the threats, shutting Christians mouths, persecutions, imprisonments, floggings, stonings, beatings, stake fires, tortures, mockings, lion-tearing, trials(should I continue?)what, each Christian, whether past or present, died by living for a lie?
That will be absurd and unthinkable who in their right mind would do that?
I'll tell I won't and become an atheist QUICKLY and be freed from a God people created in their image and likeness.
In this post, I will not use anything from John Loftus book Why I Became an Atheist or any other atheist book, that will be for future purposes only.
Atheists loved to attack Christianity with the topic of prayer. Eventually, it backfires on them each time because they don't understand because they don't have the Spirit, therefore, anything that comes from God is foolishness to them.
In Isaiah we read that God could do whatever He wants either in the heavens and on earth.
He could very well take our life away, NOW, if He chooses to or extend our life by adding 15 years like King Hezekiah in the Book of Kings.
He could very well block out the sun each time we sin and when we acknowledge our sin before Him, He allows the sun to shine once again.
But in Luke we read he causes the rain and sun to shine on both the righteous and wicked.
That is his mercy towards us in Lamentations 3:20 we read they are new every morning. Praise God!
We could go through the entire Bible and learn why in people's lives why God didn't answer their prayers but that will take time and space. For example, the overly used Prayer of Jabez!
For now let us begin with the question: Does God Answer Prayer?
Yes, He does but not in the way we think or imagine because He sees tomorrow and only we see today. From His perspective He looks at the past. present and future.
People ask God for "things" like money, love, luck, career and so forth. I don't know if God will answer a prayer from a gambler who plays the state lottery. Why?
Because the gambler is greedy for gain and this will make their prayer become void. The problem is their sin which is greed. In three of the Gospels. Matthew, Luke and Mark, Jesus gives us a list of vices teaching us from the heart proceeds "greed".
Greed will defile or make anyone unclean before God. Anything unclean from the heart is sin!
In Luke, he teaches a parable of a man that was selfish and greedy, he had riches and wanted to built more barns in store them. Consequently, he died poor and left his riches on earth.
Greed turns people into monsters because all they think about is money and hunger for the green day and night.
God will not answer those types of prayers because it violates His principles of His Word and offends Him.
However, a poor person who prays and plays the lottery whose faith is in Christ, currently no habitual sin and keeps God's Word, will turn out to be different.
What I don't believe is that God will magically give them the winning numbers from the pages of the Bible, signs in the sky or anything else--everyone gets a chance to win. So, its by chance!
In the movie, Bruce Almighty, Bruce was dinning with his wife. Suddenly, he listens to a multitude of voices of people praying. He goes crazy and goes home. On his bed, will still listen those voices and were driving him bonkers, but when he turned on his computer saw "Heavenly Email".
He saw millions of prayers from people and thousands mentioned the same thing "The State Lottery". He didn't know what to do, so he clicked on an automatic button to answer each prayer.
Later, in the movie there was chaos and destruction and you guess it, people won the lottery.
The problem with this movie is that people don't understand how God answers prayer nor do we. But if God was like that then all of us will be in big trouble. If He really gave us what we desired and was sinful, it will separated us from our relationships or even destroy us.
In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches his disciples when they pray the Father will give us something different not want they desired. For example, we pray to pay a bill that been bothering us for some quite time and God might open the doors for an opportunity. Also, He will test our faith just like tested Israel for forty years in the desert as He was carrying them in His arms, clothing them and feeding them Manna.
People who just lost their job, home about to be foreclosure, repo their car and so on, God will bring a miracle in their life. I don't know if it involves the lottery, an inheritance, an unexpected call from another job, money from a stranger--God is a God of miracles.
He can do whatever He wants whenever He wants! If He resurrected Christ from the dead, then it's possible today miracles are real. But I'm not talking about miracles but about prayer, yet, I believe that one prayer and a miracle go hand-to-hand.
The whole thing about prayer is this:
Is all about God our Father not about us making Him into our genie asking daily Him for things we mightn't even need. Of course, He will provide for our needs because He is our Provider and Substainer and cares for us. God desires that we draw close to Him, daily, in Bible reading and prayer. Just as child drawing close to his father when he has a problem, needs encouragement, wisdom and advice; sad, gets hurt or sick. God is our Father and we are His sons and daughters, He wants us to be like King David "a man after His own heart".
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If God is higher than angels and angels higher than Man is then God is higher than both angels and Man - Son of the Most High
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Topic: Does God Answer Prayer?
