all prayers is incorrect. He does not and will not answer prayers
involving the physical world. Does that upset you? Why?
John wrote that in response to a question from Pilate Jesus said: "My
kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my
servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over
to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." If Jesus did not
fight for the safety of his followers why will he fight for your
health and safety? Keep in mind because of Jesus' refusal to fight his
followers died. In some cases whole families died. In some cases
members of families of believers were tortured before they died. Jesus
did not save them from the physical.
People claiming "prayer works" cannot provide one reason for such a
claim. Although the Bible tells them to be ready in season and out of
season to give a reason for the hope within them those claimants do
not. They cannot.
They have no faith because they believe "God only helps those who help
themselves." They believe unless they can see how, they do not
believe. That is not faith as the Bible describes faith: "Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Faith is not seeing it is relying on God.
When parents refuse medical help for their children because they are
relying on God to heal their children people claiming to be "Followers
of Christ" make negative comments concerning their naivety for
thinking such things.
In my lifetime of "going to church" I have never observed nor have I
experienced any successful prayers. Now, you might say that sin has
come between me and God or that I have done something to hinder my
prayers but I am not just talking about me but everyone. Not just my
prayers. James wrote "the prayer of a righteous man avails much."
Apparently not only am I not righteous I have never met a righteous
man. My prayers as well as the prayers of others avail nothing.
Prayer has become something like a mantra. We believe just saying
something will make everything better. My experience and my
observation say the only way to get off the "prayer list" is too die.
We hear prayers that say, "We pray for." What does that mean? "Pray
for" is neither a request nor a supplication it is a statement and a
false statement at that. The individual is claiming we are praying
when we are just saying we are praying.
What sort of world would it be if God directly intervened, suspending
His natural laws, each time we encounter a life-threatening situation?
This would render the law system of our planet completely undependable
and make life a sphere of hopeless confusion. Such a haphazard system,
in fact, would argue more for atheism that it would for theism.
God knows before we ask what sort of a loving God does nothing unless
we ask? What sort of a loving God sees one of his "followers" in a
situation he could resolve but does nothing unless a third person asks
him to intervene? I can hear the argument now. God wants us to ask so
we can realize how dependent we are upon him. OK, how do you explain
the situation where you have seemingly miraculously survived while
others died? The survivors say "it was a miracle" or "it wasn't my
time to go" or "God was with me"? To explain the past we say God
jumped in at the right time. But we lack the same confidence on future
situations such as when a loved on has a serious or what looks like an
illness leading to death. For future situations we believe God only
helps those who help themselves. In reality we do not need God for
those times.
Why do we thank God when a person is immersed? He didn't do anything
special. That person believed what God had already provided. God wants
everyone to be saved. Do you believe he will let that person go to
Hell because a third person did not intervene? He should thank us for
doing something he cannot do.
God is not going to "touch the heart" of some individual so that
individual believes. If he were to do that he would be circumventing
his "foolishness of preaching" and the "power of the Spirit to
convict" the sinner. If we want that individual's heart "touched" we
have to do something that will touch it or we have to find someone to
do something to touch it.
When we understand prayer for the physical we will understand what it
means to be the "body of Christ."
When we ask God to do something, we are his hands and feet in the
physical realm. Because we are followers of God we will do what we
can. When you ask God to do something, stop, think, what specifically
are you asking God to do? Then, look in the Bible to see if you can
find support for such a request. Muslims pray, Christians pray neither
gets results, why? Without Bible support Christians are no better off
than Muslims.
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