QUESTIONS – People Ask

I seem to have problems believing God can answer my prayers. So often, when I do pray, my prayers are not answered. Can you help?

     Here is a verse from the one and only chapter of Jude that I think will encourage you: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” (Jude 24)

     Concentrate on those first few words: “Now to Him who is able.” Whatever your need, your request, your circumstances, our God is able to help, guide, enable, and sustain you.

     The Greek word used for able is translated as “the one who has power.” God has unlimited power to involve Himself in your life. Therefore, when we go to Him in prayer, we should never doubt whether He is able to answer our request.

     Too often believers fail to comprehend the magnificent, unequaled power of our mighty God. One reason, as you point out, is that all of our prayers seem not to be answered. “If God has all power,” we say, “then why doesn’t He grant our petitions?”

     When we talk about God’s unlimited power, we must remember that does not mean God can do all things. For instance, we know that God cannot lie. He cannot change. That is because God never works contrary to His nature and character.

     Just as important, His power is always coupled with His purposes. God could have saved His Son, Jesus from Calvary’s cruel death. He could have rescued His and shattered the opposition. Why didn’t He?

     Because His plan to save mankind from their sin rested on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. If He had intervened, man would live in utter futility – without hope of abundant or eternal life.

     Our God is able to help us face life in assured victory. He is at work to fulfill His eternal plans through His awesome power.

     When we pray, concentrate on God’s power to supply our needs. Dwell on His character and faithfulness, realizing that He is for you, not against you. He is also within you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

     Because He is able, we are also able to endure any situation through His keeping power.

     God will always link His power with His purposes for your life. He wants the best for you, and that sometimes means denying your petitions.

     That does not limit His omnipotence. It puts it to work on your behalf with your highest welfare in mind. That should give you great confidence to approach the Heavenly Father in absolute trust.

FIRST LIGHT - Persevering Prayer

The other day I was looking through some old sermon notes of mine and came across a reference I had made about Charles Finney, who was one of the foremost evangelists of the nineteenth century. The foundation of his ministry was persevering prayer. In his Principles of Prayer Finney instructs the believer?

     “There are three ways in which God’s will is revealed to men for their guidance in prayer.”

1.  “By express promises or predictions in the Bible, that He will give or do certain things.”

2.  “Sometimes God reveals His will by Providence. When He makes it clear that such and such events are about to take place, it is as much a revelation as if He had written it in His Word.”

3.  “By His Spirit. When God’s people are at a loss (about) what to pray for, (but while also being) agreeable to His will, His Spirit often instructs them. When there is no particular revelation and Providence leaves it dark and we know not what to pray for as we ought, we are expressly told that the ‘Spirit also helps our infirmities’ and ‘the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’”

     The Word of God, the Providence of God, and the Spirit of God – all are supernatural aids to discerning the will of God in prayer.

Liberty And The Cross

Galatians 6:14 (Scripture in Blue comments in Red) – But God forbid that I should glory (boast), save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (what the opponents of Paul and I believe us Christians today sought to escape at the price of insincerity is the Apostle’s and our only basis of exultation), by Whom the world is Crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Listen: The only way we can overcome the world, and I mean the only way, is by placing our Faith exclusively in the finished work of Jesus at the Cross and keeping it there.)

    

     I’ll never forget the first time I saw in person the Statue of Liberty. As a young soldier at the time, it really made me proud to be an American. There is something about “Miss Liberty” that evokes stronger feelings of the meaning of freedom, than probably any other monument in the United States.

     For the Christian, there is another symbol which stands as a visual reminder of the central truth of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is His Cross!

     In every believer’s heart, there is a special response at the mention of the cross, and the work that was done there.

     Christ was holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, and knew no sin yet was “made sin” for us. He humbled Himself and became obedient even unto death on a cross.

     Miss Liberty is a symbol of freedom in the United States, which is rapidly eroding away, which makes this freedom not eternal. But praise God, the symbol of the Cross and the finished work of Jesus there, stands for eternal freedom and life available to every person who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God who died there on the cross for them.

     Do you know Him; you can through faith and by just asking Him to forgive you of your sins and come into your heart.

     Remember freedom is quickly eroding away therefore, heed to what the bible says In 2 Corinthians 6:2 – “…behold now is the Day of Salvation”.