Ask, Receive and Give ThanksSample

 Day 2 -  Limits that prevent us from asking well 

REFERENCE VERSES:

1 John 4:16

16   And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them

Hebrews 11:16

16  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

John 8:29

29  The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 

John 9:31

31  We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.  

Matthew 6:5-8

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

Ephesians 6:11

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 

Galatians 2:4

4  This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.

REFLECTIONS:

Read 1 John 4:16, Hebrews 11:6, John 8:29 and 9:31, Matthew 6:5-8, Ephesians 6:11 and Galatians 2:4 and take a moment to answer the following questions:

➤ Try to think: In your own life, what is blocking or limiting your prayers from being answered? 

➤ With the help of the above texts, write down what the five reasons are that limit us when we pray. 

CONTENT:

As we can ask God for EVERYTHING, what limits us from receiving? One of my friends likes to say, the problem is never up there, but down here. In other words, God has already given EVERYTHING, and we have fully received EVERYTHING in Christ (Colossians 2:10). So what is blocking us on our side?

Firstly, it is essential to have a good image of God. If we don't, this will prevent us from believing and living the “EVERYTHING” of answered prayer. Our understanding of who God is is often limited by the image that has been passed on to us of a strict God, indifferent, inflexible, absent and difficult. This image is absolutely false; on the contrary, our God is a God of love who is good. Of course, we can sometimes have the impression that He is strict when He corrects us or when we are paying the consequences of our errors, but we need to know that God always corrects us in love. We often project the image of our earthly father onto God, which biases our way of looking at Him, as well as our way of seeing ourselves. By imagining God as strict, we maintain an insecurity which makes us feel indignant towards Him. His nature and His character are only goodness and He has already given us so much by giving us Jesus. That is why we can can clearly establish that the limit to receiving is never on His side. When we understand His love and His desire to give, we begin to expect to receive differently and to ask with faith, knowing that we are going to receive.

There are also our experiences that limit us, for example all the prayers that have yet to be answered. If we are not careful, every time we pray without seeing any results, we can let ourselves become deceived, doubtful, and even see unbelief grow in our hearts. We must never place the blame on God and never accept these thoughts that want us to believe that God doesn’t want to answer our prayers, that He doesn’t have the time, that we don’t deserve it, etc. They are all lies. When our prayer has yet to be answered, we need to adopt the attitude of asking God why. If we don’t get a reply, we can simply leave this question with God, telling Him that we refuse to let this break our intimate and faith-based relationship with Him.

Remember that God doesn’t reply more to a formulaic request than to a prayer made in faith. A prayer made in faith opens up the heavens to answer prayers, because faith is nothing other than deciding to seize the will of God and to be in agreement with it. In Hebrews 11:6 it says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. And Jesus declares in John 8:29 that the Father never leaves Him alone because He always does what pleases Him. In John 9:31 it says, “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.” The Bible therefore is extremely clear about the point that God wants to answer our prayers. We mustn’t base our theories and our way of praying on our experiences; instead, our experiences must align with God’s Word. When we do this, we will discover that every time that we have prayed with faith and conviction in accordance with the will of a God, something good has happened.

Another thing that limits us is our flesh. Sometimes our prayers are superficial, our motivations aren’t right and our aims go against the will of God. Our flesh is equally a hindrance in the sense that it can become an obstacle to perseverance, but we will talk more about that in our next daily study.

The people around us can also be a limiting factor. When we pray with faith for a miracle, it isn’t rare for people around us to start mocking us and/or trying to discourage us. Prayer made in faith often provokes jealousy (why does God answer him or her, but not me?), and it bothers people, revealing their unbelief and passivity. It’s a reason why it is important to pray with people who support us and are similar to us.

We also need to understand that in the world that surrounds us, the darkness also surrounds us. The world of darkness seeks through all means to prevent our prayers from being answered. When we come to pray, the enemy tries to conjure up all sorts of excuses and thoughts of doubt and unbelief. And so we allow our faith to be infiltrated by, “If it is Your will”, “If you are able to” or “You say it in Your Word, but if You would like to do it for me”. This world of darkness also sometimes comes and interacts with the external circumstances of our life, so that our situation gets worse or obstacles appear. 

Too often, we pray in relation to our impressions, our doubts and under the pressure of circumstances that tell us that the situation is hopeless. Praying is not being in a reactive state, but in action! For all of these reasons, it is fundamental to always pray by remaining established on the promises of the Bible and to choose to believe what God says and not what we see or feel. Make the decision to align yourself to the will of God, who always wants to answer your prayers, and decide to let nothing become an obstacle to His will.

MY DECISION:

➤ What I have understood for my own personal life: 

➤ What I am deciding to do in my life based upon what I have just learnt: 

➤ What you decide to do today will determine who and what you will be tomorrow!

Adapted from "un disciple en marche" copyright 2018 by Luc Favre, published by Vie Victorieuse.