Ask, Receive and Give ThanksSample

Day 5 -  God desires even more than we do that our prayers are answered 

God desires even more than we do that our prayers are answered because He loves us and wants us to be satisfied.

REFERENCE VERSES:  

John 14:11-14

11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 

John 11:41-42

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”  

REFLECTIONS:

Read John 14:11-14 and take a moment to answer the following questions: 

➤ For what reasons does God really desire to answer our prayers? 

➤ Read John 11 :41-42. What is preventing me from believing that God always wants to answer my prayers, and how can I face up to this unbelief? 

CONTENT:

A few years ago I was in the middle of praying for someone who was sick, and you know how sometimes our mind can wander off when we are praying? That’s exactly what happened to me: While I was praying for healing, I found myself thinking about what I was going to say to this man if he wasn’t healed. That’s when I realised that I had a problem. On the one hand I was praying for a miracle, but on the other hand I didn’t expect anything to happen. Needless to say I repented straightaway and realigned my heart and my faith on God’s love and power. Yet, it often happens like that when we are praying. Unfortunately too many people have accepted not seeing their prayers answered as the norm. Answered prayer has become the exception. We start to pray through necessity, without real conviction and our prayers end with “Your will be done”, without any real submission to God, demonstrating a sort of fatalism. Keep these truths in mind: On the one hand prayer is a dialogue with God; on the other hand God always wants to answer our prayers and answered prayer is the norm within prayer.

God loves us with a perfect love, and we discover this extraordinary love that God always had for His children right from the beginning in Genesis. By placing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God satisfied them to abundance. They had all of the fruit trees that they could ever need at their disposal, the river ran through the garden, they were in constant communion with God, they were created for each other, all of creation submitted to them and they were in paradise. This reveals God’s nature; He wants to give His children the best and to satisfy them. And it is what He still wants to do today. 

And so when we pray we need to ensure that we really have this understanding of God in our hearts—that is, He is the God who came to give us life and life in abundance. The one who wants to destroy us and make us miserable is the devil (cf. John 10:10). But nothing can prevent God from blessing us because in Christ all of our prayers have been answered (cf. Colossians 2:10). God wants to bless us abundantly, He is interested in all areas of our life and He wants to perform unrestricted miracles.

It is important to remember that answered prayer isn’t always instantaneous because God knows the long-term vision. Job is a good example. He was satisfied in all areas of his life. And yet his life was severely challenged to the point that he lost everything except his wife and his own life. Certain biblical historians think that Job suffered for several decades. God answered Job’s prayer by allowing him to not only get back everything that he had lost, but he received double. God wanted to give him a double blessing and most of all, to reveal Himself to Job (cf. Job 42:5). Answered prayer is always linked to a revelation of who God is, and this allows Him to demonstrate His glory.

Sometimes we have the tendency to measure blessings and answered prayers by comparing them with what we have received during a period of our lives. But we mustn’t lose sight of God’s patience and His long-term goals for our lives and for the people around us. If He really wants to bless and satisfy us, which is what He wants above all other things, then we need to be in communion with Him. What good will it do us if we are swimming in wealth and always have answers if we end up finishing our lives far away from God because, in the midst of all of these riches, we have lost contact with the One who is the source of the blessing? God is our greatest blessing and His presence is certainly the most important thing that we have.

Seeing our prayers answered is never automatic; it is simply the result of our relationship with God. When we are in communion with Him we cannot live differently than to be blessed, even in the middle of the most difficult of circumstances. And answered prayer always has the aim of glorifying God.

Are you like me when I was praying for that sick person? Do you have the impression that answered prayer is the exception? I would like to encourage you to take a moment to repent, to ask God for forgiveness for this unbelief and to choose to pray these words from John 11:41: “Father, I thank You that You have heard me.” Once you have said this prayer, believe that it has been done and it will become a reality in the visible world. That is praying in faith!

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.