Results 1 - 7 of 7
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | jalanlambert | 115998 | ||
ischus, Thanks for your insight. While I believe God is pleased that we desire to communicate with Him, I would hardly believe that we do anything to bless God. I agree that prayer is a relationship that all parties involved benefit. You mention in point two of your note that strength, comfort and healing are directly related to our praying. I believe there is value in our praying for someone or some circumstance, however I wonder if the answer we receive is not a product of Gods will in this situation rather than our prayers. Would God withhold a miracle of health or salvation simply because we didn't pray or because we only had 30 members of our church praying instead of the 500 praying at a much larger church? I believe God is motivated by His love for us and his desire to give us what is most need for us at that time in our life. I agree with you that the greater value of prayer is spiritual. I believe it is a means of developing our relationship to God for now and eternity. I don't believe that the non western world have a better understanding of prayer than we do. I think that they might exercise the privelege of prayer more consistantly. However, if they aren't praying to the One and Only Living God, then they pray in vain. Your brother In Christ. |
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2 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | ischus | 116001 | ||
JL, Hello! I think that God is blessed jus as much as we are in the mutual relationship the we share together. He gets hurt just as much, he rejoices just as much, and he gets blessed just as much. Although God is omnipotent, one of the thingshe can't do is make us love him or trust him or talk to him. When we do these things, he is blessed! In regard to your second statement, I don't think that numbers matter in prayer. What matters is the faith of the people. Of course God's will always overrides the faithful request if the prayer is not in what God sees as the wisest or best thing, but faith, not numbers, is definitely the key to prayer. God really cares about and seeks faith more than he does healing or physical blessing of his people. Don't get me wrong- God loves to physically bless, but what he cares about more than anything else is our faith and trust in him despite our circumstances (Lk. 18:1-8) Finally, I am comparing christians in different parts of the world. I don't remember, but I think I might have used the term 'worldview' and that is why you are unclear here, but worldview does not refer to ones religion or faith- It refers to your assumptions about the world, meaning that where you live and the environment you grow up in affects the way you perceive prayer. What I meant was that non-western people are far more spiritually-focussed and far less influenced by our naturalistic approach to God and prayer. I appreciate your comments. I don't know if this helped or made things more unclear, but whatever you need clarification in I will be happy to explain further. ischus |
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3 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | jalanlambert | 116009 | ||
ischus, I understand what you are saying, but I don't see anywhere in the Bible that God is blessed by our relationship to Him. There are many scriptures that speak of how we are blessed of God. The chosen, the chastened, those who trust, those who fear, those who delight in God, those who hear and obey, those who know Him, those that believe, those that suffer for Christ, those who endure temptation, the undefiled, the pure, the faithful, the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and the peacemakers. There are others, and if you want I can give you references for each. I agree with you totally about numbers not mattering regarding answered prayer. I was being sarcastic. What I am a little confused about is if faith is what motivates God to answer prayer, then why doesn't he answer the prayer of a faithful servant right away? Like Paul who had the thorn in the flesh. He asked God to remove it 3 times, but God didn't. The answer to Pauls prayer was not to remove the thorn (physical), it wasn't Gods will. What was His will was for Paul to endure it and grow by trusting (spiritual) that God knows best even if we think we have the answer. The thorn was a reminder to Paul to trust God no matter what the physical circumstances may appear to be telling him. The physical answer to prayer is always secondary to what God wishes to teach us spiritually. I understand now what you meant by "worldview". I believe people can be in the same community and with faithful christians have extreme differences in preception of faith based on their circumstances. It seems to me that the more difficult the circumstance the more our desire is to know Him. It speakes of how shallow we are. You might be right about other countries as a whole. I'm not that familiar with believers from other countries. jal | ||||||
4 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | ischus | 116011 | ||
jal, Hey- Thanks for that post; I really think that you are the first person that I have ever agreed with on every point in a post with more than one sentence. :) About blessing God, The bible has a lot to say about this. Look in a concordance under the word 'bless' and you will see the many times that the bible speaks of blessing the Lord. [By the way, some translations, like the NIV, will translate this word for 'bless' as 'praise' which is not wrong, but does not give the full sense of the word. Also, think about the Lord's Supper (communion, eucharist... I don't know what you call it). The cup of the Passover that Jesus used to institute the "eucharist" is called the cup of blessing- us blessing God and God blessing us... is it mutual and reciprocal. ischus |
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5 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | jalanlambert | 116017 | ||
ischus, Thank you for the references. I believe that God is awsome. We can come from such different backgrounds and still speak as brothers. Bound by the love that God has for us, knowing that he created each of us so unique, yet so much alike through is Son. Praise be to God forever and forever. We will someday meet. jal | ||||||
6 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | ischus | 116018 | ||
jal- Amen brother, and the day is coming soon! God bless you [ and you bless him too :-) ] ischus |
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7 | who benefits most from prayer? | Bible general Archive 2 | jalanlambert | 116019 | ||
ischus, I thank God for your fellowship. I will be going home now. Have a good weekend. jal | ||||||