For most of those who claim to be Christian, the answer to the title "Does God Answer Prayers?" is yes. The question behind the question is "Does He answer all prayers with an affirmative Yes?"
Now in God's way of doing things He may simply say yes to all prayers, but state them in this way: "Yes, I will answer your pray in this way...." Being that He is sovereign, our quest is to understand His answers so we do not despair or lose hope because they are not answered the way we perceive they have to be for our hearts to be glad.
Take for instance, Israel had always known that their Messiah would come. The prophets foretold the promise down through the ages. But, was His death on the cross the answer to their prayers, "Lord send the Messiah!"?
Now in God's way of doing things He may simply say yes to all prayers, but state them in this way: "Yes, I will answer your pray in this way...." Being that He is sovereign, our quest is to understand His answers so we do not despair or lose hope because they are not answered the way we perceive they have to be for our hearts to be glad.
Take for instance, Israel had always known that their Messiah would come. The prophets foretold the promise down through the ages. But, was His death on the cross the answer to their prayers, "Lord send the Messiah!"?
It certainly was and it was a positive Yes! But in their eyes it was an utter failure, because it did not change their circumstantces which was the very heart of their prayers.
The Cross is the means of understanding God's way of answering prayers. He sees much further than we do, because we look through the mind's eye of our circumstances(the sum of essential and environmental factors). What is essential to us in our environment determines what we pray and our expectation of the answer to that prayer.
What say the Scriptures? Matthew 6:9-13 in the Message Bible does a rather straight forward approach...simple... no holding back...ideology.
"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes."
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