“We try to explain why God answers prayers on the grounds of reason. This is nonsense. God answers prayers on the grounds of redemption and on no other ground.” — Oswald Chambers
If you will ask,
How simple but profound.
Prayer is not answered by….
Attending the right church
Being in the right posture, on your knees or hands raised in the air or face down on the ground
Following the latest acronym, ACTS, CATS
During the morning or evening or any specific time of day
Any location in the world, on mountain tops, or deepest valleys, in the promised land or Times Square
Reading the oldest manuscripts or streaming over the Internet
Observing the most wonderful of all creation
Exerting effort, energy, strength or willpower
Reading great authors or listening to great music
Not by yourself or with groups
Experiencing wealth, poverty or offering large donations
Being young or old
New to the faith or of world renown
Prayer is only answered through redemption. By seeking and receiving God’s grace.
If your heart is truly repentant, then God will hear your prayer and extend His grace. In order to seek something, you must admit to yourself that you don’t have it by your own means. You seek things daily such advice, facts, truth, wisdom, money, toys, power, position, and even purpose. These may at best require humility to obtain, but seeking forgiveness, mercy and grace requires much more of you. It requires humility to be sure, but it requires you to give yourself over to the control of another.
To trust, to believe, to die to yourself, to fend off every fiber of your being that competes for self-control.
In other words, as the psalmist says,
Psalms 51:17
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
The odd thing is when you are sincerely at this spiritual juncture, the list above makes no difference. The reasoning you originally thought you wanted to pray for is no longer at the top of your mind. As you receive grace as God intended to give it, you will be fully submitted to God’s will over yours. When you are at this point you are fully useable by God for His purpose. God then answers prayer according to His will.
With being pure in heart, you are free to pick any or all of the methods of prayer for each one now works equally the same.
Just a Thought…
