Prayer To Let God Control My Life

Does God Answer Our Prayers?

By Marilyn Adamson

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Have you ever known someone who really trusts God? When I was an atheist, I had a good friend who prayed often. She would tell me every week about something she was trusting God to take care of.

And every week I would see God do something unusual to answer her prayer.

Do you know how difficult it is for an atheist to observe this week after week? After a while, “coincidence” begins to sound a very weak argument.

So why would God answer my friend's prayers? The biggest reason is that she had a relationship with God. She wanted to follow God. And she actually listened to what he said.

In her mind, God had the right to direct her in life, and she welcomed him doing just that! When she prayed for things, it was a natural part of her relationship with God. She felt very comfortable coming to God with her needs, her concerns, and whatever issues were current in her life.

Furthermore, she was convinced, from what she read in the Bible, that God wanted her to rely on him that.

She pretty much exhibited what this statement from the Bible says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”1 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer…”2

So, Why Doesn't God Answer Everyone's Prayers?

It may be because they don't have a relationship with God. They may know that God exists, and they might even worship God from time to time. But those who never seem to have their prayers answered probably don't have a relationship with him.

Further, they have never received from God complete forgiveness for their sin. What does that have to do with it you ask? Here is an explanation. “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God.

Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”3

It's pretty natural to feel that separation from God. When people begin to ask God for something, what usually takes place? They begin with, “God, I really need your help with this problem…” And then there's a pause, followed by a restart… “I realize that I'm not a perfect person, that I actually have no right to ask you for this…

” There's an awareness of personal sin and failure. And the person knows that it's not just them; that God is aware of it too. There's a feeling of, “Who am I kidding?” What they may not know is how they can receive God's forgiveness for all their sin. They might not know that they can come into a relationship with God so that God will hear them.

This is the foundation for God answering your prayer.

How Does Prayer Work?

You must first begin a relationship with God. Here's why. Imagine that a guy named Mike asks the president of Princeton University to co-sign a car loan for him.

If Mike doesn't personally know the president of Princeton, that car loan is not going to happen.

Yet, if the daughter of this president asked her dad to co-sign a car loan for her, it would be no problem. Relationship matters.

When it comes to God then, do you really know him and does he know you? Do you have a relationship with him that warrants God answering your prayers? Or is God pretty distant, pretty much just a concept in your life? If God is distant, or you're not sure that you know God, here is how you can begin a relationship with him right now: Getting Connected.

Will God Definitely Answer Your Prayer?

For those who do know him and rely on him, Jesus seems to be wildly generous in his offer: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”5 To “remain” in him and have his words remain in them means they conduct their lives aware of him, relying on him, listening to what he says.

Then they're able to ask him whatever they want. Here is another qualifier: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.

“6 God answers our prayers according to his will (and according to his wisdom, his love for us, his holiness, etc.).

Where we trip up is assuming we know God's will, because a certain thing makes sense to us! We assume that there is only one right “answer” to a specific prayer, assuming certainly THAT would be God's will. And this is where it gets tough. We live within the limits of time and limits of knowledge.

We have only limited information about a situation and the implications of future action on that situation. God's understanding is unlimited. How an event plays out in the course of life or history is only something he knows. And he may have purposes far beyond what we could even imagine.

So, God is not going to do something simply because we determine that it must be his will.

What Does It Take? What is God Inclined to Do?

Pages and pages could be filled about God's intentions toward us. The entire Bible is a description of the kind of relationship God wants us to experience with him and the kind of life he wants to give us. Here are just a few examples:

“…the Lord longs to be gracious to you. He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all who wait for [trust] him!”7 Did you catch that? someone rising his chair to come to your help, “He rises to show you compassion.” “As for God, his way is perfect…

However, God's greatest display of his love and commitment to you is this: Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,”10 which is what Jesus did for us. And so, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?”11

What about “Unanswered” Prayer?

Certainly people get sick, even die; financial problems are real, and all sorts of very difficult situations can come up. What then?

God tells us to give our concerns to him. Even as the situation remains dismal, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”12 The circumstances may look control, but they aren't. When the whole world seems to be falling apart, God can keep us together. This is when a person can be very grateful that they know God.

“The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

“13 God may provide solutions, resolutions to the problem WAY beyond what you imagined possible. Probably any Christian could list examples this in their own lives. But if the circumstances do not improve, God can still give us his peace in the midst of it.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”14

It is at this point (when circumstances are still tough) that God asks us to continue to trust him — to “walk by faith, not by sight” the Bible says. But it's not blind faith. It is the very character of God.

A car traveling on the Golden Gate Bridge is fully supported by the integrity of the bridge. It doesn't matter what the driver may be feeling, or thinking about, or discussing with someone in the passenger seat.

What gets the car safely to the other side is the integrity of the bridge, which the driver was willing to trust.

In the same way, God asks us to trust his integrity, his character…his compassion, love, wisdom, righteousness on our behalf. He says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”15 “Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.”16

In Summary

God has offered to answer the prayers of his children (those who have received him into their lives and seek to follow him). He asks us to take any concerns to him in prayer and he will act upon it according to his will.

As we deal with difficulties we are to cast our cares on him and receive from him a peace that defies the circumstances. The basis for our hope and faith is the character of God himself.

The better we know him, the more apt we are to trust him.

For more on the character of God, please see “Who is God?” or other articles on this site. The reason we pray is God's character. The first prayer God answers is your prayer to begin a relationship with God.

Footnotes: (1) 1 John 5:14 (2) 1 Peter 3:12 (3) Isaiah 59:1,2 (4) John 10:14,27-28 (5) John 15:7 (6) 1 John 5:14,15 (7) Isaiah 30:18 (8) Psalms 18:30 (9) Psalms 147:11 (10) John 15:13 (11) Romans 8:32 (12) 1 Peter 5:7 (13) Philippians 4:5-7 (14) John 14:27 (15) Jeremiah 31:3 (rsv) (16) Psalms 62:8

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Источник: //www.everystudent.com/wires/prayers.html

Prayer: Letting Your Emotions Lead You to God

Coming to church is great, but the real excitement of being a Christian happens during the rest of our week: in our homes, jobs, and relationships. That’s because the rest of the week brings real emotions, both positive and negative, and these emotions are intended to bring us nearer to God.

Ask yourself:

• How do I handle my emotions?
• What role do they play in my life?
• How do I handle painful emotions?

Prayer is directly connected with how we well we handle emotions. The easiest and quickest way to handle emotions is to harden to them and to quit. It’s simply easier to avoid wrestling through them with God. Sometimes we give our emotions free reign, but it’s a dangerous road when our emotions are leading our lives.

We all have to decide: Will I let my emotions lead me to God or lead me away from God?

Prayer is the secret to happiness. Talking to God about how we feel gives us the faith and strength to lead our families spiritually and emotionally. Without prayer, we will always find ourselves lacking.

Prayer

4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.    He freed me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. 6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;  he saved me from all my troubles.  7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him.

Psalm 34:4-7 (NLT)

2 Questions:

1. Do I believe that God listens to and answers my prayers?
2. Do I believe that unhappiness is rooted in a lack of prayer?

We all have true emotions that are hard for us to face… fear, desperation, shame, among others. Happiness and joy come when we take the time to learn to pray through those truths, and believe in God’s power to help us.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!  9 Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. 10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.

Psalm 34:8-10 (NLT)

Fearing God means respecting him and acknowledging that God is great and He is in control. Go through your life and see how great God has treated you. Do you go to God to meet your needs or go to people for attention?

15 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.  16 But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth.  17 The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.

    He rescues them from all their troubles.  18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.  19 The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

  20 For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!

Psalm 34:15-20 (NLT)

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” That means that God is close to us when we decide to give up control and allow ourselves to need Him.

What negative thoughts and beliefs about God stop you from giving up control? If you don’t address those false beliefs about God, you won’t find relief in prayer.

Pressure Points

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers.

Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (NLT)

We all feel pressure in life. And we feel different pressure points at different times.

Which of these pressure points is weighing on you the most?

• Sin & Temptation (Genesis 29 – Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife)
• Leadership (Exodus 18 – Moses and Jethro)
• Life Transition (Matthew 9 – Wineskins)
• Relevancy (John 12 – Loss and Renewal)

The Blame Game

A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.

Proverbs 19:3 (NIV)

Are you facing the pressure in your life, or are you blaming God and blaming people? Taking responsibility for our lives, circumstances, and the results of our decisions the first step towards changing.

Turning Things Around

8-9 I know I distressed you greatly with my letter. Although I felt awful at the time, I don’t feel at all bad now that I see how it turned out. The letter upset you, but only for a while. Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss.

10 Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 (MSG)

How can you let your emotions turn you back to God?

Closer to God

11-12 And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter.

2 Corinthians 7:11-12 (MSG)

At the end of the day, every pressure we face and every emotion we feel is an opportunity to build a closer relationship with God. When we pray, we grow.

• How can you start prioritizing prayer everyday?
• How can you change the way you pray so that you allow your emotions to lead you closer to God?

Источник: //bacc.cc/prayer-letting-your-emotions-lead-you-to-god/