Answering Prayers?

[notsolostsoul]

It is often said that God will answer your prayers with either yes, no or not right now. However wouldn't No actually not be answering your prayer?

Example: If a person is starving and ask/prays for God to please give them food for the night and they do not receive it, did God just say No and that is it?

Seems a bit harsh.

[GandalfTheWise]

2 hours ago, notsolostsoul said:

It is often said that God will answer your prayers with either yes, no or not right now. However wouldn't No actually not be answering your prayer?

Example: If a person is starving and ask/prays for God to please give them food for the night and they do not receive it, did God just say No and that is it?

Seems a bit harsh.

The yes/no/later response strikes me as one-dimensional.  It's like the only element involved in prayer is putting in an impersonal request form and God pulling out one of 3 stampers to put a response on our request form.  

The issue of unanswered prayers is one that has vexed Christians for millennia to some extent.  There is sometimes an element of us thinking we know best in what we ask for.   We can pray to win the lottery; but perhaps what we should be praying for wisdom and guidance for how to support ourselves.  There is also sometimes an element that we really don't trust God and think He is holding out on us for some reason if we don't get the response we expect when we expect it.   I think our view of unanswered prayers ultimately comes down to how we think of God's heart toward us.  Does He have our best interest at heart as a loving Father?  Or is He just waiting for us to fall short so He can smite us or play games with us?   Do we trust Him to do what's best in that we don't see the big picture?  or do we assume that He should do things the way we expect?

There is also the issue that prayer is much more than just asking things of God;  it is meant to be communion with God as well.  It is a time to reflect, meditate, and rest in His presence, and not just rattle off a list of prayer requests.  As a bigger part of our spiritual life, prayer is a time of getting away from the world and just being with God.  When prayer becomes primarily about asking for things, I think we are missing the biggest part of it.

[Billiards Ball]

9 hours ago, notsolostsoul said:

It is often said that God will answer your prayers with either yes, no or not right now. However wouldn't No actually not be answering your prayer?

Example: If a person is starving and ask/prays for God to please give them food for the night and they do not receive it, did God just say No and that is it?

Seems a bit harsh.

It seems a bit harsh to ever answer "no" when a prayer is off?

Do other parents who are good give their children all they ask of them? What about strangers? Proverbs says the prayer of the wicked is abominable. Try to think of three reasons why God wouldn't "deliver" good to a starving person, then re-ask your question, please.

[notsolostsoul]

5 hours ago, Billiards Ball said:

Try to think of three reasons why God wouldn't "deliver" good to a starving person

This is my dilemma. Why would a merciful God deny a starving person food? He gives mercy to the wicked all the time. I can't think of a reason he would say no to a prayer for food to a starving person.

[Billiards Ball]

59 minutes ago, notsolostsoul said:

This is my dilemma. Why would a merciful God deny a starving person food? He gives mercy to the wicked all the time. I can't think of a reason he would say no to a prayer for food to a starving person.

It's not really a dilemma, but you believe it is. You know who you should talk to about this problem?

Jesus Christ.

[Archangel Thyos]

On 9/18/2018 at 1:48 AM, notsolostsoul said:

It is often said that God will answer your prayers with either yes, no or not right now. However wouldn't No actually not be answering your prayer?

Example: If a person is starving and ask/prays for God to please give them food for the night and they do not receive it, did God just say No and that is it?

Seems a bit harsh.

Has this ever happened to you?

[notsolostsoul]

7 hours ago, Archangel Thyos said:

Has this ever happened to you?

No

[Archangel Thyos]

3 hours ago, notsolostsoul said:

No

have you ever seen this happen?

If no, then how do you know that's even a possible scenario?

[notsolostsoul]

4 hours ago, Archangel Thyos said:

have you ever seen this happen?

If no, then how do you know that's even a possible scenario?

You can easily look up how many and how often people die from hunger. I'm sure either some of them prayed, their family prayed or even Christian strangers have prayed for God to help the starving, yet they have suffered and died.

[John_Leung]

He can give a greater variety of answers than just yes/no/not now.  Say if I ask God should I date a certain (Christian) woman, I'm sure that He would give a combination of the three answers plus something else, like a different person appears in my life.  The starving person example is a bit harsh, but God does give a 'no' answer if He knows whatever you prayed for wouldn't be beneficial for you.