Ever been too tired to continue fighting?

[Riverwalker]

On 8/19/2020 at 5:33 PM, love child said:

Has anyone here ever prayed for something or someone in specific, believing for a change, that never happened? You believed it would because of the promises in the scriptures and so, you continued praying and believing for years...and yet, you never saw any changes  whatsoever in your circumstances. Did you continue to walk by faith or just accepted it for what is was, realizing that it may never change? 

I find the best way to get all my prayers answered is simply to say "God Thy will be done" for His way....His will....His time is the best possible outcome I could ever look for in my life.  He knows what I want, He knows what I need  and more importantly he knows what I do not need

As Garth Brooks sang, sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers...although God does answer all prayers, just sometimes the answer is no.   Or wait

And when the wait gets a little too hard, I run back to my favorite Scripture

Isaiah 40:

28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

God bless and keep up the good fight of faith, but remember to let God lead.

[Hopefully]

After 15 years of waiting for the promise, God visited Abraham again and assured him that the promise would be fulfilled in due time. It took another 10 years after the reassurance for Abraham and Sarah to give birth to a son who was named Isaac.

[Riverwalker]

18 hours ago, biblelesson said:

People say all we need is a little faith like the mustard seed because a mustard seed is tiny.  But that's absolutely not true.  It's because the mustard seed is tiny, that it had great faith. 

The faith of a mustard seed is not about big or small.  It is about doing what it is on your nature as a born again Christian to do.  The will of God

[Selah7]

2 hours ago, biblelesson said:

I'm not sure how you are seeing" according to His will."

Simple; we pray according to His will—that His will be done in all things.  Selah.
 

[debrakay]

Paul prayed for years to be relieved of his health condition.  God said, "No."

Jesus prayed in the garden that God would take this cup from him.  God said, "No."

Moses asked to see the Promised Land.  God said, "No."

There are many other "No's" from God recorded in the scriptures.  He wants us to focus on "knowing" him.  He does not want us to focus on his "No's."  He wants us to be still and know him. 

While raising my children they heard me repeat time after time, "No, is a valid answer."  Many times I wanted to say "yes" to their requests but many times I had to chose what was best for them at the time.

[biblelesson]

1 hour ago, Selah7 said:

Simple; we pray according to His will—that His will be done in all things.  Selah.
 

1 John 5:14 - This scripture is not saying that we are to pray saying "thy will be done."  Although many of us end our prayer this way.  But doing so is our choice and it has no affect on what God does.  This scriptures is saying if we ask anything "THAT IS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL he hears us. Meaning we must APPEAR before God, not in words, but in the "POSITION" of FAITH the way God has ORDAINED in order for our prayers to be answered.  We ourselves are BRINGING into the prayer OUR HEARTFELT TRUST in God according to His will, meaning that God requires that we believe Him and trust Him.  What we say means nothing if we present ourselves to God in the wrong POSITION in prayer.  That's what according to His will means.

1 John 5:15,

"And if we know that He hears us.  Do we know He hears us? 

"Whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desire of him." Do we know we have the petition that we desire of Him?

This scripture says  1)whatsoever we ask., and 2) we know that we have the petition we desire." Do you hear that?  If we doubt this or teach others to doubt this, then we doubt the word of God, and we are doubting faith. 

There is too much suffering out here.  God want's us to know Him.  And one aspect of knowing God, is to know He wants to answer our prayers to be a Father; a loving Father.  I don't want to deny people the truth about God, who wants to give us everything we want.  He is pleased with us when we truly believe Him.  And I'm talking abut suffering Christians.  Not people who are looking for material things.  But Christians who need to know that it's Ok, to believe God, and know God answers prayers.  We must be in the right POSITION to receive. 

Additional scripture showing what is according to His will:

Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

 

[Selah7]

 

8 minutes ago, biblelesson said:

1 John 5:14 - This scripture is not saying that we are to pray saying "thy will be done."

I disagree.  When Jesus taught us how to pray, He said:  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:10  

And in Luke 22:41-42, Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives.  Listen to what He fervently prayed, @biblelesson.  

41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

I will always follow my Savior’s example and when I pray, I will say reverently these four beautiful words, “Thy will be done.”  …Selah 

[biblelesson]

2 hours ago, debrakay said:

Paul prayed for years to be relieved of his health condition.  God said, "No."

Jesus prayed in the garden that God would take this cup from him.  God said, "No."

Moses asked to see the Promised Land.  God said, "No."

There are many other "No's" from God recorded in the scriptures.  He wants us to focus on "knowing" him.  He does not want us to focus on his "No's."  He wants us to be still and know him. 

While raising my children they heard me repeat time after time, "No, is a valid answer."  Many times I wanted to say "yes" to their requests but many times I had to chose what was best for them at the time.

Hi debrakay,

I have been hearing for years that God said "No" to Apostle Paul.  That God did not answer Apostle Paul's prayer.  So people just go with that explanation.  But in searching the scriptures closely, Paul never said that God did not answer his prayer.  He said he sought God thrice (three times), that it might depart from him.  He never said what it was.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9, God's answer to him was "my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." This is not a "no" answer.  This is a growing and strengthening answer.  How do we know that God did not deliver Paul from his thorn in the side after a time of affliction and growing in the strength of the Lord?  We don't know that.  Based on 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Paul talks about his persecutions, afflictions, etc. that he endured, but he says, "But God delivered me out of them all." So, it sounds like God did answer Paul's prayer after a time.

Paul wrote his letters at different times.  He traveled and preached the Gospel before he even went up to Jerusalem, which was 14 years after being given the gospel, Galatians 2:1. 

According to history he wrote 2 Corinthians from Macedonia about Ad 55 or 56 while at Ephesus.  And he wrote 1 Timothy after leaving Ephesus, somewhere between AD 62 and 66.  So from the time Paul was dealing with the thorn in the side as he wrote 2 Corinthians, to the time he told Timothy that God had delivered him out of all his troubles, to include his afflictions, was 10 years. So 10 years later Paul told Timothy God had delivered him. 

I don't think anyone can use Jesus as an example of having prayer not answered.  It was foretold that Jesus would be the Lamb of God who would save mankind from their sins.  This was prophecy!

And dealing with Moses, we must look at the law that Moses was under as to why God did not answer his prayer.  We are not under the law, we are under grace. 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by biblelesson

[biblelesson]

1 hour ago, Selah7 said:

 

I disagree.  When Jesus taught us how to pray, He said:  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:10  

And in Luke 22:41-42, Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives.  Listen to what He fervently prayed, @biblelesson.  

41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

I will always follow my Savior’s example and when I pray, I will say reverently these four beautiful words, “Thy will be done.”  …Selah 

I don't want you to misunderstand me.  Let me see if I can give you an example. 

If someone ask you for something, and say you have specific requirements, but you can see they are not a very honest person, but they know you are kind, and they ask kindly, and finally say, "only if you want too." 

So, now you look the situation, at the person, and determine that you are dealing with someone that's not very honest.  So you say no.  Not because they said, "only if you want to do" or for example, "thy will be done." But you decide "no" base on the person's dishonesty which would create a problem based on your requirements.   

Now say someone comes to you and ask you for something who is a very honest person, and they also say, "only if you want do it", or "thy will be done.  Again, you don't decide based on the words they said, "only if you want to do it," but you decide based on the fact that they appeared to you to be honest.  So you say "yes".  Not because they said the words, "only if you want to," but, because they have come to you in honesty, and are someone who respects you, therefore, they have fulfilled your requirements. 

And of course it is always according to God's will, and it's God's will that we believe Him according to the gospel. 

A person can present themselves wrong, even while saying, "thy will be done."  So it's not our words, it's God's will, his requirements.
 

Edited August 19, 2021 by biblelesson

[biblelesson]

1 hour ago, Selah7 said:

 

I disagree.  When Jesus taught us how to pray, He said:  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:10  

I will always follow my Savior’s example and when I pray, I will say reverently these four beautiful words, “Thy will be done.”  …Selah 

Selah7,

We can pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done" till the cows come home.  We can cry a river of tears, but, according to the Gospel, if we are not praying in the Spirit, our prayers will suffer.  We must ask God for help. To allow us to pray right. To give us the revelation of answered prayer.  

Too many people think that all we need to do is say the Lords prayer, and that's it.  A lot of us pray in the flesh.  But, we are to put off the old man and walk in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit. 

John 4:23-24,  Jesus was talking about after his death, and what would be required in the gospel, under the new covenant, "But the hours cometh, and now it is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirt and in truth."

Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..." This does not mean praying all day.  It means when we pray, to always pray in the Spirit.  But because people don't know what it means to pray in the Spirit, this area of our prayer life is stunted, so we just go with what we think they know.  

1 Corinthians 14:15, "...I will pray in the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also, I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.  Paul is saying when he's in church, he will pray with understanding and not in the Spirit, speaking in tongue, where other's cannot say Amen because they would not understand what he is saying.  But alone, and to God, he will pray in the Spirit. 

We must live the gospel.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by biblelesson