Obstacles To Answered Prayer (2)

Wed, 6 Jan 2021

‘You don’t get it because your motives are all wrong.’ James 4:3

Another obstacle to answered prayer is selfishness. In the Lord’s Prayer, you won’t find the words ‘I’, or ‘me’, or ‘my’, or ‘mine’. What you will find instead, is: ‘Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses; deliver us from evil’ (see Matthew 6:11–13). Are you getting the idea? The man who prays, ‘Lord bless me, my wife and two children: us four and no more,’ won’t get a favourable response from Heaven.

Jesus said, ‘Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’ (Mark 11:24 NKJV) But that Scripture isn’t a blank cheque: God’s answer to selfish prayers is always no. James writes, ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.’ (James 4:3 NKJV)

Maybe you’re thinking, ‘The Bible says if I delight myself in the Lord, He will give me whatever my heart desires’ (see Psalm 37:4). Yes, but your desires must be in harmony with God’s will. God blessed Abraham so that he could become a blessing to others (see Genesis 12:2–3).

God knows what you want, and He also knows why you want it. Is it only for your own comfort and convenience, or also to fulfil His purposes? Only when you have answered that question honestly, can you pray with confidence. When you look out only for your own interest, only one person is working on your behalf—you! But when your goal is to bless others, God goes to work and answers your prayer in ways you never imagined possible. Try it, and see for yourself!

Btruth:
Obstacles To Answered Prayer (2) Wed, 6 Jan 2021
‘You don’t get it because your motives are all wrong.’ James 4:3

Another obstacle to answered prayer is selfishness. In the Lord’s Prayer, you won’t find the words ‘I’, or ‘me’, or ‘my’, or ‘mine’. What you will find instead, is: ‘Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses; deliver us from evil’ (see Matthew 6:11–13). Are you getting the idea? The man who prays, ‘Lord bless me, my wife and two children: us four and no more,’ won’t get a favourable response from Heaven.
Jesus said, ‘Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’ (Mark 11:24 NKJV) But that Scripture isn’t a blank cheque: God’s answer to selfish prayers is always no. James writes, ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.’ (James 4:3 NKJV)

Scripture states that God does not answer the prayers of the unrighteous; the pleas and requests and every petition of the unrighteous are tainted by their sins(disobedience/unholiness) and are hence an abomination to God. So, what is definite is that even your many pleas for the forgiveness of sins are not answered by God given that God made no special exemptions for that kind of pleas. No amount of praying can cause God to change His mind regarding that which concerns the unrighteous by the way. So if you are thinking of prescribing more prayers that only means you really don't understand or know God at all.

God, however, openly bragged about how He only answers the prayers of the righteous; He delights in granting them the desires of their heart meaning that they are those who are loved by Him. For this very reason, Jesus Christ urged His followers to seek first the Kingdom of God and God's Righteousness in order that all things— the blessings and rewards of the Kingdom of God(holiness), answers to prayers included—shall be added on to them. And as Jesus Christ explained in His Gospel, the only way to become Holy, and then also Righteous, is by way of continuous submission and obedience to the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ, god's Truth and Law in the Kingdom of god - John 8 vs 31 - 36 & John 14 vs 15 - 23. Jesus Christ is the only way. Obedience to the Truth of God is the one and only path to righteousness. No amount of praying and other religious rituals can accomplish that.

You need to understand the meaning of the word "amiss" in order to realize what James was instead trying to tell you in that verse that you pulled from his epistle. If you consult Webster's dictionary, you will find that the word means to be in an imperfect state, a state that is not in the right order aka unrighteous.

Amiss

1. : not being in accordance with the right order. : faulty, imperfect.

What James was saying in that verse is that the reason you do not receive from God is that you are asking in an unrighteous state—a state that is not in accordance with God's mandate of righteousness. So, clearly, you cannot benefit anything from remaining in an unrighteous state as far as God is concerned. That is what God said, and James reiterated it in that verse there.