EVERY TIME WE PRAY AS GOD'S CHILDREN, SOMETHING HAPPENS – PART 1
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans:
“Elke keer as ons as God se kinders bid, gebeur daar iets – deel 1”
One day I was listening to someone who made the following statement on TV:
"All the sick in the days of the Gospels were healed."
This, of course, is not true.
In my opinion not even all the people who were sick were healed in Jesus ' immediate presence, but I will say more about this at a later point.
My thoughts then go back to quite a few experiences that I have experienced over the years, and I thought like this:
People can so easily utter the wrong / silliest things through ignorance and sometimes through zeal and because we are dealing here with people and the gospel of Jesus Christ, great harm can be done.
So, I'm trying to counteract this kind of damage in my own way by sharing with you what I've experienced but I'm afraid it's too much for one email, so I'm going to spread it over two emails.
I remember, for example, a service led by a great preacher, and then at the invitation to pray for the sick, a man in a wheelchair appeared. When the preacher had finished praying for him, he told the man in the wheelchair to get up and when the man could not do so, the preacher said to the poor man in front of all of us present: “You have not enough faith.”
My guide then told me that the absolute dismay with which the disabled man’s eyes followed the preacher, while the preacher went to pray for the next person, was heartbreaking.
When I later thought of that event again, I wondered about the man in the wheelchair.
Maybe it was the first time he ever came to a church and maybe because of the experience he had, it was also the last time he ever went to a church.
For example, if I had been unconverted and I was coming to a church for the first time where I was being prayed for and was treated that way, it might have been the last time I would ever go to church or any other church. Especially if I was someone with a shy nature.
Jesus says on occasion to His disciples:
MARK 11:22 And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God.
MARK 11:23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
You see, it's not just for praying.
When I pray for someone, I have to believe and I have to make sure that my relationship with God is right and that includes my relationship with the people around me.
Jesus says that when I pray as His child, it's not just about faith, there's something else added:
MARK 11:24-26
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."
26 but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings (NKJV) Footnote C
Maybe God is not answering my prayer because I do not have enough faith.
Maybe God is not answering my prayer because there is sin that I do and have not yet gotten rid of and asked God's forgiveness.
If my relationship with my Father is right and I as a child of God pray to Him, something will always happen – even if it does not happen how I expected. Then I know the best thing for me, His child, is now happening.
One thing I should never do, especially when I pray for someone who may not be a believer, or not as strong a believer as I am; I should not just pretend that it is that person's fault, if it seems to me that God is not answering me.
Firstly, because it is wrong, as they say: "To pass the buck."
Secondly, because it is not necessarily a mistake of me or anyone else, if it seems to me that God is not answering me.
The fact that it seems to me that there is no answer, does not mean that there was no answer.
After all, as a child of God, I know for sure:
ROM 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
For me personally, this is most definitely an answer from our Lord, even if it seems like there is not an answer.
You see, I know for sure that my Father will never, for me, His child for whom my Jesus died on the cross – just ignore me by silence.
Because I, who am bad will never do it, it is completely inconceivable to me that my Father in Heaven will do it.
MAT 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Just to summarize again:
Our Father does not always respond when, and in ways we want Him to respond – but He always respond when His children cry out to Him, also when we pray for other people and He always respond with good things.
MAT 7:11 … how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
One thing I know for sure! Something will always happen when God's children pray to Him.
MAT 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
MAT 7:8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
There will always be given but maybe not exactly what, or in the way I wanted.
I will always find but not always what I wanted to find.
There will always be a door opened but not always the door I wanted open.
However, I always have this certain wonderful knowledge:
MAT 6:8 “…. your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Therefore, I rejoice with the prophet:
HAB 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments
Footnote c. If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses: The forgiven heart will forgive others. If we have hard, unforgiving hearts, it calls into question if we have ever received or appreciated the forgiveness God offers us.
i. "This is not an arbitrary refusal by God to forgive us. We in our own unforgiving spirit have made it impossible for ourselves to accept the forgiveness freely offered by God since we refuse to adopt the only attitude in which it can be appropriated." (S J Cole)
Greetings,
Sakkie