Rather than position, approach would be the more important thing. We could be in a commendable position, but if the approach is wrong, God couldn’t hear our prayer. There are five things for a reverent approach:
Ask believing
Those are Jesus’ words in Matthew 21:22.
Ask the Father
When you pray, do you pray to the Father? We have been in churches where they pray to Jesus and sometimes the influence of the religious world affects us. The scripture is VERY clear that we should pray to God the Father and ask the Father. In every recorded prayer of Jesus, He opened the prayer addressing our Father.
My question for you:
P.S. I have a question for you, since Willis [Propp?] isn’t around to ask, I am asking you. What about our Hymn 207, Holy Spirit?
Holy Spirit, breathe upon us: Sealed by Thee are we,
To the day of our redemption, Till our Lord we see.
When we sing this Hymn are we not asking the Holy Spirit instead of God?
Thank you for your help,
Don
Ask in Jesus’ name
In Italy, they understand that if you get on the best side of the mother, you can get her son to do anything. That is the approach the Catholic people use. We don’t ask in the mother’s name or any other name, but ask in Jesus’ name. Ask the Father and ask in Jesus’ name. These things were mentioned in the last meeting that Jesus had with His disciples. You would tell people important things if you knew it was the last time opportunigy. In John 16 we read “Father” and in John 14, “In His name.” He opened the throne of grace to us by the sacrifice of His precious blood and testimony. The veil of the temple torn in two that afternoon. It was a tremendous thing.
The scripture teaches us that it tore from top to bottom and history says the Jewish people, who couldn’t believe that Jesus was the Christ, patched the veil and continued with their services in the temple until the temple was destroyed.
Ask abiding
In John 15, Jesus said, “If ye abide in Me and I in you.” Ask abiding or keep connected and be sincere in our service to God. If we are not connected, it won’t be much of an approach. If we ask while we abide in Him, God WILL hear. God hears our cry, even if there are no words He sees us kneeling there.
Ask according to His will
There are five people we read of who asked and it wasn’t God’s will for their prayers to be answered positively and the answer was, “No.” No is the answer.
When we pray, pray according to the will of God. “If it be Thy will” is a wonderful approach. Have you ever felt that your prayers were not noticed and that God didn’t hear your prayers and that there may not be much reason to pray because you feel, “I don’t get answers to my prayers?” If you are real honest with yourself you might have to admit to yourself and to God, and no one else, that there may be reasons for feeling this way that are within your power to change.
Truth Archive 