…Before your head hits the pillow…

Aborted Prayers

The other day I read an interesting online article at tscpulpitseries.org by David Wilkerson.  It caught my eye because I remembered a book he wrote that was later made into a movie, The Cross and the Switchblade.  His topic was interesting so I thought I would share some of his points with you.

He said, “The devil’s final strategy in deceiving believers is to make them doubt the faithfulness of God in answering prayer. Satan would have us believe God has shut His ears to our cry and left us to work things out for ourselves.”  He continued, “It’s time we Christians took an honest look at the reasons why our prayers are aborted.  We can be guilty of charging God with neglect, when all along our own behavior is responsible.”

Wilkerson gave six, of many reasons, that our prayers are not answered.

• Our prayers are aborted when they are not according to God’s will.  He says, “We are not at liberty to pray at random for whatever our selfish minds conceive.”  I John 5:14 says, “If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.”  We need to constantly look to God when we pray.  We must seek His face first and allow His will to be done in our lives.
• Our prayers can be aborted when they are designed to fulfill and inner lust, dreams, or illusions. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”  Psalm 66:18 says, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”
• Our prayers can be denied when we show no diligence to assist God in the answer. Wilkerson says, “We expect our prayers to get God to working for us, while we sit idly by, thinking to ourselves, ‘He has all the power; I have none, so I will simply stand still and let Him do the work.’”  God told Joshua in Joshua 7:10-13 – “Stand up! What are you doing on your face?”  God commanded Joshua to consecrate the people for their sins.  We must not try to “make” things happen, but God may ask us to act in order to fulfill His will.  We can’t just sit back and expect Him to do everything while we are laying on our backs.
• Our prayers can be aborted by a secret grudge lodged in the heart against another. He continues by saying, “Christ will not deal with anyone with a wrathful and unforgiving spirit.  We are commanded to ‘lay aside all malice, envy, and evil speaking, and as newborn babes, desire the sincere mild of the Word.’” I Peter 2:1-2
• Our prayers can be aborted by not expecting much to come of them. Matthew17:20 says, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  We must have faith that God can do what we are asking when we pray.  We serve an amazingly powerful God.  NOTHING is too big or too small for Him!
• Our prayers may be aborted when we ourselves attempt to prescribe how God should answer. Wilkerson says, “The only person we lay down terms to is the one we don’t trust. Those we trust we leave to themselves to do what is right.  It all boils down to a lack of trust. The burdened soul, after he has unburdened his heart in prayer to the Lord, resigns himself to the faithfulness, goodness, and wisdom of God.  The true believer will leave the shaping of the answer to God’s mercy.  Whatever way God chooses to answer, the believer will welcome.”

Now, all that being said, it is God who determines how to deal with the request placed in prayer.  God may choose to fulfill the request of a person who is selfish.  He may determine to grant the request of the person who has little faith, because the full power in prayer is not in the one who prays but in the One to whom we pray.

But as we go into prayer it is important that we go to God with righteous motives, we must make sure that we have forgiven as Christ as forgiven us, we must have faith that God is capable to fulfill our petition, and we must be willing to participate in the fulfillment of our request if that is the way God is leading us.

Prayer is a powerful Christian asset.  Let’s make sure that we come before our Lord humbly and full of faith!