As I stated in my last blog, we are discussing prayer at the church I attend. What caught my attention was that there are many verses in the Bible which simply instruct us to pray. These verses have no preconditions or requirements or instructions on what we are to do other than to pray. For example:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-9 ESV)
However, there are at least 20 verses in the Bible that teach our prayers will only be effective if we conform to God’s will; do something besides pray. For example:
“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” (John 9:31-32 ESV)
So does God place a condition on whether he answers our prayers or is he more concerned that we just pray? The Bible seems to give us different answers. Why does God seem to confuse this issue?
This question is similar to the problem we noted in our discussion on salvation. We can pick out a verse or two out of the Bible and prove just about any idea we have about a particular subject, including prayer. That approach makes it very easy for us but to really know what God is saying to us, we must consider what the entire Bible says.
