Together in Prayer

I watched a message from David Jeremiah today on the question of "Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers?"  He covered all the typical answers - cherished sin, praying with wrong motives, praying outside God's will, lack of faith, etc.  Nothing he said was scripturally wrong, but I confess that I have difficulty with the hidden premise behind this approach to prayer.

The premise seems to be that prayer is a means to get what we want from God.  And if we remove all the obstacles,…

As we head to the polls today to vote in the mid-term elections, here are a few final thoughts for prayer:

Thank God for the process

• Thank God for the blessing of free elections and the democratic process.  Thank him for giving us the right and the means to vote and determine our leadership.

Pray for the elections

• Ask God to protect each voting place from all harm; to protect our elections from outside influences…

Pray for the candidates

As the midterm campaigns enter their final couple of days, one way we can impact the races for God's glory is to pray specifically for the candidates and those who are campaigning on their behalf.  This may be the hardest part of prayer for the elections, because it can be difficult to separate our own preferences from God's leading.  But there are some Scriptural principles that we can use to pray God's will into…

Contrary to what some may say or believe, the mid-term elections will not determine the future of the United States.  To be sure, the elected officials will have a significant impact.  But God is ultimately in control. 

 A large part of how God controls the affairs of men is through the prayers of his people.  In fact, God has repeatedly called his people to prayer for their country:

 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May those who love you be…

Why doesn't God answer prayer immediately?  Why does he seem at times to hold back, to keep us in difficult circumstances when he could bring healing, relief, finances, reconciliation, and more - all with just a word?

There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer to this question.  First and foremost, we must acknowledge and agree with God that His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours, and we're not going to understand them all the time (Isaiah 55:9).  With Paul, we cry out, "Oh, the…

Crisis situations often make us wonder if God sees our suffering or hears our cries.  God can seem distant and unconcerned with our troubles.  But Scripture shows us over and over that nothing could be further from the truth.

Joseph must have wondered if God cared about his ordeals as he was carried off into slavery and again as he languished in prison.  He must have questioned why God would allow his brothers to sell him into slavery, why the lies of Potiphar's wife could land him in…

Perhaps the most famous cry of "Why" in the Bible came from the mouth of our Savior as he was dying on the cross.  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

Jesus was quoting the beginning to Psalm 22, which we looked at previously.  In Jesus' case, of course, he had known in advance the agony he would suffer; in fact, he had prayed earnestly that he could be spared that agony (Matthew 26:36-42) - not just the physical agony of torture and crucifixion, but I suspect…

The Presidential Prayer Team daily prayer page today mentions that it's 100 days to the mid-term elections.  With division in our country running so high and questions still surrounding alleged attempts to interfere with the 2016 elections, we need God's intervention both to protect our election process and to put in place leaders who will honor him.  How should we then pray?  This is the first of a series of posts with thoughts on how to pray for our upcoming…