Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: srchtec!johnb@gatech.edu (John Baldwin) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: thorn in flesh etc. Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 90 07:44:54 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: search technology, inc. Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article etxtdi@diana4.ericsson.se (Tord Ivarsson TM/JLE 95406) writes: >Summary: The key to getting a prayer answered is to know what >the will of God is. It is only when I pray in accordance to >Gods will that I can count on an answer. Shouldn't that be rephrased as "only when I pray in accordance with God's will can I expect an affirmative answer?" ^^^^^^^^^^^ Otherwise, we "prevent" our Father from giving us two VERY GOOD responses to prayer, namely "NO" and "wait." As has been discussed before, "if God already knows everything, then why pray?" A good response to that, which has also been discussed before, is that 1) God commanded us to pray (which by itself should be enough), 2) it pleases our Father when His adopted children bring their requests to Him, and rely on Him, and 3) prayer has the uncanny effect of tending to bring our thoughts and desires in line with the Lord's will. There have been so many times that I've been praying, and found myself stopping suddenly with the thought, "I shouldn't be praying for THAT. I know what the scripture says, and I should be praying THIS way." When that happens, I ask forgiveness for asking for the wrong things, I express thankfulness for my Lord's gentle correction, and then I make my petitions and intercessions more in accordance with His will. I shudder to think how many opportunities for (gentle) correction I could have missed by failing to pray until I "knew" what God's will was! Come to think of it, I shudder to think about the opportunities I *have* missed by not praying! In His Love, john