James 4:1-3
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Have you ever wanted something REALLY bad? Enough that you were willing to do anything to get it? Even pray about it? God, if you'll just give me that ___________, I'll serve you forever. The Bible says that seeing your prayers answered isn't hard to understand, ask for the things God wants you to ask for and you'll receive them. It may not be hard to understand, but it is hard to follow through with.
How do you know what God wants you to ask for? I remember in the past I would pray for people to be healed, so that the testimony might benefit God's kingdom. That seems noble, right? And yet rarely did God answer those prayers. The reason is I didn't know what God wanted, because I hadn't spent enough time with Him to know His will. Sometimes God directs me to pray that way now, but I do it to follow His will, not because it sounds good.
-Jeff-
Heather said:
This is good! Prayer is something I have really been striving to understand. The Bible says that our prayer can be powerful and effective, but it can be difficult to know how to pray and what to pray for.