Obedience and Prayer
When I think about the importance of obedience in the Christian life, nothing seems more confusing than obedience as it relates to prayer. After all, if I am to expect answered prayer then I must meet the conditions. In other words, I must obey, isn’t that right? Let’s think about that in the second statement in this series.
Statement 2: Answered Prayer is Conditioned on My Obedience.
As a young Christian (more years ago than I care to admit) I was puzzled by many things. One of the greatest ‘puzzlements’ for me was what to do with the promises of God. Could I claim verses like, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14 NKJ) Did that promise belong to me? I learned that if I was a ‘spiritual’ Christian as opposed to a ‘carnal’ one then maybe I could, from time to time, claim these two verses as my own and God would answer!
So, knowing that God promised to answer my prayers if I asked in His Name, and knowing that He also promises to care of all our needs, I took my 1977 Plymouth Arrow to the shop for repairs fully expecting that God would provide even though I was about $80.00 short. I would just stay there at the shop till God came through! As the morning drew on and the car was getting close to being finished I wasn’t sure what to do, so I waited – all day – until about an hour before the shop was to close. No one had driven up to hand me the $80.00 I needed to finish paying for the repairs. I caved! My faith ‘failed’ me and I called a friend who loaned me the money which I didn’t pay back until several years later. My young Christian life of prayer and faith was raising more issues than I could handle. Why had God not answered? I was sincere, I believed – or at least thought I did!
So, since God is ALWAYS faithful, the problem must have been something in me, or better said, something lacking in my obedience. After all, didn’t Jesus say back in John 14, in the very next verse, ‘”If you love Me, keep My commandments?” Conclusion – I messed up – God didn’t come through because I didn’t meet up to the standards! God was not obligated to hear and answer my prayer because I had not been obedient enough. On top of that are the words in John’s Gospel, “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.” (Joh 9:31 NKJ) (yes, I know that’s out of context, but tell that to a young believer). Surely, I was the one at fault, not God! Was I right?
If you go on the internet and type in ‘conditions for answered prayer’ you will get a couple of hundred thousand hits. A lot of the sites give you a list of from 10 to 14 conditions you need to fulfill if you want God to listen and answer your prayer. I took a test on one of the sites, and I failed! Guess I can forget about God answering any of my prayers today! And, yes, they do use verses like John 9:31 out of context. Talk about confused! The more I read the Bible and compiled the conditions listed there for answered prayer, I began to despair of EVER getting a prayer answered!
Most of us tend to live our lives in this ‘if we do our part, God will do His,’ sort of mode, largely because that’s the way the church has presented the Christian faith to us. That’s doubly so when it comes to prayer. God can’t be as capricious as it sometimes seems to us, so the problem must lie with us!
I found myself making excuses for both God AND myself! Perhaps He put all those conditions on answered prayer to keep us from bothering Him. I just knew my prayers weren’t important enough, and I wasn’t good enough to get God’s attention anyway. And then one day it dawned on me, or the Spirit told me, or God impressed me (you choose), my problem was, and still is, PRESUMPTION! Here I was again with the focus on ME and not on God! Hadn’t the Psalmist written in Psalm 19:13 (NKJV),
“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.”
WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH ALL THOSE PROMISES AND CONDITIONS?
Listen, I have some good news for you! If you have been busy trying to meet the ‘standard’ in order to either get God to bless you (or like you, or take you seriously), or to ‘stave off the curse’ (‘cause God will get you if you aren’t trying REAL hard), or simply to get Him to answer your prayers; STOP IT! All of God’s requirements have already been met in your life my Christian friend – they have been met in Jesus Christ.
As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
Most of us readily acknowledge that we cannot earn our salvation by our good works. Why is it we think we have to check the box and fill the square in order to please our Heavenly Father who loved us before the foundation of the world and sent His Son to die in our place? Truth is, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” (2 Co 9:8 NKJ) And so, what about getting my prayers answered? Honestly, Jesus is the answer to ALL my prayers, and as I grow in Him, it isn’t my presumptive need for Him to keep me healthy, wealthy and wise that He must meet BECAUSE I obeyed – rather, it is JESUS’ will and HIS GLORY I seek through my prayers. With Jesus as my focus, and knowing that He has already met the conditions -I expect He will answer a lot more of my prayers!
This was a hard topic to start with but you came through again. Prayer is probably one of the hardest concepts to get right.
“God is supposed to answer my prayer!” we think. Where do you get that? In fact He does but you just might not always like the answer. We don’t like the answer “no” at all and “wait” is not far behind. Also we think prayer is only coming to God asking for things we want Him to do for us. It is so much more. Children have lots more to say to their parents than, “I want . . .” but we don’t seem to have much else to say to our Father but, “I want . . .” And there’s the other side of the coin that is mostly forgotten – listening to our Father.
You also hit on another topic – that of conditions. I don’t know who started using the phrase “unconditional love” in their prayers but I have a problem. Call it semantics if you like but it is important to me. I don’t think of God’s love or His answering prayers as being unconditional. The NIV uses the word “unfailing” all through the Bible. I can give many, many references. God’s love is unfailing; it NEVER fails. His listening to our prayers and acknowledging our needs are unfailing. He knows our needs before we even ask. One reason we ask is so we recognize His answer when our prayers are answered. But I don’t think God is an unconditional God. You said as much in your blog. We tend to forget that HE IS GOD. We answer to Him, not He to us. I am reminded that in Jesus’ prayer for the disciples He said that we are to ask that our sins be forgiven as we forgive others. Sounds like a condition. Here’s another one from Matthew 10: If you acknowledge Me before men I will acknowledge you before the Father but if you denounce me before men then I will denounce you before the Father. (my paraphrase) Again, sounds like a condition. I mentioned this concept to someone you know and love once. I may have been heard on this one.
Thank you for taking the time to write those things we need to hear and to listen in return.
Bobbi,
The thing I liked best about your reply here was your changing ‘unconditional’ to ‘unfailing. I absolutely agree with your thoughtful reply. And the ‘forgiveness’ condition you mention is very sobering and one of only two that I have found compelling in Scripture. If I can remember the other one, I’ll let you know LOL! Thanks for reading all this!
Back in the dark ages when I was at Montreat-Anderson Junior College, Calvin Thielman was the pastor and chaplain to the students. (One of my bench mark preachers.) I remember one of his quotes. He said, “There is no growth without obedience.” McArthur put it this way: “Obedience is the proof of love.” Children don’t always get that concept but I keep plugging away at it anyway. Maybe one day it will click. And maybe one day it will click with God’s children, too. Most importantly, let’s not forget what Samuel said in I Samuel 15 – “To obey is better than sacrifice.” What God wants sacrificed is our hearts – totally, completely sold out to Him.
I just read an article about taking off our crowns and casting them at Jesus’ feet as the 24 Elders did in Revelation. We must take ourselves off the throne and allow Jesus His rightful place. Easier said than done. We have so many idols. That’s the reason I love Jonathan so much. Jonathan is my hero. He was next in line for the throne after Saul but Jonathan knew that God had chosen David for that position. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jonathan abdicated the throne in favor of David. He did it willingly and joyfully because David was his friend. Big lesson in there for all of us.
Back in the dark ages when I was at Montreat-Anderson Junior College, Calvin Thielman was the pastor and chaplain to the students. (One of my bench mark preachers.) I remember one of his quotes. He said, “There is no growth without obedience.” McArthur put it this way: “Obedience is the proof of love.” Children don’t always get that concept but I keep plugging away at it anyway. Maybe one day it will click. And maybe one day it will click with God’s children, too. Most importantly, let’s not forget what Samuel said in I Samuel 15 – “To obey is better than sacrifice.” What God wants sacrificed is our hearts – totally, completely sold out to Him.
I just read an article about taking off our crowns and casting them at Jesus’ feet as the 24 Elders did in Revelation. We must take ourselves off the throne and allow Jesus His rightful place. Easier said than done. We have so many idols. That’s the reason I love Jonathan so much. Jonathan is my hero. He was next in line for the throne after Saul but Jonathan knew that God had chosen David for that position. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jonathan abdicated the throne in favor of David. He did it willingly and joyfully because David was his friend. Big lesson in there for all of us.
Back in the dark ages when I was at Montreat-Anderson Junior College, Calvin Thielman was the pastor and chaplain to the students. (One of my bench mark preachers.) I remember one of his quotes. He said, “There is no growth without obedience.” McArthur put it this way: “Obedience is the proof of love.” Children don’t always get that concept but I keep plugging away at it anyway. Maybe one day it will click. And maybe one day it will click with God’s children, too. Most importantly, let’s not forget what Samuel said in I Samuel 15 – “To obey is better than sacrifice.” What God wants sacrificed is our hearts – totally, completely sold out to Him.
I just read an article about taking off our crowns and casting them at Jesus’ feet as the 24 Elders did in Revelation. We must take ourselves off the throne and allow Jesus His rightful place. Easier said than done. We have so many idols. That’s the reason I love Jonathan so much. Jonathan is my hero. He was next in line for the throne after Saul but Jonathan knew that God had chosen David for that position. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jonathan abdicated the throne in favor of David. He did it willingly and joyfully because David was his friend. Big lesson in there for all of us.