Praying without Doubting

For those who are keeping up with our "Girls Book Club" or those who are moving through these thoughts via these posts, we have begun Chapter 3 : "Praying without Doubting". I can certainly relate to the title...often as I pray doubts of what I am praying creep in and I think if it hasn't happened by now it will never. Mr. Chapell points out "The basic problem with all definitions of believing prayer that make God the servant of our will is that the object of belief is misplaced. Proper belief is not unwavering confidence that something we want will happen, nor is it doubtless trust that WE know what is best. Our trust is NOT on the thing we want or in our sufficient faith. The success of our prayers does not lie in exceptional confidence that WE have pumped enough of our faith into our prayer (and extracted enough doubt) so that now God must respond. Our belief must be in God. HE, NOT OUR DESIRE, is the object of our faith."

He continues...""We pray believing that God is all-powerful, all-wise and infinitely loving--and we are not. We tell God our desires, for matters large and small, but always our greatest desire is that His will be done. We yield to God's will, because we BELIEVE that the Good Shepherd will provide only the absolute best. Thus when Jesus teaches us to ask and we will receive (Luke 11:9-10) he does so only after telling us that those who believe in Him ask for the will and purpose of God above all things (vv. 2-4). Praying in Jesus' name requires seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness with the absolute trust that God will then add all that is best for us (Matt. 6:31-33). "

Last week when we met to discuss Chapter 1 and 2, many tough questions were brought up. If we pray for a loved one to be healed and they are not...was it God's will for them to die? Where we not praying God's will?

We will look further at this questions this week...we will look at God's character...because it is in HIM that we find maybe not the answer but the rest in the uncertainty. Our limited mind can not comprehend the limitless. Our perspective is marred by selfishness and sin. But His ways are good...always.

If you have any thoughts or comments...please post them or e-mail them to me. This is a time for a rich look at God's Word.

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Hope you had a blessed Easter. Talk to you tomorrow!