Low on the Go!

part 1.5 in a series of blogs on Prayer.

So, what is prayer? Well the question is out there.. feel free to reply... "talking to God/conversations with God" is taking the lead. Although, i must say, i like Adam's comment about what prayer is as well.

But before i get into 'theology'...i suppose i'd like to be real and honest and ask questions that none of us ever ask about prayer. i'd like to ask the questions that i have deep down..and we'll go from there. i'll admit that in asking these, i may sound like a doubter--i don't deny this. maybe i'll sound like an immature believer--i also don't deny this. and i'll be the first to admit that i don't have the answers...and even when we look into what the Word says, i'm quite sure that in perusing scripture, more questions than answers will be thought up... but if i claim that i love Christ, and if i don't want to be a liar when i sing "i want to know you, i want to see your face" then i better start seeking eh? Lets be honest with each other. if you're reading STILL reading this blog, maybe something has caught your attention (haha, maybe my heathenistic tendencies)..or maybe like me, you have questions. For the longest time, i've been scared to ask these questions--perhaps more scared to be labelled as a 'Thomas'. But lets be honest. Who doesn't doubt? And without the existence of doubt, can faith exist? If we were all 100% sure about every single thing out there, then why would we even need faith? So, i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that...i'm probably not the only one asking these questions. And even if i am..y'all can all snicker and laugh as i puzzle my way through this. intelligent thoughts...or even just thoughts would be much appreciated. So without further adieu, here are some of the questions i've been asking lately.

Mark 11..there's a hefty promise in here.

"Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."~Mark 11:22-24.

So my question is..is such undoubting faith possible? Can i ask for anything at all? Anything i want? If i ask for $5 million dollars to appear on my chair RIGHT THIS INSTANT, and wholly believe it will happen..does that mean that God will answer my prayer in the way i want it answered?

And i'd have to say...the answer to my own question is... NO, probably not. i think that even beyond just past experiences, the Bible also backs me up on this.

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

and

1 John 5:14
and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.

So, as my good friend Johnny Pipes (okay, so maybe John Piper isn't my good friend...but i'm sure if he was my age and i knew him, we'd be bosom buddies....) puts it (lydia paraphrase)..there is a clause on Mark 11:24. Namely that what we ask for must be according to God's will. That it isn't a carte blanche (blank cheque).

To quote J Pips as Darren calls him, " Therefore, in answer to our old question, 'What do answers to prayer depend on?' I would say they depend on asking for the right things. 1 John 5:14 is the most explicit text on this matter. The right things to ask for are things that accord with God's will. When Jesus said, 'Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours,' He meant whatever you ask that accords with God's will, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
Now that brings us to the second word in Mark 11:23 and 24 which needs to be clarified, namely, the word 'believe,' 'Believe that you have received it and it will be yours.' Or as vs. 23 says, 'whoever does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.' The crucial question that rises out of such statements is, 'How is such undoubting faith possible?' The only answer i can think of is that such undoubting faith is only possible if we know what God intends to do for those who believe. Or to put it another way, we can have undoubting faith if we know what God's will is in a particular situation. How can you keep from doubting if you don't know what God intends to do? How can anyone have the assurance that the answer to his prayer will come to pass if he is not first assured that this is what God intends to do in response to his faith? There has to be a basis for faith; you can't just will to have no doubts if you are not sure that what you are asking for is what God intends to do.
I have had the flu all week. But i have not been able to pray for healing with undoubting faith that it will happen. The reason is that i do not know the will of God in regard to my health. It may be that He intends me to be sick for 2 weeks that I might learn to rely not on myself but on God who raises the dead. And since I don't know what God intends to do about my health, it is impossible to have complete confidence that He will heal me when i ask Him..."

So, that's John Piper's viewpoint. If you don't know His will, just pray that His will would be done.

This however, seems to fly in the face of what Gregg Hinzelman always says.. "pray specifically!"

How can i pray specifically for things, if i don't know what God's will is in that situation. For example..we have a debate coming up on 'Does God Exist'. So, if i was to pray specifically..i'd pray for 250 people. However,according to Piper's line of thinking, i can't pray for 250 with undoubting faith because i have no clue what God's will is in that situation. His will could be that only one person shows up. Does that mean i shouldn't pray specifically?

And even when i have prayed specifically,(with reference to ministry at U of T) most of those prayers have not been answered in the way i wanted them to. This frankly, is disappointing to my human nature--even though i KNOW God must have better plans.

At the same time, i don't necessarily agree with the piper. my friend nathan says, "i'm just going to ask. I dont care what piper says...God said in Mark 11:24 that I can ask and believe that I have what I asked for."

This, intuitively...despite being somewhat nonsensical, appeals to me and seems to make sense? maybe its because thats the way i was raised?

i don't know. see? i'm OBVIOUSLY confused.

to be continued...