God Hears Your Prayers
Yes, I stumble across random posts by believers that are trying to give advice to other believers and it hurts. Seriously it hurts. First when my jaw hits the desk and then again when trying to do a triple face palm.
This post is a comment on one from altruisco, you might know them. He feels privileged that he can pray to a god and he is concerned that some might be discouraged when their prayers do not seem to be answered right away.
Our privilege of prayer is from God, and it is as much ours now as when it was given to Israel (Deuteronomy 4:7). Yet, when we pray or speak to the One in Heaven, there are times when He seems not to answer. There can be many reasons for this, and the Scriptures suggest why and how our prayers are being dealt with by the One who is so tender and loving, who Himself loves our communing with God the Father, for He, Himself, is our representative (Hebrews 4:15).
But don’t let George discourage you, let’s continue
A primary reason why prayer is unanswered is sin. God cannot be mocked or deceived, and He who sits enthroned above knows us intimately, down to our every thought (Psalm 139:1-4). If we are not walking in the Way or we harbor enmity in our hearts toward our brother or we ask for things with the wrong motives (such as from selfish desires), then we can expect God not to answer our prayer because He does not hear (2 Chronicles 7:14; Deuteronomy 28:23; Psalm 66:18; James 4:3). Sin is the “stopper” to all the potential blessings that we would receive from the infinite “bottle” of God’s mercy! Indeed, there are times when our prayers are heinous in the Lord’s sight, most notably when we clearly do not belong to the Lord either because of unbelief (Proverbs 15:8) or because we are practicing hypocrisy (Mark 12:40).
I’m thinking this guy has not read
Matthew 18:20 – For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them
Mark 11:24 – Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Another reason why prayer seems to go unanswered is that the Lord is drawing out of our faith a deeper reliance and trust in Him, which should bring out of us a deeper sense of gratitude, love and humility. In turn, this causes us to benefit spiritually, for He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34). Oh, how one feels for that poor Canaanite woman, who cried out incessantly to our Lord for mercy when He was visiting the region of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21-28)! She was hardly the person a Jewish rabbi would pay attention to. She was not a Jew and she was a woman, two reasons that Jews ignored her. The Lord doesn’t seem to answer her petitions, but He knew all about her situation. He may not have answered her stated needs immediately, but still He heard and granted her request.
It’s just a shame he doesn’t answer the prayers of those parents with starving children.
God may often seem silent to us, but He never sends us away empty-handed. Even if prayer has not been answered, we must rely upon God to do so in His own time. Even the exercise of prayer is a blessing to us; it is because of our faith that we are stirred to persist in prayer. It is faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6), and if our prayer life is wanting, does that not reflect our spiritual standing also? God hears our impoverished cries for mercy, and His silence inflames us with a sense of persistence in prayer. He loves us to reason with Him. Let us hunger for the things that are after God’s heart and let us walk in His ways and not our own. If we are faithful to pray without ceasing, then we are living in the will of God, and that can never be wrong (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18).
God always seems silent to starving children. He sends them to the grave empty handed and with empty stomachs. Yes, trust that your god will answer your prayer. It worked out so very well for those now dead starving children and their families. Those starving children must not have believed in god with enough fervor. Maybe they forgot to pray without ceasing.
myatheistlife 
Thanks for sharing! There are a lot of great atheist voices out there, but I often like to point people toward some of George Carlin’s work as a fun way to really stop and consider how illogical some of these beliefs are. I wish we had more George Carlin’s in comedy today.
I am not sure you have found this
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-questions-about-prayer-you-were-probably-too-embarrassed-to-ask
Oh thanks, that makes it all much better 🙂
“When we look to the Bible, we find that God’s people engage in a variety of positions when they pray.”
My favorite position to pray is doggie with Sarah pounding me with a strap-on. It’s spiritual and I often scream OH GOD OH GOD YES!! But I’ve had the moments in other positions and with a few guys as well as a few different girls. /shrug
Ah Michelle. This comment should win an award.
🙂 “Most truthful comment about using gods name award”? Yeah me!
I agree completely
Yeah but it wasn’t using the gods name in vane
Oh no. It was surely praising god. Nothing like an orgasm to make you quake, shake and shout. Isn’t that the best way to pray? I mean I was sort of on my knees.
But were your hands folded?
NO, I’m a bad person. /sob
Lol you just need more practice
Pray with me and show me how? I want to be good!!! Really. Good girls go to heaven when they die!
Wait, wait I am a bad girl and I can go to heaven every day without dying. I don’t wanna be good anymore!
I have never understood the idea of prayer. Even as a kid forced to go to church and prayer study groups I just did not get the idea that the almighty who was watching me all the time to make sure I did not touch my self or swear, who knew my heart, who heard all my private thoughts, needed me to then pray to him those same thoughts? Seemed silly, worse when I was praying to not be gay , or not be beaten, or not be molested, and nothing changed. So I stopped praying and I really stopped believing. The same people who dragged me to church dressed in fine clothes would think nothing of knocking a 7 or 8 year old small frail kid completely across the room after we got home for some slight I did not even know I did.
I don’t pray. I do believe there is energy in the universe, and our world. I have the idea that I can manipulate this energy to a small degree. I do not think it can make me fly or grant world peace, but I do think it can help me deal with things. So I sing , or talk , shape the energy in my heart, mind, and body to the things I need. The difference between this and prayer..well in prayer your asking some other entity to do all the work and do what you want to happen. My way is to use the energy gathered and shaped in me to help me to make things happen, to do what I need to in my life. One is asking someone else to do it all, the other is simply getting my self ready to do what I can and must do.
Also I don’t think of my beliefs as a religion nor do I think others should have them or share them. This is my program that works for me. If others want to ask me about it I will share my thoughts, but it is a personal thing and I encourage them to find their own ways. That is the difference I think between faith and religion. I think religion is the business of controlling people to transfer the wealth to the religious leaders, to the top level. Faith is personal to each of us and we use it to get what we need to function during our day. It doesn’t matter if it is true, made up, or just a silly ritual, if it is for one person alone and it helps them, great. Hugs
Followed you over from violetwisp, enjoyed your post. Reminded me of this video by darkmatter2525:
Ack, wrong link 🙂 This is the video (I hope!)
Dammit! Don’t know what I’m doing wrong, so sorry 😦 The video is called Atheist Comedy – God’s Priorities
Lol thanks for commenting
The video works fine skirty..I liked it!
As a former Pentecostal (pronounced “pretty hostile”), I especially enjoyed this precise moment:
Darkmatter2525 rocks
“A primary reason why prayer is unanswered is sin.”
F’ing Ssn of a bit*h that $hit makes me angry. Angry enough to swear like f’ing sailor! I primarily deconverted over prayer being proven bunk to me, and catholics tried to tell me it was cuz I had hidden sin in my life. I was even told god wouldn’t heal my disease or my son’s autism because I was so sinful my prayers couldn’t be heard. What was this sin? No one knew. Fuckers!
Well now, you can tell I’m having a very bad day with my sick son, and a glass of diluted wine has done nothing to improve my mood. If you like your blog to have a nice “tone” (as violetwisp likes a classy tone on her blog), feel free to delete my foul-mouthed rantings.
Nice rebuttal to the madness.
I do not censor even posts critical of me. None have been bad enough to consider it yet
Good for you! I try not to swear too much, but every now and then I feel certain topics deserve a foul-mouthed rant. Hidden sin and prayer is one of them. I feel better now that I got it out of my system. Thank you.
You are welcome
God, I love George! I wonder if he was wrong?
I don’t wonder. There’s no credible evidence to indicate that he was wrong. Without credible evidence everything devolves into ‘what ifs’ … the land of confusion. George brought a bit of clarity to it.
No. If I’m certain of anything, it’s that George was right. About everything.
It’s a strange skill, to be right that much
Christians should not offer glib answers. We all forget that this thing called faith…calls for…well, FAITH. And to reject faith is to put faith in disbelief.