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Transcript 566A
Some Guidelines Regarding Prayer
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a question on prayer. My husband and I own some property in another state, a house. And we've been trying to sell it for over a year, and I've been faithfully praying every night and every day about it, and waiting for the Lord's answer. And my husband was talking with another Christian last week, and this particular Christian (my husband had shared the burden with him) said, "Let's pray about it right now," and they did. And this Christian asked the Lord if we would sell our house in a month. And my question is, is this proper, to put a time limit on the Lord? Or should we ask Him to give us an answer in a month, or is that something that shouldn't be done?
And another question I have is, could you give me some guidelines as to how I should pray about something that hasn't been answered for a year? I know prayer is just a really important subject, and even the disciples had problems with it because they asked Jesus how to pray. And so these are my two questions.
HC: Yes. The question is, how are we to pray? Are we to set up time frameworks in what we're asking God about?
You know, we have to remember what prayer is, and we have to remember to whom we are praying. We're not praying to someone that we're making bargains with. We're not setting up conditions. We're not dictating to God in any sense whatsoever. Let's always keep this in mind.
Secondly, let's always keep in mind that God is sovereign, God knows exactly what is best in every situation. And we want to make certain that God's will be done.
All right. Specifically, you own a house in another state. You'd like to see it sold, you're asking a certain price for it. Obviously at some price it could be sold. But you have determined probably what you feel is the fair market value, and that is the price you would like to receive. And so you are praying the Lord that it might be sold at approximately that price.
Well now, first of all, how do you know that it's God's will that you are to receive that price? How do you know that it's God's will that you are to be free of this house, if it's some kind of a burden, or you need the money, or whatever? How do you know that God wants you to be free of that? Maybe God want's that house to be kind of a testing program in your life for the next several months. And if you pray, "Oh Lord, we're praying now by faith that this house will be sold in the next month," how can we dictate to God that way? Maybe it isn't God's will that it be sold in the next month, and we certainly aren't going to set up conditions. We don't want our will ever to be superimposed upon God's will.
And so we might pray, "Oh Lord, it is our desire that this house might be sold in the next month at fair market value." But then we better hasten to add in our heart, and maybe out loud also, "But oh Lord, you are sovereign in these matters, you know what is best for us. It may be that you have a different program altogether. You may want us to struggle with this matter for several more months so that we can learn patience, so that we can learn to trust in Thee a little bit more. Or maybe you have a better thing coming along. Maybe there's something on the horizon that we don't know about where it would be beneficial that we still owned the house two months hence. We don't know about these things. All we know is that we've put it up for sale, and we've tried to put a reasonable price on it, and there is no buyer for it. And oh Lord, we wait upon Thee in this matter. And if it is your will that something else ought to be done, then incline our hearts that way." But under no circumstance do we want to dictate to God.
You know, prayer is that marvelous privilege we have of unloading ourselves to God. You know, the Bible says in Philippians 4:6, "Don't be anxious about anything." In the King James it says, "Be careful for nothing." It really means, don't be anxious about anything. Now you're anxious about that house. Will it be sold? We need the money, so on and so on and so on. And the Bible says, "Don't be anxious about anything. But in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving."
In other words, we supplicate before God. We don't deserve the privilege of talking to Him. We come as a suppliant, someone who is undeserving altogether. We're really begging of God, could this be possible? And yet not our will, but Thine be done "with thanksgiving." We've got so much to be thankful for. After all whether that house is sold or not really doesn't make one bit of difference insofar as our eternal salvation is concerned. We're only strangers in this world, passing through. Whether we have a lot of money or a little money, or a little bit more or a little bit less, ultimately it's not really important because we can't take a penny with us. And we want to focus our eye on the fact that the all important thing is that we are saved. We thank God for that. We thank Him for the privilege of telling Him our desires. We thank Him for the fact that we know that His will is better than ours, and that we can rest in His will, knowing that whatever it is, it is going to be the best program.
And then what does God say? He gives us a promise. We come to Him with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, and "the peace of God that passeth understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." He doesn't say that He's going to solve our problems, does He? He doesn't say that He's going to immediately bring a solution to this matter that we are so earnestly seeking. He simply says that He will give us His peace. We will learn afresh to rest in Him, knowing that it's all going to turn out all right in the end, although maybe we've got a lot of patience to learn before it's all ended.
This is one of our major problems. We're so impatient. We think if we've waited for something for a year or two, or maybe three years or four years, that we've waited a long time and now, Lord, you'd better get with it. Somehow you're not doing very well on our behalf. But stop to think of it. How many of us, and how many of our friends were not saved until they were sixty years of age or older? And God of course knew that He was going to save this person, because it was God's program to save those whom He has chosen. And yet God patiently waited – one year, two years, three years, four years, five years, ten years, twenty years, thirty years forty years, fifty years – and that person still did not surrender his will to Christ And then finally God has to put the pressure on him a little more, and He begins to open the eyes of that person. And at the age of sixty or seventy salvation comes. How patient God is! How patient God is!
And if God can wait these kind of years, then we can learn to have a little of that patience also.