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Aaron Liford
Apostolic Blogger, Podcaster and Speaker. I help apostolics grow in faith, prayer and stewardship so they effectively serve God, family and community. http://aaronliford.com
nice--i think we are too often taught to pray to God as Santa Claus. I might change #5 to 'Praying for healing, but refusing to see that your choices have made you sick.'
nice--i think we are too often taught to pray to God as Santa Claus. I might change #5 to 'Praying for healing, but refusing to see that your choices have made you sick.'
Even if my choices have made me sick, I shouldn't pray for healing?
Have you not ever created a troublesome situation for yourself where the Lord in His Grace didn't bring you out?
I need to check out this list.
But I can't see the list cuz my work computer won't let me. Will someone copy the list for me?
I'd like to know about this list of prayers that I shouldn't pray to my Daddy.
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"The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character."
Last edited by Jermyn Davidson; 11-25-2014 at 12:23 PM.
1. For a girlfriend or boyfriend
2. For a particular Job or promotion
3. To take emotions away
4. For God to fix our situations
5. For healing but refusing to see a doctor
6. For God to show you a sign
7. For God to judge someone who did you wrong
8. For God to get you out of debt
Hope you can check out the site, because each of these have an explanation with them.
Even if my choices have made me sick, I shouldn't pray for healing?
Have you not ever created a troublesome situation for yourself where the Lord in His Grace didn't bring you out?
I need to check out this list.
But I can't see the list cuz my work computer won't let me. Will someone copy the list for me?
I'd like to know about this list of prayers that I shouldn't pray to my Daddy.
well, i would say that it comes down to cases, and might depend upon whether they are ignorant v willful choices; but i am not God. But neither am i praying for healing for a pre-diabetic eating a bowl of white rice, lol.
I'm pretty sure we get what we deserve, and i don't find amelioration of the consequences of sin--at least while still on earth--being forwarded in Scripture, do you? We might be forgiven, but still must live with the consequences of our sins, imo. I'll c/p the list for you...
This seems to be a popular one among us. Now, I haven’t ever made this specific prayer but prayers closely related to it. However, I have noticed a lot of apostolics on social media that have prayer requests asking God to help them find a boyfriend or girlfriend.
There are a few things wrong with this prayer. First, boyfriend and girlfriend types of relationships were never sanctioned by God. The only romantic relationship that God has ordained is marriage. So asking God to help you find a boyfriend or girlfriend would be asking him to do something that he doesn’t agree with.
Instead, if we feel like we are ready for marriage then we should ask God to bless us with a godly spouse. Otherwise, what is the point of being in a dating relationship? If you are not ready for marriage then you shouldn’t be involved with anyone romantically.
Also, while waiting for marriage we should ask God to prepare us for marriage. Furthermore, beyond praying then you should look for resources to help you prepare for marriage. Be the answer to your own prayer.
2. For a particular Job or promotion
Now don’t get me wrong. It is admirable to desire a promotion or a specific job. However, we shouldn’t limit God to our own desires and thinking. There is a possibility that God can have so much in store for us beyond a specific job or promotion.
Furthermore, when looking at a specific job or promotion we are only looking at what can be seen. We also only look at the positives that may come with that position. However, God knows all and sees all. Ultimately God knows if a specific position will be best for us or not.
Therefore, instead of praying for a specific job or promotion we should be praying for the blessings of God. In another post I mentioned that the “blessings of God maketh rich and adds no sorrow.” There is the possibility that the job or promotion that we are praying for is not a blessing and can lead to sorrow.
3. To take emotions away
One lesson that I have learned from God is that we cannot ask him to take emotions away from us. I have prayed this before as a result of being broken hearted or being mocked. Things like that hurt me and I have asked God to take the hurt away.
Don’t get me wrong, God is a healer and he is able to heal us emotionally. But he cannot and will not take away our emotions. He has given us free will. To take away our emotions that would be violating our free will.
Also, emotions are attached to our fleshly desires and passions. So a lot of the times when our emotions are getting the best of us it simply of a result of us being led by the flesh. Instead we need to get ourselves back to a position where we are being led of the Spirit.
Even more important is if we are praying for God to remove the pain then we need to remove ourselves from the situation that is causing the pain. Many times I have seen people pray for God to remove the pain of being cheated on by a non-believing boyfriend/girlfriend but they refuse to remove themselves from that relationship. That is oxymoron.
Another suggestion that I would make is that instead of asking God to remove our emotions we should pray that God heal us emotionally. Now this healing process may not be over night. A lot of times a healing process will take time but God is faithful. He will heal our wounds by pouring in the oil and wine.
4. For God to fix our situations
There have been times that I have been in some rough situations and asked God to fix it. Afterwards after nothing changing in my situation I would wonder why God isn’t answering. It isn’t that God doesn’t hear me, he just isn’t answering.
Then I realized when I pray for God to fix a situation its like I am praying and asking him to do something at the blink of an eye. Its almost like I am asking him to do magic. We have the misconception about prayer where we think that praying is like performing magic.
God is not our little Genie in a bottle. I have learned that you have to be specific with God when praying to him. A lot of times God will answer our prayer just not in the way that we expected. Or he will just provide us with a really general answer.
In order to be effective we need to be specific in our prayers. Instead of asking God to fix a situation we need to ask him for direction and the steps to make that will fix the situation. This has helped so much in my prayer life.
5. For healing but refusing to see a doctor
Now this may start a controversy because I know some of us apostolics don’t believe in medicine or going to a doctor. We depend on divine healing from God. There are some of us that believe that we should go directly to God for healing and not man.
I don’t disagree with that opinion but I believe that we need to stop asking God for healing if we don’t plan to take corrective actions. Many times when we pray for healing from God he is willing to heal us but we have to take the appropriate steps. For example, if we are battling high blood pressure then we need not only to pray but also make changes in our diet.
Also, there are many natural remedies that can help the healing process. Now I don’t agree with going to a doctor and getting medicated on chemicals that will make us live like zombies. However, I do appreciate doctors that can provide natural remedies. Altogether, we shouldn’t pray for healing if we are not willing to make corrective actions.
6. For God to show you a sign
Now this is another prayer that I have been guilty of making. There are times when I have proposed to God to give me a sign if he wants me to do the thing that I am praying about. People call this the “fleecing” method that only happened once in the Bible.
Again, this is almost like magic. We are asking God to perform some magic trick for us so that we know to do something or not. God is not going to answer this.
Instead, we need to do a few things in order to make the right decision. First, we should consider if what we are going to do is against the word of God or not. Secondly, we should ask God to give us the wisdom to make the right decisions. Thirdly, we need to seek counsel. The Bible states that there is safety in the multitude of counsel.
7. For God to judge someone who did you wrong
There are times where we may have been mistreated and hurt. Most of the time we say that we forgive them and leave it in God’s hands. Then while waiting for God to do something to them we get frustrated because it seems that they got away with murder. So we pray God to take vengeance.
This shouldn’t be the case. Some may disagree with me and say “well David prayed that God would destroy his enemies.” My response to that is Jesus said to bless your enemies. So who is greater David or Jesus?
It is hard to get to a position and truly ask God to forgive and bless someone. It just doesn’t feel right or feel good. But in order to be like Christ we have to be able to pray “God please forgive them for they know not what they do.”
8. For God to get you out of debt
This is another prayer that I used to foolishly make. If you have read my previous posts of The Misconceptions of the Blessings of God then you know I shared my story of how I got myself into a financial bondage. During these times of stress I would pray for God to get me out of debt.
However, we know that God doesn’t perform magic. He isn’t just going to make thousands of dollars of debt disappear at the snap of a finger. Instead, we need to pray that God give us the wisdom to make the right decisions when managing the blessings that he has given us.
Furthermore, we will need to make some adjustments in our spending habits. We will need to learn how to downsize instead of always buying the newest and shiniest thing that is out. We need to learn how to be content.
exactly what I was thinking. I think people shouldn't tell you what not to pray for, but instead to start encouraging others to pray. Some of the things may be vain or even in wrong attitude (like praying against your enemies), but lets be real with ourselves because God already knows our hearts anyway. I believe we should talk to whatever it is on our hearts and asks God everyday to lead us in the paths we should go.
Philippians 4:6 seems to indicate that God wants us to pray about everything.
If we recognize that He may not grant all petitions, that sometimes we may ask amiss out of the flesh, or that something may not be His will for us at a given moment (or ever), we should then be able to comfortably talk to God like the Father He is about every single thing on our mind, including about the things on this list.
How else do we receive wonderful counsel from the Wonderful Counselor if we don't talk to Him about "stuff".
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For anyone devoted to His fear:
Will someone copy the list for me?
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