Genuinely Confused About Prayer

[Seeking Truth]

Hello.

A family member of mine has been extremely ill, he's in a critical condition and I've been praying desperately for his recovery. Like a lot of people probably do, I began researching prayer to see if there's a certain way to do it. Is it just the words we say? Or is there more to it? And I've become genuinely confused. I hear about having the right intentions and generating feelings of love and compassion when praying, seeing results as if they already happened. I don't really see anything wrong with those things but then I think about how we're told to be and do certain things, so the form the prayer takes can't be all there is... but then we're told our own righteousness is as filthy rags, so it can't be our own goodness that does anything. I don't want to do anything wrong that will grieve the Spirit of God...I'm not purposely trying to bypass God or use "enchantments" or anything like that, at the same time I don't want to dismiss something that may just be part of the natural world God created that we aren't aware of, if it would help my loved one. I just don't know what to think but I have a serious burden to pray for his recovery, probably more of a burden than I've ever experienced before. I don't have time to research everything there is to learn about prayer so I thought it would be a good idea to get some opinions and maybe some advice. What to do? What to do?

I'm sorry if this post is erratic, I'm quite tired and I'm feeling a bit frazzled right now tbh. Thanks in advance.

 

[Taken]

Prayer NEED NOT BE elaborate, lengthy or repetitive.

Address thee Heavenly Father.
Ask your pleas for your cousin in your cousins name.
A blessing of Comfort for your cousin? Healing of what? Be specific.
Thank the Lord for hearing you, for blessings He has given you, for your faith that He provides according to His WILL.
Bless His Holy name. And acknowledge your prayer is in Jesus' Precious Name.
Amen

Done.

God Bless,
Merry Christmas,
Taken

 

[Mayflower]

Prayer is just talking to God. Just tell Him what is on your heart.


Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;
in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB

God is definitely the great physician, but sometimes He chooses not to heal or does not heal right away. It is how we learn to trust Him. But He really does care for you, so much the Father sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins. So prayer is good to research, but you can say anything to God in any manner. He wants you to go to Him in prayer. I have had unanswered prayers, but many answered prayers in my life. There is a definite power there and I will keep you and your family member in prayer. My aunt has terminal cancer and was given an estimated 2 month time to live. I will pray for her until her last breath.

 

[Harvest 1874]

Welcome my friend as your namesake implies “seek and you shall find”.

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be *healed (Greek iaomai,). The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:13-16) “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Pet 3:12)

*The Greek, iaomai, has the significance of saved, as in "lest at any time they should see . . . and should be converted and I should heal (iaomai) them." (Matt 13:15) R4099:3

This healing especially applies to spiritual healing, however personally I see nothing wrong with praying for the relief of unnecessary pain and or suffering that a brother might be going through, would not the rest of the body seek to elevate the pain and suffering of another part of the body, for example would not the hand seek to comfort the foot if it were ailing?

“Now the Lord has put a special responsibility upon every member of the Church to look out for all the other members to the extent of ability and opportunity. Not that our intercessions would avail of themselves; it must be the intercession of our Advocate, the Lord Jesus.” R4598:1, 2

“From whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” (Eph 4:16)

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (thus denoting a fully consecrated man) avails much.”

The Lord has certain blessings and favors to bestow upon his saints ONLY upon condition that some other saint makes the request.

Now some are of the opinion that we (that is the saints, the fully consecrated) are not to pray for physical healing, with this we are in agreement (the flesh was surrendered as part of our covenant of sacrifice), however I believe the thought is that we are not to pray for physical relief and/or healing in ourselves, NOT for others (including the brethren). As individual saints we have consecrated ourselves to be spent and consumed upon the Lord’s altar, how this is accomplished and by what means the Lord only knows, thus if the Lord should take us in illness or disease we should except this as his will and look for the appropriate lesson or lessons which he designs to teach, sometimes however the lesson is not meant so much for the individual suffering the illness as it is for their loved ones.

Scripturally I cannot find any direct statements which inhibit the saints from praying for the physical healing of others especially family, friends, and loved ones. If the individual is consecrated then the Lord himself will determine just what if any suffering he might be willing to elevate, but we should not allow the erroneous thought that if one is consecrated that they are to be left to their own devices, and that to pray for such would prove of little or no avail due to their consecration. In praying for such we are not asking the Lord to change his will, to do our will, no we are merely asking that any unnecessary sufferings which the Lord might deem of little or no additional benefit to the individual might be elevated.

Thus my suggestion to you would be to seek those with whom you know or believe to be fully consecrated to the Lord and solicit their prayers on behalf of your loved one, the effective, fervent prayers of the righteous availing much.

 

[farouk]

Prayer is just talking to God. Just tell Him what is on your heart.


Rejoice always; pray without ceasing;
in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB

God is definitely the great physician, but sometimes He chooses not to heal or does not heal right away. It is how we learn to trust Him. But He really does care for you, so much the Father sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins. So prayer is good to research, but you can say anything to God in any manner. He wants you to go to Him in prayer. I have had unanswered prayers, but many answered prayers in my life. There is a definite power there and I will keep you and your family member in prayer. My aunt has terminal cancer and was given an estimated 2 month time to live. I will pray for her until her last breath.

We were thinking about those verses in 1 Thessalonians a church group last night!

 

[amadeus]

@Seeking Truth
Each person has a definite period of time allotted to him by God. Normally only God knows how long that time is and exactly when it ends. We find one example in the OT where King Hezekiah was told to get affairs in order as his time was upon him. Hezekiah prayed and was given 15 more years [II Kings 20]. During those extra 15 years we find perhaps the worst of criticisms against Hezekiah. Sometimes it is simply that it is God's time and we should be cautious with what we ask for.

Everyone has his time to die:

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die... " Ecc 3:1-2

But then in the NT we may read what James writes about prayer:

"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

What is a fervent prayer and who is a righteous man and what is much? Sometime even such a fervent prayer by a righteous man will not obtain the answer we seek because of God's will. We need to consider God's will in our expectations. Was Jesus a righteous man praying fervently here?

"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:... Matt 26:39

Three times Jesus prayed this same prayer but he also added these words each time:

"...nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

If we believe that it was God's will was for Jesus to accept the cup and drink it... that is, he was to allow himself to be tortured and to be crucified...
then we should understand the 'passing the cup from him' was not the Father's will. The suffering and death of Jesus was according to plan... God's plan or God's will.

So consider all these things, and then when you are already a righteous man pray fervently if you believe also that your prayer is according to God's will.

 

[Deborah_]

Prayer isn't about getting the "right" result.

Obviously, in a case like this, you do want your relative to get well. But there's absolutely no way you can 'pressurise' God or twist His arm...

All we can do is ask. There's no magic formula. Just keep asking. God loves you and your family - just remind yourself that He doesn't see things the way that we do, and that recovery may not in fact be the best outcome.

Put the situation into his hands and trust Him.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Hello.

A family member of mine has been extremely ill, he's in a critical condition and I've been praying desperately for his recovery. Like a lot of people probably do, I began researching prayer to see if there's a certain way to do it. Is it just the words we say? Or is there more to it? And I've become genuinely confused. I hear about having the right intentions and generating feelings of love and compassion when praying, seeing results as if they already happened. I don't really see anything wrong with those things but then I think about how we're told to be and do certain things, so the form the prayer takes can't be all there is... but then we're told our own righteousness is as filthy rags, so it can't be our own goodness that does anything. I don't want to do anything wrong that will grieve the Spirit of God...I'm not purposely trying to bypass God or use "enchantments" or anything like that, at the same time I don't want to dismiss something that may just be part of the natural world God created that we aren't aware of, if it would help my loved one. I just don't know what to think but I have a serious burden to pray for his recovery, probably more of a burden than I've ever experienced before. I don't have time to research everything there is to learn about prayer so I thought it would be a good idea to get some opinions and maybe some advice. What to do? What to do?

I'm sorry if this post is erratic, I'm quite tired and I'm feeling a bit frazzled right now tbh. Thanks in advance.

Greetings Seeking Truth, and welcome to Christianity Board. Glad you asked this question. Posts #2 and #3 contained some especially good insight, IMO. In fact, Post #2 was near perfect. But let me show you something in addition that might clear a few things up for you, and this may mostly be for future reference, since it will take building up a lifestyle in order to apply it.

But you made this statement. Let me quote it:

but then we're told our own righteousness is as filthy rags, so it can't be our own goodness that does anything.

Now this is certainly true if by "righteousness" you were referring to exactly HOW someone is supposed to say a prayer. Forget about your prayer having to have a certain form. He wants to hear you speak to Him from the heart. That's the only thing He will hear. The rest of it won't even get through.

But the scriptures actually teach that God hears the prayers of the righteous and the obedient. In John we have the blind man whom Jesus healed telling the Pharisees:

Now we know that God does not hear sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God and does His will, him He hears. (John 9:31)

This was actually the same thing James was saying in James 5:16:

Is anyone suffering hardships? Let him pray. Is anyone encouraged? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of the faith shall save the sick, the Lord shall raise him up. And if he may have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess, therefore, your sins to one another, and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great influence, and comes to realization. Elijah was a man of sufferings similar to us, and while in prayer he prayed for it not to rain and it did not rain upon the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout. (James 5:13-19)

What he was saying here is to call for the elders of the church to pray for the sick. Why? Because they were generally among the most righteous in the Christian community, and were therefore strong in faith to believe that He would answer their prayers. This is why he references "the prayer of a righteous man" in the next verse, and then goes on to talk about Elijah who had amazing prayers answered by God. The implication is that he had his prayers answered because he was obedient to God, even in the midst of great sufferings and persecution.

What I'm saying is this: Don't downplay the role of personal righteousness when it comes to prayer. In a time of need, seek to give yourself and your life ever-increasingly to Him. Certainly He loves you, but what inevitably comes into question (in your own heart) eventually is how much have you truly loved Him. That's not to say anything is your fault. This post is merely to show you that there is indeed great power in prayer, but that it takes great faith to receive great answers to prayer, and our faith in Him to grant us our requests is greatly strengthened when we walk in righteousness before Him.

Blessings in Christ, and welcome again. I hope you stay awhile.

 

[Frank Lee]

The shortest answered prayer?

Matthew 14:30 KJVS
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Forget about doing it right and just pour out your heart.

Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.

When you pour out, EMPTY OUT a vessel filled with water how do you do it just right? You don't. Just empty it.

When you really pour yourself out in prayer you are broken before him and simply say all that is on your heart. The love you feel for those you pray for is God's love in you.

If you are baptized in the Holy Spirit he will show you. Otherwise you will be as this;

Matthew 6:7 KJVS
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Prayer is a petition to the king. Remember that we must leave the results in his hands. Jesus showed us this.

And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
Matthew 26:39 NASB

Until you are baptized in the Holy Spirit you will never be able to pray effectively with the power and anointing of God.

May the Lord show you the way. Amen

 

[Prayer Warrior]

Hello.

A family member of mine has been extremely ill, he's in a critical condition and I've been praying desperately for his recovery. Like a lot of people probably do, I began researching prayer to see if there's a certain way to do it. Is it just the words we say? Or is there more to it? And I've become genuinely confused. I hear about having the right intentions and generating feelings of love and compassion when praying, seeing results as if they already happened. I don't really see anything wrong with those things but then I think about how we're told to be and do certain things, so the form the prayer takes can't be all there is... but then we're told our own righteousness is as filthy rags, so it can't be our own goodness that does anything. I don't want to do anything wrong that will grieve the Spirit of God...I'm not purposely trying to bypass God or use "enchantments" or anything like that, at the same time I don't want to dismiss something that may just be part of the natural world God created that we aren't aware of, if it would help my loved one. I just don't know what to think but I have a serious burden to pray for his recovery, probably more of a burden than I've ever experienced before. I don't have time to research everything there is to learn about prayer so I thought it would be a good idea to get some opinions and maybe some advice. What to do? What to do?

I'm sorry if this post is erratic, I'm quite tired and I'm feeling a bit frazzled right now tbh. Thanks in advance.

Hi, Seeking Truth, welcome!

This verse came to mind as I was reading your post.

1 John 5:14-15--Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.
​

For me, part of praying is waiting on the Holy Spirit to show me what to pray. Your burden to pray for recovery could indicate that this is God's will. When I don't know what to pray with my mind, I pray in the Spirit....

I pray that God will give you wisdom about these things as you seek His truth. And I pray that God's peace will prevail in your heart and mind.

Blessings!
Deborah

 

[farouk]

Hi, Seeking Truth, and welcome!

This verse came to mind as I was reading your post.

1 John 5:14-15--Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.
​

For me, part of praying is waiting on the Holy Spirit to show me what to pray. Your burden to pray for recovery could indicate that this is God's will. When I don't know what to pray with my mind, I pray in the Spirit....

I pray that God will give you wisdom about these things as you seek His truth. And I pray that God's peace will prevail in your heart and mind.

Blessings!
Deborah

Good also to look at the prayers of the Lord Jesus; in Romans 8.34 and Hebrews 7.25 He intercedes on behalf of all who in faith love Him and trust Him, and always on the basis of His death at the Cross in the place of sinners.