Are You Listening?
The Book of Proverbs
Proverbs Chapter 28
Scripture= Proverbs chapter 28:9 (The Message)
God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.
Observations and Applications=
I don’t know about you, but I can get real frustrated when somebody asks me for some advice, I tell them exactly what they need to do, and they don’t even bother to do what I told them.
It really gets on my nerves if then the same person comes back again and again with the same results. After a while what would you say to them? Would you even listen to them? Would you give them advice? I am sure that I would tell them to forget about it. I would probably tell them to stop wasting my time. Sometime during the conversation I am sure I would interject, “it doesn’t matter what I say; you are not going to listen to me anyway!” This whole melodrama would be an exercise in futility.
I know that God answers our prayers. There is not a doubt in my mind concerning that. I wonder however, if the scenario that I created above doesn’t in some way reflect our requests to God? He is the only one who can judge our hearts and our motives so he knows if we would listen to him. Why would he answer a prayer when he knows the request is not even sincere? Is it even a real prayer if I have no intentions of responding to the answer? Could I then accuse God of not answering my prayers if the prayer was not even a real prayer?
Solomon states in Proverbs 28:9, “God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.” Maybe our unanswered prayers have more to do with the issues of our own hearts than an inattentive God? In other words; maybe our prayers remain unanswered because of what is in our hearts when we ask? (See James 4:3ff.)
Prayer= Lord, I want to pray in according to your will and plan for my life and not my own! I do not even know what is best for me. You know me better than I know myself. Help me to ask you how I should even pray. When I pray what you are praying over me and I pray according to your word than I can have confidence in your response to my prayers.
Proverbs Chapter 28
Scripture= Proverbs chapter 28:9 (The Message)
God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.
Observations and Applications=
I don’t know about you, but I can get real frustrated when somebody asks me for some advice, I tell them exactly what they need to do, and they don’t even bother to do what I told them.
It really gets on my nerves if then the same person comes back again and again with the same results. After a while what would you say to them? Would you even listen to them? Would you give them advice? I am sure that I would tell them to forget about it. I would probably tell them to stop wasting my time. Sometime during the conversation I am sure I would interject, “it doesn’t matter what I say; you are not going to listen to me anyway!” This whole melodrama would be an exercise in futility.
I know that God answers our prayers. There is not a doubt in my mind concerning that. I wonder however, if the scenario that I created above doesn’t in some way reflect our requests to God? He is the only one who can judge our hearts and our motives so he knows if we would listen to him. Why would he answer a prayer when he knows the request is not even sincere? Is it even a real prayer if I have no intentions of responding to the answer? Could I then accuse God of not answering my prayers if the prayer was not even a real prayer?
Solomon states in Proverbs 28:9, “God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.” Maybe our unanswered prayers have more to do with the issues of our own hearts than an inattentive God? In other words; maybe our prayers remain unanswered because of what is in our hearts when we ask? (See James 4:3ff.)
Prayer= Lord, I want to pray in according to your will and plan for my life and not my own! I do not even know what is best for me. You know me better than I know myself. Help me to ask you how I should even pray. When I pray what you are praying over me and I pray according to your word than I can have confidence in your response to my prayers.
