Saturday, July 20, 2013

How Many Times Should I Ask God For Something?

The answer to this question is that you should ask until you
get the answer.

When you believe you have the answer, it would be silly to ask
again.

But how should you determine when you get the answer? What
evidence will you require to believe you have the answer?

What will God have to do before you will believe He has granted
your request? Will God need to send an angel to tell you your
request is granted? Will you have to wait until all the
circumstances change and everyone sees the answer show up in
your life?

Or, will you simply accept God's Word as sufficient evidence to
believe God has granted your request?

Jesus said in Mark 11:24 that we are to believe we receive the
answer when we pray. The key to receiving from God is not long
praying, but faith. What we believe is what makes the
difference.

God gave us the Bible to change what we believe, so we could
know His will, pray in agreement with His will, and therefore
have confidence that our requests are granted.

MATTHEW 6:7 NKJ
7 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the
heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their
many words.

In Matthew 6:7 Jesus warned against using "vain repetition" in
prayer, but this probably means more than just making the same
request more than once. It cannot always be wrong to repeat a
prayer, because Jesus prayed the same words three times in
Matthew 26:44. It depends on what kind of prayer it is.

It is appropriate to repeat some prayers, like those found in
Ephesians asking for believers to be filled with the knowledge
of God's will with all understanding. That is not a prayer you
can just pray once and believe you receive the full answer
immediately.

But when we ask God for some material thing, we should not need
to ask more than once. We should believe God granted our
request when we prayed. So it is not appropriate to ask God
again, but only to thank Him.

What is vain repetition? Something that is useless and makes no
difference.

MATTHEW 6:7 ERV
7 "And when you pray, don't be like the people who don't know
God. They say the same things again and again. They think that
if they say it enough, their god will hear them.

Successfully praying to receive things is not a matter of
wearing God down with repeated requests until He finally gives
in and grants your request.

Jesus taught that what we receive through prayer is a matter of
what we believe. Mark 11:24 tells us that when we pray we are
to believe we receive our answer when we pray.

If we believe we receive the answer to our prayer, there is no
need to continue asking for that request. There is no need to
keep asking for something we already have.

We don't have to believe we are in possession of what we
requested, but simply that God has granted our request and the
answer is on its way to us.

How many times would you ask a friend to do something for you?
Unless you are forgetful or crazy, you would only ask them
until they said yes. Once they said they will do something for
you, if you trust them, you know they will do it. Continuing to
ask them to do something after they already agreed to do it
would be rude and disrespectful.

MATTHEW 21:22 NKJ
22 "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will
receive."

The key factor is what you believe. If you don't believe God
heard and answered your prayer, then you need to pray again.
But you need to recognize that the fault is not with God, but
with you.

Jesus taught that to receive from God we must ask in faith. If
we are not prepared to believe we receive the answer when we
pray, then we are not ready to pray for that request.

We have no business praying for something we do not believe is
God's will. But if we pray in agreement with God's will, then
we should know we have the answer.

1 JOHN 5:14-15 NKJ
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

"What then am I to pray about? What do I say tomorrow during my
prayer time?"

If you believe you received the answer "yes" from God today in
regard to your request, then tomorrow when you talk to God
about it, you should say "Thank You!" "Thank You that You are
working and the answer is coming. Thank You for answering my
prayer. Thank You that things are working out good."

"But," you say, "nothing has changed yet!"

If you think that, it shows you are basing your beliefs
entirely on the information coming from your circumstances. You
are not accepting God's Word as worthy evidence. You have not
believed that God granted your request and the answer is on its
way. With this approach, you cannot expect very good results in
prayer.

SAY THIS: There is no need to ask for something after it has
been granted to you.

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