Ok so I've been really caught up/exploring one subject in the Bible. Its logical....it makes sense.... and its completely insane by standard Christian traditional thought. (at least the Christians I talk to) Follow me here:
-God is Perfect. Meaning he cannot sin. No iffs ands or buts about that one.
-God is omniscient which means he knows everything, even the future. (i know i know, all common knowledge...follow me...)
-God makes us (his followers) Promises throughout the Bible.
-God cannot break his promises because that would be a lie and God cannot sin. (So God doesn't have to "Pinky Promise". His word is absolute)
-God knows the future so he knows he can keep these promises even before he made them.
-So the fact that God even made us promises MUST mean that he wants us to know them and to hold him to it!! Otherwise why even make a promise in the first place?
Example: If I make my brother a promise that I'll always pick him up if he's in a bad situation; I'm promising him that so he REMEMBERS it, USES it (if needed), and KNOWS that he can count on me to keep it. So if I do that with my promises, wouldn't a perfect God who knows the future WANT us to know his promises and use them?!
Its interesting to me that it makes people uncomfortable to say "I'm holding God to his promise", almost as if they are controlling God or being unfair to him. That's plain ridiculous. God made the promise so he's in control. He already knows the future and knows we'll hold him to it, so why would we be ashamed to hold him to it?? I think we're completely missing the point here. He's probably proud of anyone who DOES know his promises and holds him to them because it shows their faith in him. It has nothing to do with controlling God.
Now does that sound fair? If so, I'm about to make most Christians really uncomfortable now because I'm going to list one of his most controversial promises (excluding of course our Salvation through Jesus --I'm assuming if you're reading this you already believe that promise as all Christians do) This is a promise that Jesus himself gives us from his own mouth and its recorded in many different scriptures:
Matthew 6:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
Matthew 18:19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."
Matthew 21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Mark 9:23 "...Everything is possible for him who believes."
Mark 11:23-24 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
Luke 11:10 "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."
Luke 17:6 "He replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it will obey you'."
John 14:13-14 "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."
John 15:7 "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."
John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."
John 16:23-24 "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."Phew, that's a lot of verses. Why did I post them all and not just one or two? The reason is that I want to show the repetition to make it obvious how simple and powerful and NOT OUT OF CONTEXT this promise is... The promise is so simple and pure but I don't think many Christians sincerely believe it.
If you pray for anything in Jesus name, you will absolutely 100% receive it as long as you truly believe it. Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute there Chris. You can't just ask for ANYTHING, that's manipulating God. We have to make sure its God's Will first right? Right??? Well, what does Jesus say? Read those verses up there, and even read the entire bible chapter if you like to assure yourself that they are not all out of context. I can tell you they are not. Jesus says over and over again that we receive whatever we ask for in prayer. He never mentions God's Will. In fact, the only requirement of this promise is that you believe it. Belief or Faith is always mentioned by Jesus as a requirement of the promise.
So hold on, how does this work? Lets go extreme then, really extreme. Can we pray for God to sin? No, of course not. God is holy and perfect and cannot sin. Is this a hole in the promise then? No. You have to understand who Jesus was making these promises to. He wasn't promising these to any old guy off the street. This was a promise made to people that had received the Holy Spirit of God. This was implied from who Jesus was talking to but just so we have proof read John 15:7 again. He starts with, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you..." So clearly he is talking to true Believers with the Holy Spirit. So I don't think this would be a problem.
But lets get back to this, because this is HUGE, and life changing. This promise is SO generous and SO powerful because it gives us assurance that our prayers will be answered if we believe. The two reasons I think Christians really feel uncomfortable with this are 1: It seems as though we are controlling God and 2: Many people's prayers are not answered!
So how do we deal with these two issues? Well for the first one I actually feel that God gave me a great analogy to give it clarity. Lets say that there is a father and his son. The father promises the son that anytime he asks for it, he will give the son $10. This is a promise that's made out of love so the son will always know he can depend on his dad. Lets say the son needs a new t-shirt because his ripped and so he asks the dad for $10. Will his dad give it to him? Of course! He promised. Lets say the son wants to buy some candy for a sweet tooth. This is a selfish motive, so when he asks the dad for $10 what will he say....he'll say yes of course! Why? Because he promised! NOW lets say that the son is older and wants to buy some illegal drugs (extreme). He asks the father for $10. What will the father say? Will the father refuse him now because of his terrible motive? NO! The father will keep his promise while pleading with his son not to go down that dark path. Why won't the father just refuse the son? Because he promised!!! Does God keep his promises because WE ARE GOOD, or because HE IS GOOD? His keeping his promises has to do with HIS HOLINESS and PERFECTNESS, not to do with us! Does this make sense? If the father were to refuse his son the $10 because of his son's bad motivation, this would be BREAKING HIS PROMISE. See? God has to keep his promises to us because of HIS holiness!
Now the good news is that unlike the father in the example, God is omniscient and knew the future when he made the promise. He knew every single time someone would hold him to his promise and knew he could and would keep it. But here is something that you probably haven't heard before; just as God lovingly gave us free will to make good and bad choices, he also gives us the free will to use his promises wisely and unwisely. This means that you can potentially use this promise (and others) to pray for things that aren't necessarily in our best interests but God will still keep his promise. So it is very important that we seek out God's will first so that we can enjoy his plan for our lives.
This truth should be LIBERATING because it is a blessing that he has given his people. We should be joyful in knowing that we can put our whole weight on God's promises and he will keep them because he is perfect. We can know that if we really believe in our hearts, we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer in Jesus name.
So then what about the 2nd issue most Christians have with this point. All the unanswered prayers???!!! I mean its not like every single prayer is answered, I've sure prayed things that weren't answered and I'm sure others have as well. The answer is simple, we really didn't believe the way Jesus described. It would take too long to write down, but if you look at all the miracles Jesus does in the New Testament they all make it a point to record Jesus telling people it was because of their faith that the miracle was performed.
If our prayers aren't answered I'll go out on a limb and say its because we didn't have the faith Jesus talked about when he said"...does not doubt in his heart..." However, it might also be because of a common phrase people often insert in their prayers: "Your will be done". Praying for God's will gives God the opportunity to say no to our request. I'm not arguing that we should then not pray for God's Will, praying for God's Will and guidance for our lives is a great and wise thing to do. However, I am arguing that this explains why some of our prayers are not answered.
I think that true faith is something of a scarcity in reality. When we pray do we truly believe we've received what we asked for the moment we ask for it? What would it look like if we really did? Would we worry? Would we doubt? No. So maybe its not as easy as it sounds. But Jesus promises us that if we can manage to have faith, it will be done.
If this makes you uncomfortable or bothers you, take it up with Jesus not me. I'm quoting directly from him. If what most Christians say about how we can only pray for God's Will is true than taking Jesus' words literally makes him out to be a liar. If you don't believe Jesus, that's your own decision, but I for one do believe him. Are there other people who are recorded to have believed this amazing promise? Yes, in fact there are a LOT. Daniel and the lions den, Elijah's prayers causing a 3 1/2 year drought, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego being untouched in the fire, Moses and parting the Red Sea, Joshua and the sun standing still....ect ect. Do you think these people were special? Different than you and me somehow? No they weren't. They were regular people who trusted God. Take God's promises seriously and trust him recklessly and you won't be let down.
Romans 10:11 "As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
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