Riff's Christian Journal

If you are on social media of any kind I am sure you have seen them; so-and-so is sick, hurt, dying, etc. please pray. Then comes the responses – praying, sending prayers, pray they get well, etc.

My first thought when I see these is, do these people actually pray? If they do, how do they pray and for what do they pray? Then I wonder, what if God does not answer their prayer, then what?

When one realizes “who is prayer for?” the answer becomes quite simple.

Most people, I was one of them, when they pray and their pray is not answered they will think that maybe God did not hear them or that they prayed all wrong or maybe their faith is not strong enough to sway God to their idea of what is needed; and therein lies the problem.

Huh? I am sure many of you thought that, but when you realize “who is prayer for?” it will dramatically change your response to requested prayer, how you pray and for what it is that you should pray.

First of all, one must realize that anyone who is not a disciple of Jesus, God is under no obligation to respond or to even listen to their prayer. So, if only Christians are given the right to pray, how then should they pray? Again, once we know “who is prayer for?” we will see how it is we should pray.

First, we should know a basic characteristic of God. In Daniel 4: 34, 35 we read the following from Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon:

Nebuchadnezzar Praises God In Prayer

³⁴ And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation.

³⁵ All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

Read verse 35 again and let it sink in.

Second, knowing the basic characteristics of God will go far in understanding what and how to pray to Him, and what it is that we can expect.

In 1 John 5 :14, 15 God tells us, through the Apostle John, the following great piece of information:

Confidence and Compassion in Prayer

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.

Again, read these two verses and reflect also on them. Especially the phrase, “if we ask anything according to His will.”

In these verses from Daniel and 1 John we have a clear picture of our influence on God and what it is that God looks for in prayer. Knowing these will make it clear the answer to the question – “who is prayer for?”

In short… God does what He wills among mankind and when we, His disciples, pray according to His will we can be assured that He will hear us, and our prayer will be answered.

When someone asks for prayer we can respond as we see done so often on social media sites but in most, if not all, cases all we are doing is giving false hope to the one asking for prayer.  For the petition that we are asking may not be God’s will and, as we have seen, God does His will among us and there is none of us who can hold back God’s hand from doing what He wants.

Think of this. Why would God listen to man, who has no righteousness of His own and is selfish in his ways, and do what he asks? Do we know better than God what the best answer to prayer should be?

It is not always God’s will to heal, restore or make wealthy any one of us. Anyone who reads and studies God’s Word will have seen and read verses that speak to these moments. While God can, and does, intervene in one’s life to heal, restore or make one wealthy, He mainly works through our daily lives, through the people we meet and in incidents of His own choosing, and only when He knows the outcome and what it is that He wishes to accomplish. Then, and only then, does He intervene in any of these affairs at times of His own choosing.

Third, in Philippians 2 : 13 God, speaking through the Apostle Paul, tells us:

Living In Our Salvation Through Prayer

¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

While God was speaking mainly of living our lives once saved, would He also not do the same in our daily lives as He leads us in the way we should go? We are finite beings and, as such, we do not know God’s explicit will in all situations.

So, when we respond to a request for prayer we should first realize that we do not know what God’s will is for the outcome. Second we should try to understand – and may never know – what God’s will might be, and third we must submit to His will and realize that what the person who ask for prayer wants, and what it is that we want, may not be what God wants.

In short – Prayer is practicing the presence of God.

When we come before God in prayer it is first to focus our attention on Him, as Jesus did when He prayed, “Our Father in Heaven, “hallowed by your name.” God is all-knowing, all-seeing and is anywhere and everywhere.

We should look to His glory, His perfection, His wisdom for He knows the end from the beginning, and what is best for anyone and everyone in any and all situations. It is God Who works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure and it is God who works “all” things for the good of those who love Him. Even the Holy Spirit, when he intervenes on our behalf, He does so according to the will of God the Father.

Yes, we should come to God with our thoughts, our feelings and what our desires are, but we should do so in respect to God and with the understanding that what we want may not be what He knows is best.

You see the answer to the question “who is prayer for?” is “US”. We are the ones for whom prayer is for. Prayer is to bring us into the presence of God, to fall at His feet with our worries, our concerns and our needs along with praise, adoration and worship. We should cry out to Him for help, for guidance and for wisdom to know and hopefully to understand what God’s will is in all of this.

Coming to God in prayer is the greatest moment in a disciple’s life. We can talk directly to Him knowing that He hears us and we can trust in Him with all our hearts and to try not to cling to our own understanding of things, and to acknowledge Him as the one Supreme Being who alone can answer prayer in a way that He knows what is best; for us and for the one for whom we pray.

When we are with God and when we trust in Him for the outcome of our prayers, only then will we have any peace. Peace that will be with us even when the outcome to our prayer may not be what we wanted. If we cannot praise God when our prayers go against what we wanted, how genuine can it be when we praise Him only when things go right? You see, we must trust God for knowing what is best for us, and for the one for whom we pray, no matter what the outcome.

Prayer is not for God; to get Him to do something. He already knows what He will do, even before we ask. Prayer is for us, that is who prayer is for. It is to bring us to Him to be in a more loving, closer and trusting relationship, and to bring peace into our lives even when we are in the midst of turmoil that we do not understand.

So, when someone asks for prayer instead of saying you will pray, actually go to God in prayer. Tell him your desires and wishes and concerns. Praise Him for the ability to be able to come to Him in person and thank Him for His listening to you, and then let Him know that you also realize that what you want may not be what He has already planned to do. Because what we do know is that God understands and God does what He wills among us because of His love for us, and He does so for our good and for His glory.

Who is prayer for? It is for us, God’s children. To grow in our love, our trust and in our praise of Him as we, too, can be like Jesus and say to our Heavenly Father, “not My will, but Yours, be done.” and then rest in the peace that passes all understanding that He will give to us as assurance of His love towards us. What better reason could there be for prayer than in knowing and experiencing God’s love…