WORLD RADIO NEWS VOLUME 51 ISSUE 1
Prayer Fellowship Carolyn Jo Gower
Don’t pray, I’ve had enough ...
Joesph Shulam, World Radio Speaker, Israel, came to our office for a few days. While visiting he shared this thought with me that God does not always have to listen to us...
16 “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. Jeremiah 7:16
That may sound like an unusual statement coming from me, don’t pray, but our Heavenly Father told Jeremiah exactly that…don’t ask me anymore for these people.
Prayer is more about talking with God, rather than a ritual. When with my grandchildren sometimes they pray right from their heart and other times it is like "rote" praying...exact same learned prayer.
And yet in their defense, I've been in congregations where I’d hear grown men do the same thing; repeating the same prayers in a rote manner. As though they went to a "creed prayer class" and learned the correct verbiage that is acceptable at "church". Think about that, if at that same service we spoke to each other that way, people would call in the funny farm to pick us up for examination. We would be talking 'at”, not “with” each other.
God goes on to tell Jeremiah in 7:23-26 “23 This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ 24 “But my people would not listen to me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. 25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my servants, the prophets—day in and day out. 26 But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful—even worse than their ancestors.” (NLT)
When we are not interested in listening and obeying God, there comes a time when God says okay, I've had enough of your stubborn hearts; just go ahead and do what you want to do; he turns us over to our own evil desires and there are severe consequences we will suffer. (Romans 1)
The answer to a stubborn heart is to repent as we read that David did in Psalm 51 “10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me”. (NLT)
God wants to hear from us but not when living in continual rebellion against Him, instead He wants us to face our sin, repenting so that we can enjoy the everlasting presence of God moment by moment today! So you see God does want us to pray!!
Carolyn Jo Gower email: jgower@wfr.org
