"unanswered prayers"

[hermeneutika]

In its wisdom the local Church where i attend is doing a series on so called "unanswered prayers". And under pain of death it would seem, we have to follow the "theology" of a man called Peter Grieg. Who allegedly specialises in the pseudo problem of "unanswered prayers"
However my theology would teach that there are NO unanswered prayers.
IF

1) God is perfect and without sin or flaw or fault
2) Gods Word is also perfect

There are then only two other actors

1) Man who is ful of sin and flaws and is far from perfect
2) satan

So for me if there is no apparent answer to prayer, the fault is not with God or His Word. We can eliminate those two actors from the causal chain.
The only other two actors are man and satan(and his demons).This is where we must look.
So if prayers are not apparently being answered then we need to look at ourselves.

Mt 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

[Timreason]

God promises that "Whatever you ask *in my Name*..." will be given. In
the Lord's Prayer we ask for His will to be done on Earth as it is in
heaven.

So, if a prayer sincerely and faithfully offered does not appear to be
answered, a possible conclusion has to be that what was asked for was
NOT in line with God's will.

This is difficult, since many of the things we ask for can seem to be so
obviously good and right. "Be it according to thy will" might be an
important clause to remember.

Tim.

[Mike Davis]

I find there are no *unanswered* prayers - the answers are either, "OK",
"Try this", "Wait", or "No!"

Blessings

Mike
--
Mike Davis

[Stuart]

In article <jeuaq8...@mid.individual.net>,

Mike Davis <mjd...@trustsof.co.uk> wrote:
> I find there are no *unanswered* prayers - the answers are either, "OK",
> "Try this", "Wait", or "No!"

Yup!

--
Stuart Winsor

Tools With A Mission
sending tools across the world
http://www.twam.co.uk/

[Timreason]

Come to think of it, yes, I'd go along with that. 'Wait' is a common one!!

Tim.

[Madhu]

* Timreason <t6dbdg$ss9$1 @dont-email.me> :
Wrote on Sun, 22 May 2022 13:47:43 +0100:

> Come to think of it, yes, I'd go along with that. 'Wait' is a common
> one!!

I don't think this does justice to the question. (Mind you I'm not
disagreeing, but sometimes as Woody Allen Job's put it "That's no
answer!"

I believe there are questions which God will not answer - because he
does not intend do give us the information. I was reading a bit about
Paul's changing attitude towards the resurrection between (1Thess. 4:15
and 1Cor. 15:52), where earlier he expected to be alive during the
resurrection and later he expected to be dead. Now when Paul prayed
about his thorn, he got a straight "No!" but he would not be given a
revelation about the resurrection even if he prayed for it.

[Kendall K. Down]

On 22/05/2022 08:07, Timreason wrote:

> This is difficult, since many of the things we ask for can seem to be so
> obviously good and right. "Be it according to thy will" might be an
> important clause to remember.

They seem to *us* to be good and right, but we have a very limited
perspective. We would have prayed for the early martyrs to be delivered,
but God saw that their sufferings were the seed of the church.

Your final sentence is right and important.

God bless,
Kendall K. Down

[Kendall K. Down]

On 22/05/2022 18:13, Madhu wrote:

> I believe there are questions which God will not answer - because he
> does not intend do give us the information.

That is certainly true, but I don't believe it was requests for
information that hermeneutika had in mind in his original post. It was
requests for action on God's part - healing, finding a job, good weather
for the picnic, and so on.

Your analysis is, therefore, correct, but misses the point somewhat.

[Madhu]

* "Kendall K. Down" <t6dv6n$9c0$2...@dont-email.me> :
Wrote on Sun, 22 May 2022 19:25:27 +0100:

Yes, I realised that after I posted.

Another problem is that unanswered, no, and not yet are not always
distinguishable unless God makes it plain. If God goes silent, which is
it? (the urim and thummin often went silent)

One perverse reaction to this: if god consistently not going to answer
my prayers (by answer i mean answer positively), then it is better for
me to pray for negative stuff. (not absolutely negative or perverse, but
a sort of optimization technique)

[Kendall K. Down]

On 23/05/2022 03:59, Madhu wrote:

> Another problem is that unanswered, no, and not yet are not always
> distinguishable unless God makes it plain. If God goes silent, which is
> it? (the urim and thummin often went silent)

That is very true. I suppose someone might claim that the Holy Spirit
will make it plain which is the correct option, but I am not convinced
that is always the case. The answer, I suppose, is to trust God that He
will always do what is best.

> One perverse reaction to this: if god consistently not going to answer
> my prayers (by answer i mean answer positively), then it is better for
> me to pray for negative stuff. (not absolutely negative or perverse, but
> a sort of optimization technique)

The trouble with that being that you run the risk of having such prayers
answered. I have enough negative stuff in my life without praying for more!

[Madhu]

* "Kendall K. Down" <t6f5nn$ehp$1 @dont-email.me> :
Wrote on Mon, 23 May 2022 06:23:03 +0100:

> On 23/05/2022 03:59, Madhu wrote:
>> Another problem is that unanswered, no, and not yet are not always
>> distinguishable unless God makes it plain. If God goes silent, which is
>> it? (the urim and thummin often went silent)
>
> That is very true. I suppose someone might claim that the Holy Spirit
> will make it plain which is the correct option, but I am not convinced
> that is always the case. The answer, I suppose, is to trust God that
> He will always do what is best.

No doubt, but when he says follow me, it seems to be a call to some
definite action. I'm still on the task of looking through a commentary
or two. the immediate context is (3:12-3:17) is variously captioned as
"Warning against Antinomiansim" or "Perfection and Humility", or
"Practical Theology". The verses describe the "how", Paul's
circumstances and the direction of his response, but I think Paul's call
is for "What". (Don't mind me, I'm just not satisfied with the
explanations I've seen)


Philippians is listed as the best NT church. No known false doctrines,
no known heresies, sure the judaisers and antinomians are but a threat
to guard against in the future, Paul has no absolutely complaints to
bring against the congregation or pull them up for anything. He No need
to exercise apostilic authority (I am an apostle) but just engage in
friendship and fellowship, and they in all likelihood emulated him. The
ideal congregation. And it vanished without a trace! Perhaps even
before 67 AD?

"Born into the world with the brightest promise, the Church of Philippi
has lived without a history and perished without a memorial "
(Lightfoot).

If I fall back on Eastern thought I'd think they did reach perfection,
with which comes cessation.

[Kendall K. Down]

On 24/05/2022 07:49, Madhu wrote:

> Philippians is listed as the best NT church.

I've not heard that before.

And it was led by a woman (Lydia, seller of purple). Jeff, take notice.

> And it vanished without a trace! Perhaps even before 67 AD?

I wouldn't say that. You can go to Philippi today and see the ruins of
three very large churches and a substantial bishop's palace, so
obviously the Christian church flourished well after AD 67. However
eventually Philippi itself ceased to be an important city - it wasn't
only the churches which fell into ruins.

> "Born into the world with the brightest promise, the Church of Philippi
> has lived without a history and perished without a memorial "
> (Lightfoot).

Clearly the guy wasn't an archaeologist. Good sound-byte, poor history.

> If I fall back on Eastern thought I'd think they did reach perfection,
> with which comes cessation.

I fear not. You can look Philippi up on Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippi

where you will find pictures of the large Basilicas A and B and
reference to a third basilica (C) as well as an octagonal church and the
palace. There are also two basilicas in the cemetery on the east of the
city.

[Stuart]

In article <t6j9rv$nh3$1...@dont-email.me>,

Kendall K. Down <kendal...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> And it was led by a woman (Lydia, seller of purple). Jeff, take notice.

Is he still around?

[Kendall K. Down]

On 25/05/2022 10:20, Stuart wrote:

> Is he still around?


If you mean, Is he alive? I believe the answer is Yes. If you mean, Does
he post on uk.r.c? The answer is No. When he was prevented from being
nasty to women he lost interest.

[Timreason]

On 25/05/2022 10:20, Stuart wrote:

> In article <t6j9rv$nh3$1...@dont-email.me>,
> Kendall K. Down <kendal...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> And it was led by a woman (Lydia, seller of purple). Jeff, take notice.
>
> Is he still around?
>

Jeff is still posting occasionally on england.religion.christian, and
seems to still be reading this group, but no longer posts here.

Tim.

[Mark Goodge]

On Fri, 27 May 2022 16:39:57 +0100, Timreason <timr...@hotmail.co.uk>
wrote:

He's also active on Facebook.

Mark

[Stuart]

In article <t6qrcf$rlu$1...@dont-email.me>,

That explains the comment.