When to stop praying for something

[LeeJUk]

Hey guys,

Well basically I'm here to ask when you should stop praying about something.
Just to outline the situation I've been fervently praying for something to happen and every day rolls on and it looks increasingly like nothing will come of it in terms of circumstances and yet my desire remains and especially this week ive found myself praying for hours a day about one thing and I mean ive never done that before in my life to this degree.

So should I give up or keep on? How do you determine?

Have any of you had experience with this sort of thing before?

Thanks

 

[JBaldwin]

Yes, I've experienced this before. What I do is ask God to change my desires so that they are in agreement with His desires. I am amazed at how quickly either my resolve strengthens or my desires completely change. If you really let go of it and put the matter into His care, and you still feel resolved, then I would let go and just trust God to accomplish it. He rarely works on our time schedule, but He always works!

 

[LeeJUk]

Thanks your post has really helped. I prayed this and the desire has almost totally left me almost instantly, I guess it wasn't Gods will.

 

[MarieP]

Yes, I've experienced this before. What I do is ask God to make change my desires to that they are in agreement with His desires. I am amazed at how quickly either my resolve strengthens or my desires completely change. If you really let go of it and put the matter into His care, and you still feel resolved, then I would let go and just trust God to accomplish it. He rarely works on our time schedule, but He always works!

I've experienced this before too!!! God really, truly does give us wisdom, and He really does turn our hearts like streams of water! Sometimes it's scary, honestly- we thought we'd always feel a certain way about something, only to have our hearts changed by our loving Father, who is conforming our minds, hearts, and wills more and more to the image of our Savior. And it's one of those "oh, yeah, DUH!" moments after you find yourself thinking, "Wow, I don't understand it....why do I have such peace about this?"

While I must always make the Scriptures, and not subjective feelings, my solid foundation, I'm increasingly aware of the Spirit's work of applying those principles to my life- I'm learning more and more that it really does make a difference if I explicitly ask for guidance versus merely acknowledging in my mind that I need Him to guide me.

At the beginning of this year, I set as one of my goals to learn more of what it means to be united to Christ and for Him to be our life. I haven't been disappointed!!! This year, I've been more aware of His presence in everyday life, in my prayers especially.

 

[teddyrux]

Thanks your post has really helped. I prayed this and the desire has almost totally left me almost instantly, I guess it wasn't Gods will.

You should pray until your prayers are answered as Zechariah did (Luke 1) or until God tells you to stop. Which apparently He did.

 

[LeeJUk]

Actually no this is by no means resolved. For a moment it ceased but it came back and it's remaining and I am continuing to pray.

 

[JM]

A. W. Pin's chapter on prayer has helped me to understand prayer,

9. God's Sovereignty and Prayer

 

[Scott1]

You can continue praying to tell your Lord your heart's desire, regardless of whether you see the result, now, in the future, or never.

Your desire may be wrong, as limited creatures we can never know the variables as does our infinite God.

But, in any event, keep praying, keep asking.

More than anything, prayer changes us.

 

[Idelette]

I was struggling with this as well, and I actually asked my Pastor about it. Ultimately, he said if it's a godly desire and there is nothing in Scripture that indicates that it would be wrong for us to pray for it, then we should continue to persevere in prayer because we do not know the Lord's will. Simply because we haven't received an answer, yet, doesn't mean that the Lord will never answer or that He isn't working all things together for our good. In fact, God often desires us to persevere in prayer in the sense of wrestling until we receive a blessing from Him. By continuing to approach the throne of grace we grow in our faith and trust and reliance upon Him. At the same time, we need to be willing to let go of the desires and the things that He hasn't willed for our lives. My Pastor often says that we are to hold all things on this earth loosely. So I would encourage you to continue to pray with that in mind!

 

[JennyG]

I am currently praying fervently for several causes involving the welfare of people dear to me. Even if they aren't granted, I can't envisage ever ceasing to wish for, or pray for them while life lasts.
If it's a question of something in one's own life though, it may be different. We may then have to be ready to ask instead for grace to desire what ever God decrees is good for us.

 

[moral necessity]

I once read this, and thought it profound on the subject:

"It is enough to pray once or twice for her, because he has said to us, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask, if ye believe, ye shall receive.' If we keep on praying for the same thing, it is a sign that we do not believe, and we only annoy him with our unbelieving prayers. For what does it mean if I repeatedly pray for the same thing except that my earlier prayers were not answered and that I have prayed contrary to his will? It is true that we ought to pray at all times, but we should do so in faith, certain that we are heard, otherwise the prayer is vain. And we are never at a loss for something new to pray for." - Luther - Letter of Consolation to Bartholomew Von Staremberg on the death of his wife.

A prayer of faith believes that you are being heard by God. It trusts that he is concerned for your needs, and desires to give what is being petitioned for by his children. When I grew to believe this more, I found that I could more easily rest content after the initial request to God or so. He hears us as readily as he hears his own Son, because we are joined to him. He cares for our needs equally as much as we do...acutally, infinitely more than we do, because his love for his own is infinitely greater than their own love for themselves. These thoughts can create such a peace within us about prayer, that we feel encouraged to bring up to God so many things, and talk to him about them, knowing that he hears us. We can rest in that comfort, trusting in his goodness to tend to them according to his wisdom. And, it allows us to get to so many other prayers that we couldn't before, because doubt caused us to keep hammering on the same ones over and over again. His apparent silence is there to exercise our faith in him. He is not silent, however, and fully desires to grant our requests, unless to do so would cause us harm in one way or another. He wants us to grow in our confidence in his favor towards us. And, as we do, the need to repeat the same reqests many times over to him will diminish.

That's how I tend to view it.

Blessings!

 

[Idelette]

I once read this, and thought it profound on the subject:

"It is enough to pray once or twice for her, because he has said to us, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask, if ye believe, ye shall receive.' If we keep on praying for the same thing, it is a sign that we do not believe, and we only annoy him with our unbelieving prayers. For what does it mean if I repeatedly pray for the same thing except that my earlier prayers were not answered and that I have prayed contrary to his will? It is true that we ought to pray at all times, but we should do so in faith, certain that we are heard, otherwise the prayer is vain. And we are never at a loss for something new to pray for." - Luther - Letter of Consolation to Bartholomew Von Staremberg on the death of his wife.

A prayer of faith believes that you are being heard by God. It trusts that he is concerned for your needs, and desires to give what is being petitioned for by his children. When I grew to believe this more, I found that I could more easily rest content after the initial request to God or so. He hears us as readily as he hears his own Son, because we are joined to him. He cares for our needs equally as much as we do...acutally, infinitely more than we do, because his love for his own is infinitely greater than their own love for themselves. These thoughts can create such a peace within us about prayer, that we feel encouraged to bring up to God so many things, and talk to him about them, knowing that he hears us. We can rest in that comfort, trusting in his goodness to tend to them according to his wisdom. And, it allows us to get to so many other prayers that we couldn't before, because doubt caused us to keep hammering on the same ones over and over again. His apparent silence is there to exercise our faith in him. He is not silent, however, and fully desires to grant our requests, unless to do so would cause us harm in one way or another. He wants us to grow in our confidence in his favor towards us. And, as we do, the need to repeat the same reqests many times over to him will diminish.

That's how I tend to view it.

Blessings!

I understand what Luther meant and I agree that we ought to pray with faith believing that God has heard us, but I'm just not sure that I can agree with him on petitioning the Lord only once. I don't think it shows a lack of faith if we make many petitions, if anything, I'd say the contrary! We are told repeatedly in Scripture to never grow weary in prayer, and we have many examples where there are repeated petitions made. For example, Paul when he said the he implored the Lord three times. Also, if we study Luke 11:1-11, we see that we are actually encouraged to continually petition the Lord and persevere in prayer. We even see so many instances of people fasting with prayer concerning serious issues. (Daniel 9:3) If we were to follow Luther's line of reasoning, then we would only pray once for things like humility, kindness, love, repentance, faith, a change in our character etc.... which we should continually be praying for during our Christian walk!

 

[LeeJUk]

I really cannot agree with luther on praying only once or twice for a thing. Jesus prayed the same thing 3 times before he was betrayed. Paul also prayed several times regarding the thorn in the flesh and we see examples given by Jesus like that of the persistent widow asking the judge until he gives her what she desires in luke 18.

Also im told that when Jesus said "ask and you shall receive", the greek means ask repeatedly.

 

[alhembd]

I really cannot agree with luther on praying only once or twice for a thing. Jesus prayed the same thing 3 times before he was betrayed. Paul also prayed several times regarding the thorn in the flesh and we see examples given by Jesus like that of the persistent widow asking the judge until he gives her what she desires in luke 18.

Also im told that when Jesus said "ask and you shall receive", the greek means ask repeatedly.

I recommend Thomas Goodwin's superb book entitled "Return of Prayers," which is printed alone in paperback, or which can be gotten in volume 3 of his works. Goodwin explains in that book how God can answer prayers. He can answer "no," but give us something or someone better. Or, he can answer a prayer after a long, long time, even after our demise. He proves this from the Scriptures, with the many prayers of saints that were not answered in their lifetimes. For example, the prayers for the coming of Messiah. The Old Testament saints did not live to see it, but Messiah nonetheless came. Also, the prayers of the saints under the altar in the fifth seal, in Revelation 6, who prayed for vengeance against Rome for her bloody persecutions of the Church. For many of them, their prayer was answered after their deaths, when Rome as a civil empire fell. However, the prayers of the saints against Rome papal have not yet been answered, though they will.

And how many have prayed for the conversion of the Jews?

So, then: there are prayers answered after death. There are children of godly parents who are converted after the death of the parents. Robert Murray M'Cheyne was one. Doubtless, his parents had prayed for him.

 

[moral necessity]

I understand what Luther meant and I agree that we ought to pray with faith believing that God has heard us, but I'm just not sure that I can agree with him on petitioning the Lord only once. I don't think it shows a lack of faith if we make many petitions, if anything, I'd say the contrary! We are told repeatedly in Scripture to never grow weary in prayer, and we have many examples where there are repeated petitions made. For example, Paul when he said the he implored the Lord three times. Also, if we study Luke 11:1-11, we see that we are actually encouraged to continually petition the Lord and persevere in prayer. We even see so many instances of people fasting with prayer concerning serious issues. (Daniel 9:3) If we were to follow Luther's line of reasoning, then we would only pray once for things like humility, kindness, love, repentance, faith, a change in our character etc.... which we should continually be praying for during our Christian walk!

Luther was mainly commenting on the tendency of the Catholics then to pray over and over and over again, repeating the same prayers alsmost hollow-like, as if quantity was the key to success. I don't think he was speaking anything against praying for similar things throughout our lives as we encounter the need for them. I tend to see quantity as not being important, but rather a firm confidence in his favor towards us and his desire to grant our requests. I would not encourage others to set a rule of only praying once or twice, but rather on growing in the confidence that God is kindly disposed towards their prayers.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Blessings!

 

[Idelette]

I understand what Luther meant and I agree that we ought to pray with faith believing that God has heard us, but I'm just not sure that I can agree with him on petitioning the Lord only once. I don't think it shows a lack of faith if we make many petitions, if anything, I'd say the contrary! We are told repeatedly in Scripture to never grow weary in prayer, and we have many examples where there are repeated petitions made. For example, Paul when he said the he implored the Lord three times. Also, if we study Luke 11:1-11, we see that we are actually encouraged to continually petition the Lord and persevere in prayer. We even see so many instances of people fasting with prayer concerning serious issues. (Daniel 9:3) If we were to follow Luther's line of reasoning, then we would only pray once for things like humility, kindness, love, repentance, faith, a change in our character etc.... which we should continually be praying for during our Christian walk!

Luther was mainly commenting on the tendency of the Catholics then to pray over and over and over again, repeating the same prayers alsmost hollow-like, as if quantity was the key to success. I don't think he was speaking anything against praying for similar things throughout our lives as we encounter the need for them. I tend to see quantity as not being important, but rather a firm confidence in his favor towards us and his desire to grant our requests. I would not encourage others to set a rule of only praying once or twice, but rather on growing in the confidence that God is kindly disposed towards their prayers.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Blessings!

Hi, thank you for putting that in a fuller context for us, I appreciate it! I'd agree that the quantity of our prayers has little to do with whether God hears us or answers us, as if it's some formula to success. It's certainly not meant to be done mechanically as though going through the motions grants us our every wish and desire. This is actually a very pagan notion both of the character of God and of what prayer actually is. Ultimately, God looks at our hearts and it is the Object of our prayer that matters most. But, I do believe that as God's people we are encouraged to persevere in prayer and to do so with boldness and faith believing that God hears us and is working all things together for our good. God ordains our prayers and it pleases Him when we come before the throne of grace. And in the process of it, we are often blessed by this means of grace, so I don't think we can ever sincerely pray too much as God cares for us and is mindful of our concerns! (1 Peter 5)

 

[Cifrado]

For example, the prayers for the coming of Messiah. The Old Testament saints did not live to see it, but Messiah nonetheless came.

Off topic I know, but would you define these "prayers" as faith unto life?