Everyone prays, even atheists pray. Some pray to nature, to the sun, the moon or the stars. Some prayers are in the form of a wish, whether it be when a person lights a candle, blows out a candle, or when they cast a coin into a wishing well. Some pray to saints and others call out the dead. And, as I previously stated even atheists pray, especially when things go wrong and they hope or wish that something or someone would intervene on their behalf. But for the most part in America, we pray to our Heavenly Father. The problem is that if we’re honest, mostly our prayers seem to go unanswered or worse, we’re not even sure if God has really given them any serious consideration. The good news is that God listens to every single prayer big or small. The bad news is that most times the reason we don’t receive a favorable answer to our prayers is that our motives are wrong.  

 

BIBLE READING: 

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. – James 4:3 NIV

 

Does this mean that God is anti-pleasure? Absolutely not, it was God who created pleasure in the first place. The problem is motivation; our prayers should have a greater purpose than personal pleasure. Let’s say that you’re praying for God to heal you, there’s nothing wrong with that. The question is, what is your motivation, why do you want God to heal you? A few years ago, a good friend of the family became very ill, all of his body organs were shutting down so he began to ask God to heal him. Weeks turned into months and he would only get worse. He would pray with my parents over the phone, he had multiple prayer groups interceding on his behalf, and he would join us on social media for our Friday night prayer service, but he continued to get worse. After going through the surgery his condition really did not improve. Following what I believe was his last surgery he began hemorrhaging internally. His doctors decided that he would not survive a second surgery so they tried using plasma to make the bleeding stop. He was in excruciating pain and understood that it did not look good for him. That night he prayed completely different from any time before, that night he said, Lord, I don’t want to die. If you heal me I will spend the rest of my life focused on others. I will tell them how you healed me and I will tell them of your greatness. That same night as his wife slept on a sofa beside him, God entered his room, had a conversation with him, touched his side and he was immediately healed and relieved of all pain. What was the difference? A change from me motivated to others motivated. He prayed that God would heal him so that he could bless others. 

 

THINK ABOUT IT: 

God has called us to have the same attitude that Jesus had, who voluntarily humbled himself to serve others. If there were ever an area in which this attitude should be reflected it’s in the way we pray. We should look at the good things in our lives and the not so good things and pray, God if you can use the good and bad things in my life to bless others then here I am. And, that is a prayer that I’m sure God will answer. 

 

PRAY

Heavenly Father, here I am, with all that I have and all that I am, I come before you. I want to put my life at your disposal, to be used for your glory and to be used as an instrument of blessing to others. I am blessed, I have health, I have so many good things and it all comes from you. I have also struggled, suffered, and have been afraid on occasion but through it all, I have learned to put my hope and trust in you. So today I ask that all my experiences, all my struggles as well as all my blessings, all the good things, as well as the bad things, be used to minister hope to those in need. Help me to change my motivations and my prayers from me to them. Thank you, Father, for hearing my prayer and I ask all this in the name of your precious son Jesus, amen.