God Wants To Answer Your Prayers, #4
December 16, 2015
This is part four of, God Wants To Answer Your Prayers.
Part 1 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffXgiWZNkQU
Part 2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv33BhPR5gs
Part 3 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZJ_7CPRYtI
So far, in this series of lessons we've seen that, according to Jesus, according to the Bible, God's attitude towards our prayers is, "Yes."
I like to think about it this way, above the entrance to the throne room of God, above the door way to God's presence, are inscribed the words of Jesus, "Ask and it shall be given you… For everyone that asketh receiveth."
But James lets us know that we have a part to play. Answered prayer doesn't just depend on God's attitude towards our prayers, but our faith has something to do with it, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering…"
Then we began to look at what Jesus says about our part in receiving answers to prayer in his two parables about prayer:
- The Parable of the friend with Chutzpah, Luke 11.
- The Parable of the Crazy Old Widow Lady, Luke 18.
In the parable of the friend with chutzpah Jesus shows us that the key to answered prayer is "shameless audacity," or, as I like to put it, chutzpah, supreme confidence, certainty in prayer, in other words, faith. Jesus's parable paints a picture of what faith is like. Faith looks like what Jesus is describing here. To the outside observer it looks like shameless audacity or chutzpah, in prayer. But to the person of faith it feels like asking your overly indulgent daddy for something, knowing his answer is certain to be yes.
In the second parable, the parable of the crazy old widow lady, Jesus illustrates what James calls the "nothing wavering" part of our faith. It takes a bit of explanation to see this in the parable because the traditional interpretation of the parable has overwhelmed the translations and so we have to look at it closely.
Supplementary Resources
- Scriptures used: Matthew 7:7-11, James 1:4-5, Luke 11:5-8, Luke 18:1-8
- Resources:
Hebrew "amar" (אמר) from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament:
"TWOT 118, pg 54 Vol. 1 amar, say, speak, say to oneself (think), intend, command, promise... the verb amar can be used in the infinitive form with the preposition, i.e.. le mar to introduce the command, oath, response etc…
…Although the Hebrew language has a well attested and frequently used verb for "command" (sawa q.v.), amar also serves for this meaining. This usage is found in God's command to Joshua (Josh 11:9), Hezekiah's command concerning the offerings after the cleansing of the temple (II Chr 29:24), and Ahasueres's command by letters to reverse the edict to slaughter the Jews by hanging Haman and his sons (Est 9:25)"
Interlinear Greek New Testament
Luke 11 http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/11-5.htm
Luke 18 http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/18-1.htm
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