Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
anonymous wrote:If you are reading this thread, do not listen to the people who are cherry picking Christianity to suit their anti-Christian agenda.
They don’t know what they are talking about. If they do know, they are purposely leaving huge and important parts of what prayer really is to support their anti-religious/anti-Christian beliefs.
Nobody has to like Christianity or be Christian, but also nobody should lie about it. Or listen to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
+10.
And the same principle applies also to other religions.
Nobody was “lying”.
If people posting here claim to know answers to questions that have never been able to be answered, they are lying.
The most common thing claimed in these threads is “God doesn’t exist.”
Nobody know if God exists.
Science has not demonstrated the existence of God, but science cannot definitively prove or disprove God, because the concept of God is outside of what science can test.
Billions of people throughout history have believed in some form of God or higher reality, while other people have been skeptical, agnostic, or atheist.
That’s it. That’s what we
all know. Nobody posting here has secret inside information on the status of God. Or Jesus.
So yes, if anyone here believes they know God doesn’t exist, they are either lying or delusional
If someone posts that they don’t believe God exists, that’s different. They are sharing their opinion, and everyone is entitled to their opinion on the matter.
So if someone posts something about god(s) existing -- "God is great" -- then they are also "lying"?
I apologize if English isn't your first language, but that is not what "lying" means.
Someone posted:
"James 4:3 states that prayers often go unanswered because they are motivated by selfish desires rather than God's will. The verse, according to Bible Gateway, explains that requests are denied when asked with wrong motives ("amiss"), intended only for personal pleasure or passions, rather than for honorable purposes."
Which would be accurately summarized by:
"if you have “honorable” wishes, god will grant them"
That's not "lying".
People have noted that sometimes Christians pray for ridiculous/silly/weird things.
Jesus tells us directly through Him we have access to pray to God, and God will always listen to our prayers.
But if we pray for something that doesn’t glorify God or honor God, God doesn’t have to give us what we prayed for.
Q. Are there any conditions to answered prayer?
A. Some people would like prayer with no conditions. They wish God to be a celestial genie who, when summoned by prayer, must grant any request they make. They find a measure of encouragement in the fable of Aladdin and his lamp, aspiring to that level of control over God’s power in their prayer life. But the biblical fact is that prayer has conditions. It’s true that Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). But, even in that statement, we have one condition to prayer: faith. As we examine the Bible, we find that there are other conditions to prayer, as well.
Here are ten biblical instructions concerning prayer that imply conditions to prayer:
1) Pray to
the Heavenly Father (see Matthew 6:9). This condition to prayer might seem obvious, but it’s important. We don’t pray to false gods, to ourselves, to angels, to Buddha, or to the Virgin Mary. We pray to the God of the Bible, who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and whose Spirit indwells us. Coming to Him as our “Father” implies that
we are first His children—made so by faith in Christ (see John 1:12).
2) Pray for good things (see Matthew 7:11). We don’t always understand or recognize what is good, but God knows, and He is eager to give His children what is best for them. Paul prayed three times to be healed of an affliction, and each time God said, “No.” Why would a loving God refuse to heal Paul? Because God had something better for him, namely, a life lived by grace. Paul stopped praying for healing and began to rejoice in his weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).
3) Pray for needful things (see Philippians 4:19). Placing a priority on God’s kingdom is one of the conditions to prayer (Matthew 6:33). The promise is that
God will supply all our needs, not all our wants. There is a difference.
4) Pray from a righteous heart (see James 5:16). The Bible speaks of having a clean conscience as a condition to answered prayer (Hebrews 10:22). It is important that we keep our sins confessed to the Lord. “If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18, NAS).
5) Pray from a grateful heart (see Philippians 4:6). Part of prayer is an attitude of thanksgiving.
6) Pray according to the will of God (see 1 John 5:14). An important condition to prayer is that it is prayed within the will of God. Jesus prayed this way all the time, even in Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). We can pray all we want, with great sincerity and faith, for XYZ, but, if God’s will is ABC, we pray amiss.
7) Pray in the authority of Jesus Christ (see John 16:24).
Jesus is the reason we are able to approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 10:19–22), and
He is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). A condition to prayer is that we pray in His name.
8) Pray persistently (see Luke 18:1). In fact, pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). One of the conditions to effective prayer is that we don’t give up.
9) Pray unselfishly (see James 4:3). Our motives are important.
10) Pray in faith (see James 1:6). Without faith, it is impossible to please
God (Hebrews 11:6), who alone can do the impossible (Luke 1:37). Without faith, why pray?
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