This morning I received no less than 4
requests to pray for people. These
requests were not sent to me as a personal request, they were posted to a
group. Each request dealt with some kind
of illness or ailment or sadness. And I
remain dumbfounded.
John 14:13-14 NLT New Living Translation
Anything?
In context this passage reflects Jesus
response to his insecure disciples. They
are all concerned about where Jesus is going, how they will get there
themselves, etc. Jesus’ big pitch is
that God is in him and he is with God.
Know Jesus, know God. So when
Jesus says ask for anything and He will do it He said He would do it to
glorify God.
Right.
So, why do we need prayer warriors, prayer circles, prayer chains, etc.,
etc. Seems pretty straight forward: Ask for something in Jesus name and Jesus
will make it happen.
Problem is, of course, that those requests do
not happen or tend not to happen. How
can we explain that? Biblical scholars
have been making excuses for God and Jesus ever since Jesus reportedly said
these words.
Some scholars say Jesus/God will make it
happen only if one is truly on the path as a faithful follower. If you are not a truly faithful follower you
do not get your request answered.
Therefore, if you ask and nothing happens, time to get right with God. This is a pretty transparent excuse. Jesus will grant you anything if you are
faithful to Jesus. If you ask and do not
receive you are wasting His time because you are not an all-star follower, just
a bench warming follower. Such a
crock. If I ask and do not receive and I
conclude I am not a true follower why would I ever ask again? On the other hand, if I am an all-star
follower and get every request answered, why not advertise? I know of no one who makes such a claim so I
suppose there really is no one who is an all-star follower.
Others say Jesus/God will only make it happen
if it is part of His plan. In other
words, you can ask for anything, but you will only get what God wants you to
get because it must be aligned with what He wants for you. Another flimsy excuse for God. If we only get what he plans on us getting
anyway, why ask? Why not simply ask that
He reveal His plan for us? Of course
that won’t happen. And it won’t happen
because no doubt you are not an all-star follower.
Bottom line, there is no point in forming a
group to pray. If any member of the
group is an all-star and then what the group prays for will happen as along as it is
God’s plan. If a prayer group ever prays
to heal someone dying of a terminal disease and they die, then the group should
disband. Or, wise up and stop praying.
Enough excuses. If there is a God/Jesus and He says I will do
anything you ask if you ask it in my name, so you ask and it is clear that it does
not happen then the promise in John is a crock.
Or, if we can grant such excuses to God for an error in understanding
when the text is very clear, why not do that with everything He said or
everything in the Bible? Is it the
truth? Is it literal? If not and we can make excuses for God then
why don’t we just pick the passages we do not like and ignore them by making
other excuses. If we can do that, then
none of what is in the Bible is binding or believable.
God should not need excuses when He fails to
keep His word. Unless, the Bible is
wrong, Jesus is not true His word, or it doesn’t matter what we ask for because
we are going to get what He wants us to get, or it is all made up malarkey.
Jesus will not do “anything.” That is clear. I’m leaning toward malarkey.
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