![\"Jesus](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2017\/12\/tombstone-2331172_1920-e1514720860537.jpg\")
<\/h2>\nJesus didn\u2019t say \u201cjust ask\u201d, he said \u201ckeep on asking\u201d<\/strong>.<\/h2>\nToday I want to draw our attention to a passage which you could argue is mistranslated in almost every Bible version. \u00a0Check it in your favourite and it will probably sound like an instant slot machine promise. \u00a0Just ask the once and God is almost obligated to instantly answer your prayer the way you want him to. \u00a0And certain wings of the modern church teach it exactly that way. \u00a0If you just have enough faith you will be healed.<\/p>\n
Matt Chandler spoke about just how cruel that view is in the interview we recently recorded<\/a>. \u00a0Prayer often doesn\u2019t work out simply with an instant answer no matter how much faith you have. Is it any wonder that many who are seeking for healing<\/a> of a chronic illness can get disillusioned? \u00a0<\/p>\n\nHelp When Life Hurts<\/p>\n
This article is part of a growing collection, drawing from Adrian Warnock\u2019s medical and psychological expertise, lived experience, and Christian faith.<\/p>\n
Click the type of pain you or a loved one are experiencing right now<\/p>\n
General suffering & disappointment<\/a>
\nFinancial difficulties<\/a>
\nFeeling disqualified<\/a>
\nChronic illness & disability<\/a>
\nDivorce & family pain<\/a>
\nDepression & mental health<\/a>
\nBereavement & end-of-life<\/a><\/p>\n See the full list of over 40 articles
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nJust like we were looking at recently with the \u201ckeep on walking with Jesus<\/a>\u201d post, this famous passage is actually all set with verbs in the present continuous so should ideally be translated the way the Amplified Bible does:<\/p>\n\n\u201cKeep on asking and it will be given you; \u00a0<\/span>keep on seeking and you will find; \u00a0<\/span>keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.\u00a0<\/span>For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone?<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent?<\/span><\/p>\nIf you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him!\u201d \u00a0(Matthew 7:7-12, Amplified)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nPersistance in Prayer is called for<\/h3>\n
Which of us have not asked God for something and been frustrated when it feels as if he simply has not heard us? Sometimes heaven seems silent, and the problem, far from disappearing, seems to get worse. \u00a0If we read this passage in the present continuous tense we immediately understand what we are meant to do when this happens: keep asking!<\/p>\n
Jesus tells a parable in \u00a0Lk 18 which talks about the need to consistently keep praying, and I have touched on this in my previous post \u201cPray Always\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\nOne challenge for us is when it feels like things are never changing, to keep genuinely expecting that God will act. \u00a0Part of this problem is a timing as we expect God to act immediately, and let\u2019s just say he often doesn\u2019t. \u00a0As one modern worship song \u00a0says \u201cyou could have saved us in an instant but instead you sent a child.\u201d![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2019\/05\/nizamdepression.png\")
<\/p>\n
God is never late. Not by his timetable, anyway.<\/h3>\n
As an eternal being God has a very different perspective on time than we do:<\/p>\n
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9, NIV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
God\u2019s timing is not our timing. Even though this passage is about him delaying his second coming, we can see that it has something to us when like with Lazarus, he loves us and SO he waits to heal us. <\/a><\/p>\nBut why would his love for us drive him to delay acting on our behalf to heal or save us from a situation we are praying about. \u00a0If we view repentance as a lifetime action on our part, drawing closer to him, and becoming more like him, perhaps we have a bit of a clue.<\/p>\n
God looks at our motives<\/h3>\n
When we come to God asking for him to do something for us, he will of course pay attention to why we are asking. \u00a0Too often we want God to bless our plans, rather than submit ourselves to his. \u00a0What if he had some work for you to do that you could only do because you were in the situation you are currently in? Joseph\u2019s example is something we have looked at recently but it is well worth remembering here. \u00a0Joseph may well have prayed for God to deliver him from Egypt for his own comfort, but God had a plan for Joseph\u2019s life that required him to be right where he was. \u00a0But sometimes we even pray for purely selfish reasons. \u00a0We want money so we can live a wealthy lifestyle. We want God to give us stuff. \u00a0No wonder he doesn\u2019t answer in that situation:<\/p>\n
You do not have because you do not ask Good. \u00a0<\/b>When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3, NIV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWe must ask as his representatives<\/h3>\n
Jesus is not envisaging a world where we as separate entities ask him to do stuff for us without any thought to his kingdom. \u00a0We are to ask in the name of Jesus. This means we are to ask as his representatives. \u00a0Wouldn\u2019t a representative of Jesus be more likely to ask Jesus to bless someone else and not just themselves?<\/p>\n
And wouldn\u2019t a representative of Jesus desire more than anything else that his kingdom be advanced. \u00a0What if your situation is a way for his kingdom to be advanced in your area of the world?<\/p>\n
But if we submit ourselves to him as his servants, honouring his wisdom, then we can expect him to provide for us what we need<\/em>, even if not always what we want<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\nTherefore do not be anxious, saying, \u2018What shall we eat?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we drink?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we wear?\u2019<\/span><\/span> 32\u00a0<\/sup>For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.<\/span><\/span> 33\u00a0<\/sup>But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. \u00a0Matthew 6:31-33<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAsking in his name is entwined with seeking first his kingdom. And so this limits a little what we should expect him to answer. \u00a0We must ask as his servant.<\/p>\n
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.\u2014John 14:13<\/p>\n
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.<\/i>\u2014John 16:24<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"giant](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2017\/09\/hurricane-92968_1920-300x225.jpg\")
God\u2019s wisdom is not our wisdom<\/h3>\n
He knows what is best for us better than we do.<\/p>\n
HE knows what is truly best for us and will answer accordingly<\/p>\n
He is a GOOD father who will not give his child something that would be ultimately bad for them, no matter how much that child asks! \u00a0What if your child constantly asked you not to force them to go to school? \u00a0Would you be acting in their best interests if you complied? \u00a0Keller takes up this idea:<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2016\/01\/Timothy_Keller-150x150.jpg\")
Source: Frank Licorice \u2013 https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/118175464@N04\/13893171622\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nGod was saying, \u201cSon, when a child of mine makes a request, I always give that person what he or she would have asked for if they knew everything I know.<\/strong>\u201d Do you believe that? To the degree you believe that, you are going to have peace. And if you don\u2019t believe it, you won\u2019t have the peace you could otherwise have. Make your requests known with thanksgiving.\u201d Tim Keller \u2013 Walking with God through Pain and Suffering<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat a beautiful idea that can give us comfort. \u00a0God knows everything. \u00a0And he therefore knows what is actually for our good far better than we do. \u00a0And so he answers us in the way he knows best.<\/p>\n
If we keep asking ultimately he will withold no good thing from us<\/h3>\n
The idea that God will answer us in the way that ultimately is for our best. \u00a0When we are suffering long term sickness or pain, how can it be in our best interests for that to continue indefinitely. \u00a0Well, we know that it won\u2019t continue indefinitely. \u00a0When we ask for healing we are asking for something that he has promised to do<\/a>. \u00a0 But as we hinted at earlier, we just dont know when he is going to do it!<\/p>\nThere is a day coming when we will see him face to face. \u00a0For the Christian death is actually the ultimate healing. \u00a0Then we will have no more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness.<\/p>\n
We must look to our eternal hope. \u00a0We must realise that we already have everything we need in him. \u00a0We already have heavenly blessings that are ours. \u00a0We have already been raised with Christ. \u00a0We are not under the circumstances but seated over them. \u00a0Our spiritual blessings are already ours even if we can\u2019t yet experience them.<\/p>\n
So when we pray we are simply asking that what is already ours, but is in a sense held in a trust fund for us, will be given us earlier. \u00a0We are asking for the powers of the age to come to breaking into the present<\/p>\n
We are asking for a foretaste of the glorious future we have been promised.<\/p>\n
And this way, we can look to an eternal hope of healing throughout decades of sickness, all the time expecting we will one day be healed. \u00a0And it is in order for us to say to God, \u201chow about healing me now, please\u201d whilst knowing that he has perfect timing, and even it we have to suffer the rest of our lives it will seem like nothing compared to eternity.<\/p>\n
\nFor our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV)<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\nI am very aware that for many of you who are suffering right now some of what is said in this article may be hard to hear. You may feel that you are a million miles away from being able to consider your current suffering light and momentary compared to heaven. \u00a0I can\u2019t claim that I have always felt this way during my sickness of \u00a0the last couple of years. \u00a0But remember it is a journey<\/a> and \u00a0just take the first simple step to God, and slowly slowly perhaps over time your perspective will become an eternal one. Then, perhaps just at the time you had begun to accept your sickness was life-long, perhaps God will indeed suddenly heal you after all!<\/p>\nI will close with some words from Piper\u2019s excellent book on the commands of Jesus which prompted me all those months ago to start looking afresh at what it is that Jesus wants form me. \u00a0The answer today of course is that he wants me to keep asking and also expecting him to act.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/298\/2017\/12\/what-jesus-demands-from-the-world-e1514719516263.jpg\")
<\/a>This implies that Jesus does indeed want us to pray with faith<\/i>. \u201cWhatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith<\/i>\u201d (Matt. 21:22; cf. Mark 11:24). Some have taken verses like this and turned them into the power of positive thinking. They believe that if we can be confident that something will happen, it will indeed happen. But that would be faith in our faith. When Jesus teaches us how to \u201cmove mountains\u201d by faith, he says explicitly, \u201cHave faith in God<\/i>\u201d (Mark 11:22). There seem to be times when God makes clear to us that his will is to do a particular thing. In that case we may be perfectly confident that very thing will be done. In that sense Jesus says to us, \u201cWhatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours\u201d (Mark 11:24). It is God who does it, and our belief rests on him and his revealed will. Otherwise, we would be God, and he would run the universe according to our will, not his.<\/p>\nJesus makes it clear that there is a kind of filter that our prayers must pass through in order to be sure that they are according to God\u2019s will. \u201cIf you abide in me<\/a>, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you\u201d (John 15:7). Here Jesus\u2019 promise is more clearly qualified than in Mark 11:24. Are we trusting in him as our all-supplying vine? And are his words shaping our minds and hearts so that we discern how to pray according to his wisdom?<\/p>\nPraying in faith does not always mean being sure that the very thing we ask will happen. But it does always mean that because of Jesus we trust God to hear us and help us in the way that seems best to him. It may mean that he gives us just what we ask, or that he gives us something better. Will a father give a son a stone if he asks him for bread? No. But neither will he give him bread if it is moldy. He may give him cake. Sometimes God\u2019s answers will overwhelm us with their excess. Other times they taste more like medicine than food and will test our faith that this medicine is really what we need.<\/p>\n
Piper, J. (2006). What Jesus demands from the world<\/i><\/a> (pp. 108\u2013110). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Learn More<\/h1>\n\n- \n
Keep Walking with Jesus<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Life is a marathon not a sprint. In fact we should probably characterise it as walking\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- \n
Weeping is Encouraged<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Weeping is actually a command of Jesus, at least in some situations. Not only does\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Trust Him and Pray<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Trust Him and Pray. Even when you don\u2019t feel like it\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Thinking, thanking, and loving<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Doctrine can be life-saving. As we think about the Truth it leads to thankfulness \u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Hope in Suffering<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- I would like to take you on something of a journey that often feels lonely,\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\u201cPray Always\u201d \u2013 Jesus<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Sometimes we don\u2019t pray because we don\u2019t feel in need. Other times we don\u2019t pray\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Jesus commands: Pray Like This<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- Prayer is not merely an invitation it is a command. Jesus does not merely suggest\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
Already AND Not Yet: Expecting God\u2019s Blessing<\/a><\/h3>\n\n- \u201cCome to Jesus and all your problems will immediately disappear,<\/strong><\/em>\u201d said no Evangelist ever, or at least I hope not \u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nMore Lessons from\u00a0Tim Keller\u2019s book \u201cWalking with God through Pain and Suffering<\/a>\u201d \u00a0<\/i><\/h3>\nhttps:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2020\/03\/five-truths-about-suffering\/ https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2020\/03\/our-culture-cant-cope-with-suffering\/<\/p>\n
Help When Life Hurts<\/p>\n
This article is part of a growing collection, drawing from Adrian Warnock\u2019s medical and psychological expertise, lived experience, and Christian faith.<\/p>\n
Click the type of pain you or a loved one are experiencing right now<\/p>\n
General suffering & disappointment<\/a> See the full list of over 40 articles Just like we were looking at recently with the \u201ckeep on walking with Jesus<\/a>\u201d post, this famous passage is actually all set with verbs in the present continuous so should ideally be translated the way the Amplified Bible does:<\/p>\n \u201cKeep on asking and it will be given you; \u00a0<\/span>keep on seeking and you will find; \u00a0<\/span>keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.\u00a0<\/span>For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will hand him a stone?<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>Or if he asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent?<\/span><\/p>\n If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him!\u201d \u00a0(Matthew 7:7-12, Amplified)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Which of us have not asked God for something and been frustrated when it feels as if he simply has not heard us? Sometimes heaven seems silent, and the problem, far from disappearing, seems to get worse. \u00a0If we read this passage in the present continuous tense we immediately understand what we are meant to do when this happens: keep asking!<\/p>\n Jesus tells a parable in \u00a0Lk 18 which talks about the need to consistently keep praying, and I have touched on this in my previous post \u201cPray Always\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n One challenge for us is when it feels like things are never changing, to keep genuinely expecting that God will act. \u00a0Part of this problem is a timing as we expect God to act immediately, and let\u2019s just say he often doesn\u2019t. \u00a0As one modern worship song \u00a0says \u201cyou could have saved us in an instant but instead you sent a child.\u201d As an eternal being God has a very different perspective on time than we do:<\/p>\n But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9, NIV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n God\u2019s timing is not our timing. Even though this passage is about him delaying his second coming, we can see that it has something to us when like with Lazarus, he loves us and SO he waits to heal us. <\/a><\/p>\n But why would his love for us drive him to delay acting on our behalf to heal or save us from a situation we are praying about. \u00a0If we view repentance as a lifetime action on our part, drawing closer to him, and becoming more like him, perhaps we have a bit of a clue.<\/p>\n When we come to God asking for him to do something for us, he will of course pay attention to why we are asking. \u00a0Too often we want God to bless our plans, rather than submit ourselves to his. \u00a0What if he had some work for you to do that you could only do because you were in the situation you are currently in? Joseph\u2019s example is something we have looked at recently but it is well worth remembering here. \u00a0Joseph may well have prayed for God to deliver him from Egypt for his own comfort, but God had a plan for Joseph\u2019s life that required him to be right where he was. \u00a0But sometimes we even pray for purely selfish reasons. \u00a0We want money so we can live a wealthy lifestyle. We want God to give us stuff. \u00a0No wonder he doesn\u2019t answer in that situation:<\/p>\n You do not have because you do not ask Good. \u00a0<\/b>When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3, NIV)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jesus is not envisaging a world where we as separate entities ask him to do stuff for us without any thought to his kingdom. \u00a0We are to ask in the name of Jesus. This means we are to ask as his representatives. \u00a0Wouldn\u2019t a representative of Jesus be more likely to ask Jesus to bless someone else and not just themselves?<\/p>\n And wouldn\u2019t a representative of Jesus desire more than anything else that his kingdom be advanced. \u00a0What if your situation is a way for his kingdom to be advanced in your area of the world?<\/p>\n But if we submit ourselves to him as his servants, honouring his wisdom, then we can expect him to provide for us what we need<\/em>, even if not always what we want<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Therefore do not be anxious, saying, \u2018What shall we eat?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we drink?\u2019 or \u2018What shall we wear?\u2019<\/span><\/span> 32\u00a0<\/sup>For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.<\/span><\/span> 33\u00a0<\/sup>But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. \u00a0Matthew 6:31-33<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Asking in his name is entwined with seeking first his kingdom. And so this limits a little what we should expect him to answer. \u00a0We must ask as his servant.<\/p>\n Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.\u2014John 14:13<\/p>\n Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.<\/i>\u2014John 16:24<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He knows what is best for us better than we do.<\/p>\n HE knows what is truly best for us and will answer accordingly<\/p>\n He is a GOOD father who will not give his child something that would be ultimately bad for them, no matter how much that child asks! \u00a0What if your child constantly asked you not to force them to go to school? \u00a0Would you be acting in their best interests if you complied? \u00a0Keller takes up this idea:<\/p>\n God was saying, \u201cSon, when a child of mine makes a request, I always give that person what he or she would have asked for if they knew everything I know.<\/strong>\u201d Do you believe that? To the degree you believe that, you are going to have peace. And if you don\u2019t believe it, you won\u2019t have the peace you could otherwise have. Make your requests known with thanksgiving.\u201d Tim Keller \u2013 Walking with God through Pain and Suffering<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What a beautiful idea that can give us comfort. \u00a0God knows everything. \u00a0And he therefore knows what is actually for our good far better than we do. \u00a0And so he answers us in the way he knows best.<\/p>\n The idea that God will answer us in the way that ultimately is for our best. \u00a0When we are suffering long term sickness or pain, how can it be in our best interests for that to continue indefinitely. \u00a0Well, we know that it won\u2019t continue indefinitely. \u00a0When we ask for healing we are asking for something that he has promised to do<\/a>. \u00a0 But as we hinted at earlier, we just dont know when he is going to do it!<\/p>\n There is a day coming when we will see him face to face. \u00a0For the Christian death is actually the ultimate healing. \u00a0Then we will have no more pain, no more suffering, no more sickness.<\/p>\n We must look to our eternal hope. \u00a0We must realise that we already have everything we need in him. \u00a0We already have heavenly blessings that are ours. \u00a0We have already been raised with Christ. \u00a0We are not under the circumstances but seated over them. \u00a0Our spiritual blessings are already ours even if we can\u2019t yet experience them.<\/p>\n So when we pray we are simply asking that what is already ours, but is in a sense held in a trust fund for us, will be given us earlier. \u00a0We are asking for the powers of the age to come to breaking into the present<\/p>\n We are asking for a foretaste of the glorious future we have been promised.<\/p>\n And this way, we can look to an eternal hope of healing throughout decades of sickness, all the time expecting we will one day be healed. \u00a0And it is in order for us to say to God, \u201chow about healing me now, please\u201d whilst knowing that he has perfect timing, and even it we have to suffer the rest of our lives it will seem like nothing compared to eternity.<\/p>\n I am very aware that for many of you who are suffering right now some of what is said in this article may be hard to hear. You may feel that you are a million miles away from being able to consider your current suffering light and momentary compared to heaven. \u00a0I can\u2019t claim that I have always felt this way during my sickness of \u00a0the last couple of years. \u00a0But remember it is a journey<\/a> and \u00a0just take the first simple step to God, and slowly slowly perhaps over time your perspective will become an eternal one. Then, perhaps just at the time you had begun to accept your sickness was life-long, perhaps God will indeed suddenly heal you after all!<\/p>\n I will close with some words from Piper\u2019s excellent book on the commands of Jesus which prompted me all those months ago to start looking afresh at what it is that Jesus wants form me. \u00a0The answer today of course is that he wants me to keep asking and also expecting him to act.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus makes it clear that there is a kind of filter that our prayers must pass through in order to be sure that they are according to God\u2019s will. \u201cIf you abide in me<\/a>, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you\u201d (John 15:7). Here Jesus\u2019 promise is more clearly qualified than in Mark 11:24. Are we trusting in him as our all-supplying vine? And are his words shaping our minds and hearts so that we discern how to pray according to his wisdom?<\/p>\n Praying in faith does not always mean being sure that the very thing we ask will happen. But it does always mean that because of Jesus we trust God to hear us and help us in the way that seems best to him. It may mean that he gives us just what we ask, or that he gives us something better. Will a father give a son a stone if he asks him for bread? No. But neither will he give him bread if it is moldy. He may give him cake. Sometimes God\u2019s answers will overwhelm us with their excess. Other times they taste more like medicine than food and will test our faith that this medicine is really what we need.<\/p>\n Piper, J. (2006). What Jesus demands from the world<\/i><\/a> (pp. 108\u2013110). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2020\/03\/five-truths-about-suffering\/ https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2020\/03\/our-culture-cant-cope-with-suffering\/<\/p>\n
\nFinancial difficulties<\/a>
\nFeeling disqualified<\/a>
\nChronic illness & disability<\/a>
\nDivorce & family pain<\/a>
\nDepression & mental health<\/a>
\nBereavement & end-of-life<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Persistance in Prayer is called for<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\nGod is never late. Not by his timetable, anyway.<\/h3>\n
God looks at our motives<\/h3>\n
We must ask as his representatives<\/h3>\n
God\u2019s wisdom is not our wisdom<\/h3>\n\n
If we keep asking ultimately he will withold no good thing from us<\/h3>\n
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For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:17, NIV)<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/a>This implies that Jesus does indeed want us to pray with faith<\/i>. \u201cWhatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith<\/i>\u201d (Matt. 21:22; cf. Mark 11:24). Some have taken verses like this and turned them into the power of positive thinking. They believe that if we can be confident that something will happen, it will indeed happen. But that would be faith in our faith. When Jesus teaches us how to \u201cmove mountains\u201d by faith, he says explicitly, \u201cHave faith in God<\/i>\u201d (Mark 11:22). There seem to be times when God makes clear to us that his will is to do a particular thing. In that case we may be perfectly confident that very thing will be done. In that sense Jesus says to us, \u201cWhatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours\u201d (Mark 11:24). It is God who does it, and our belief rests on him and his revealed will. Otherwise, we would be God, and he would run the universe according to our will, not his.<\/p>\nLearn More<\/h1>\n
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Keep Walking with Jesus<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Weeping is Encouraged<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Trust Him and Pray<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Thinking, thanking, and loving<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Hope in Suffering<\/a><\/h3>\n
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\u201cPray Always\u201d \u2013 Jesus<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Jesus commands: Pray Like This<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Already AND Not Yet: Expecting God\u2019s Blessing<\/a><\/h3>\n
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\nMore Lessons from\u00a0Tim Keller\u2019s book \u201cWalking with God through Pain and Suffering<\/a>\u201d \u00a0<\/i><\/h3>\n