an open forum on the christian practice of prayer. i started it because prayer is not working for me. the silence of God is deafening. so i want to hear what others think. i still pray, not because i understand it, but because i cannot not pray. comments will be moderated.
Friday, December 7, 2007
'ask/receive' - option 7
option 7 - 'ask/receive' does not mean what we think it means. thoughts?
Hm. Perhaps. But this verse seems rather clear: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24)
John, writing some years later, seems to qualify the concept: "If we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15)
What other interpretation of ask/receive is there?
so...the peitioner must believe (sufficiently) that what was asked for will be received? how much belief is enough?
so...according to his will implies that we can know his will (sufficiently), a priori, which will cause us to ask for the 'god's will' stuff and not ask for the 'not god's will' stuff?
a possible interpretation: ask/receive is 1st century hyperbole. generally, as the new church grows and spreads, with discernable holy spirit involvement, it operates in ask/receive mode. which leads me to option 6: when it comes to true honest-to-god faith, christians today live in apostasy.
there has to be some explanation out there. ask/recieve did not work every time in the 1st century, and it certainly does not now
2 comments:
Hm. Perhaps. But this verse seems rather clear: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24)
John, writing some years later, seems to qualify the concept: "If we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." (1 John 5:14-15)
What other interpretation of ask/receive is there?
so...the peitioner must believe (sufficiently) that what was asked for will be received? how much belief is enough?
so...according to his will implies that we can know his will (sufficiently), a priori, which will cause us to ask for the 'god's will' stuff and not ask for the 'not god's will' stuff?
a possible interpretation: ask/receive is 1st century hyperbole. generally, as the new church grows and spreads, with discernable holy spirit involvement, it operates in ask/receive mode. which leads me to option 6: when it comes to true honest-to-god faith, christians today live in apostasy.
there has to be some explanation out there. ask/recieve did not work every time in the 1st century, and it certainly does not now
Post a Comment