{"id":2221,"date":"2020-09-03T15:31:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T20:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/?p=2221"},"modified":"2020-09-03T15:31:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T20:31:45","slug":"gods-control-and-our-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/?p=2221","title":{"rendered":"GOD\u2019S CONTROL AND OUR PRAYERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>John 14:13-14<br \/><br \/>Have you ever wondered why we pray if God already knows everything?\u00a0 What do our prayers accomplish?<br \/>First, communicating with God connects His Spirit and ours.\u00a0 A relationship can\u2019t survive if the two parties don\u2019t speak with each other.<br \/><br \/>Second, God communicates His will to His children through prayer.\u00a0 If we\u2019re seeking to please Him, then we will pray with an open heart and mind.\u00a0 In turn, the Lord impresses upon us the desire to ask Him for those things He wants to bring into our life. \u00a0<br \/><br \/>Third, communing with God gives us the opportunity to participate in His kingdom on earth.\u00a0 As we learn to trust Him for answers, He gives us greater tasks in prayer.\u00a0 The Lord will burden our heart to pray for the salvation of a friend, people suffering from a natural disaster, or the state of our nation.\u00a0 When we see an answer, whether it\u2019s big or small, we will know He blessed us by including us in the process.<br \/><br \/>God calls on His children to pray, because He wants us involved in His work.\u00a0 What a privilege for us to freely go before our Father and know that He is interested in what we have to say.\u00a0 In fact, He is pleased when we ask Him to meet our needs or the needs of someone else.\u00a0 And if we are praying according to His will, He answers every time. \u00a0<br \/><br \/>Please open your bible to the following scripture: \u00a0 John 14:13-14<br \/><em>And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.\u00a0 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.<\/em><br \/><br \/>Thoughts from John 14:13-14<br \/>In these verses Christ is talking to HIS DISCIPLES who would go on after He was gone and establish the early church.\u00a0 Jesus was imparting full power and authority to them by giving them His name to impart.\u00a0 In that time, to speak under the name of someone else meant to fully represent them in all ways.\u00a0 <br \/>How does this apply to us?<br \/>When Jesus says we can ask for anything, we must remember that our asking must in in his name\u2014that is, according to God\u2019s character and will.\u00a0 God will not grant requests contrary to his nature or his will, and we cannot use his name as a magic formula to fulfill our selfish desires.\u00a0 If we are sincerely following God and seeking to do his will, then our requests will be in line with what he wants, and he will grant them. \u00a0<br \/><br \/>Key thought:<br \/>The goal of prayer is to glorify God.\u00a0 Our prayer must be consistent with the Lord\u2019s\u00a0will and in accordance with everything Jesus stands for.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blessings from the Youth Committee<br \/>References:\u00a0 God\u2019s Word NIV and In Touch Ministries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John 14:13-14 Have you ever wondered why we pray if God already knows everything?\u00a0 What do our prayers accomplish?First, communicating with God connects His Spirit and ours.\u00a0 A relationship can\u2019t survive if the two parties don\u2019t speak with each other. Second, God communicates His will to His children through prayer.\u00a0 If we\u2019re seeking to please [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221\/revisions\/2222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stolaffd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}