Stories of God Responding to Prayer

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• Seven suggestions about the kinds of prayers that God responds to, based on stories found in the Bible.
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Sermon Slides - Stories of God Responding to Prayer

• God reveals his character through stories. We are wired for stories!
  • That is one of the reasons we have all these stories in the Bible
• So here is the question for today:

• There is a danger that we will treat this as “what can I do to get God to be more responsive to me?”
  • That would not be good! It would be manipulative.
• But if we say “I want to understand him better as a person so I am more in tune with what he wants from me, so that we can draw closer.
  • Then that is much better.
• Recent book

• I’ve thought a lot about that.
  • It’s a very interesting statement
  • It’s a useful starting point for our thought
  • I think it not a good place to leave it because God is more complex that that
    • but some major problems with it (Lazarus, Widow of Nain)
    • sometimes he does respond to need and sometimes not to what we think of as faith
    • We’re going to come back to this as a place to start
• I’m going to give 7 suggestions to answer this question:

1. God does not respond according to our rules

• We can’t come up with a formula that will predict how he will behave!
• Often he pursues those who are running away from him
• I want to give you a story from the O.T. to illustrate each of my points
  • e.g. Adam & Eve
  • Abraham

2. God loves faith

• God had promised Abraham & Sarah to make a nation from their descendants that would bless the world.
  The problem was that Sarah was unable to have children
• “How do I know that you are going to keep this promise?”

• Abraham & Sarah’s faith
• note that this faith was a response
  • he didn’t decide one day: “You know, I think I’m going to believe God for a descendants like the stars in the sky”
  • Yea, I’m going to have faith for my dream!
• God said, Abraham believed
  • This is really important because you hear a lot of stuff today telling you to have a dream, and then believe God for your dream.
  • Has God really promised you that?
• A lot in the Scriptures about faith, but none more than Heb 11
• Hebrews 11:6 is really interesting—We please God when we believe that he rewards those who seek him.
  • This is a great insight into his character
  • So what would the opposite be?

• None of them were believing in a vacuum
  • They didn’t wake up and say “What shall I believe in God for today”
  • He told them exactly what to believe in
• The problem was that what he told them was either impossible or it required a huge risk
  • So faith was simply being obedient
• But what about us? We are not usually given some specific and extraordinary promise like that.
  • But I believe there is a principle (expand later)
    • you start obeying what God has given you, and he will give you more.
  • So where do we start? —look at Moses:

• Note that this is talking about before he had the revelation from God
  • before the burning bush experience
  • Passionately concerned about the injustices done to his people in slavery
  • Not a specific revelation, but he knew God hates abuse and injustice
  • He was willing to sacrifice everything for God’s kingdom!
  • God responded to Moses’ courage & faith that following God is always the best choice
• We can do this without any special revelation
  • As we step out in obedience, God will give us more revelation
  • We use what we have and we receive more...

3. God wants us to understand his heart

• The story that exemplifies this is David
  • He understood God, and what God wanted
  • 1 Sam 13:14 “The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart”
  • The Battle with Goliath shows David understood two things about God
    
    1. He is concerned about his name being dishonoured (why? vain? —his is the only source of life and hope)
    2. He likes to demonstrate his power in weakness

• Because David was fascinated by God, and so knew God that he was in tune with him
  • So when the crisis came he was able to act in a way that God responded to in an extraordinary manner
• How did David know God’s heart? He tells us very explicitly in the Psalms, about how his joy was to read and meditate on the Word.

4. God responds to a humble heart, willing to change (repentance)

• First story is from the time of Joel:
• The nation of Israel had been extremely wicked
  • They had even put idols in the very temple
  • Grotesque sexual/fertility idols
• All of society was corrupted with abuse, injustice and brutality
  • They had turned upside down everything that God wanted them to stand for
  • They had deliberately defied God
• Things could hardly be worse Supposed to be a light to the world
• but God says:

• So what is God responding to?
  • admitting they were wrong (explain the fasting)
  • turning back to him
• It was actually this verse that got me started on this whole subject
  • It’s almost like God says
  “I can’t resist responding to you when you admit you are wrong and turn to me for help”
• Any N.T. examples?
  • the “Lost son”

Luke 18:10–14

• What exactly was God responding to ??
  • “I don’t deserve anything from you, but I desperately need you. I can’t make it myself.”
• Another example:
  • David not only committed adultery…

• Once again, a direct statement about what God responds to.
  • If you don’t know God as your saviour, this is amazingly good news
  • God is not looking for perfection, or even goodness, but recognition of your imperfection, your need and willingness to be changed
• But what if you haven’t been particularly horribly sinful? —do you still have to repent?
  • “Miserable worm theology”
  • That is not the same as genuine humility
• Recognize that he is so much greater than you are
  • But be honest with him about your flaws and failures
  • and open yourself up to him correcting you in a gentle way

5. God responds to praise

• One more story—the nation of Israel is threatened by destruction:
  • Rather than putting the toughest soldiers at the front he put the worship team

6. God responds to our love for one another

• No time to develop this, but John 17...
  I have come to show the world the love of God, but now that I am leaving, I am passing that job onto you.
  The way you are to do this is by loving one another
  That will show people what God’s love is like, and they will believe
• He called this the New Commandment, and said that people who follow it will be specially heard by God.

7. Obey revelation and God will give you more

• back to Hebrews 11

• You step out on the basis of what you do know, and then once you’ve done that God reveals more to you.
  • personal example? not necessarily mine
• As we respond to the information we already have
  • what we already know is God’s will
  • he reveals more us about what he wants us to do.

• She ended up being the great-great grandmother of David, and carrying the line from Eve to Jesus. Wow!
• Let me give you an example of how this might work out in prayer for healing
  • Faith is a response to God’s words
  • Faith must have a “mandate”, not in a vacuum
• So if we are praying for a sick person, what has God revealed that relates to this?
  • (You can apply these steps to other things, like getting a new job, or place to live)

• Sometimes we feel we have to work up faith to believe that God will heal a person right now
  • But our responsibility is to believe what God has told us, not what he hasn’t
  • And as we believe, he may, or may not, reveal more —it really is up to him
  • But don’t feel pressure that somehow you have to work up the power!

Updated on 2022-02-20 by Andrew Fountain