inappropriate request

If the request is wrong, God says “No”. On a number of occasions Jesus’ disciples made inappropriate prayer requests and so do we. Jesus didn’t grant their requests nor does he grant ours. God loves us too much to grant requests that are not in our interest and fortunately he has a clearer view of what is good for us than we do.

The Importance of Motives

It’s unlikely that we’d approach God with a request that we knew to be wrong. However we regularly view issues from our own perspectives, not God’s. This may result in requests to “change the other person”. Now there are times when it is appropriate to pray for change, that’s what we do when we pray for conversions, hearts to be softened, addictions to be broken. But often the motive behind the prayer is not genuine concern for the other person it is a refusal to change or accept or forgive on our own part. In this instance Jesus may well choose not to grant our request.

God’s Glory or Mine

Many self serving prayers masquerade as innocent requests. Like a ministry leader praying “Lord let this ministry thrive”, when the underlying motive is not God’s glory, instead it’s personal stardom. God knows our hearts better than we do and before bringing a prayer to God we need to ask:

Would it bring glory to him?
Would it advance his kingdom?
Would it help perople?
Would it help me to grow spiritually?

By asking these questions prayer can purify us because we’ll identify when we are going wrong and then we can repent, seek forgiveness, and grow as a result. If you have been praying diligently about a matter and have sensed resistance from heaven then it may be wise to review your request and bring it before God. I don't know about you but I often struggle to recognise the real motives of my heart, I know what I want them to be but I'm not sure what they really are. I guess that at times like this it makes sense for us to spend some time listening to God and to ask him to reveal what is really going on in our hearts, for he knows even if we don't!