How We Influence God (Blogger Limelight) ~ BitterSweetLife

Thursday, February 23, 2006

How We Influence God (Blogger Limelight)

In a comment on the recent post, Useless Prayers?, an anonymous reader said,

I would be highly interested in a discussion of the "areas where God invites us to exert our influence with him". It seems like a very interesting topic.

And I agree. Of course, this subject could be virtually inexhaustible, considering verses like John 14:13 ("And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father") and Matthew 21:22 ("If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer"). Apparently we are invited to influence God on all fronts.

Of course, we can add several broad qualifications:

Petitionary prayer will necessarily target unforeseen outcomes. It's no good praying about last week's basketball game.
Such prayers will need to be consistent with God's character and plans, that is, to his glory. So you can stop praying for God to give ulcers to the jerk at work.
And these prayers will need to be made in faith, that is, in the belief that God can and does answer prayer (even though the specific outcome of your prayer is still in doubt).

Now I'm going to go out on a limb and classify this post as a Blogger Limelight discussion with an experiential focus. In what realms have you seen God respond to petitions? Or inversely, in what spheres have you failed to see 'results?' Feel free to speculate as to why or why not God intervened, or explain how he 'answered,' but not in the looked-for way.

Once you've written your post (it can be short, or you can use something you've already written, if it fits), just stick the Blogger Limelight button on it, and link back to this piece. Also, leave a link to your post in the comments (below). I'll go ahead and kick things off...

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5 comments:

AJ said...: Here's my contribution: God Mends Minds.; 10:37 AM
Andy said...: I discuss prayer and the experiential focus partway through in the sermon message I gave this past Sunday. You can read it here:
His Prayer.

I don't have the Limelight button, but I've filed it under Bloggerlimelight in Del.icio.us.; 12:46 AM
Oneway the Herald said...: Great topic, Ariel.

I thought I'd be able to end my streak of watching the Limelight instead of getting into the Limelight, but I failed. The soonest I'd get my relevant post written is Sunday. I'm trying to be diligent at my job.

But the world still turns. I look forward to the entries. I'm glad that you haven't abandoned the Limelight idea.; 7:32 AM
Pensive Girl said...: a am reminded of a piece by phillip yancy that talked about this very subject. it is called "does prayer change God?"

you can read about it here
http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/005/18.08.html

(sorry, i don't know how to leave a link in the comment box...); 9:56 AM
Oneway the Herald said...: I lied, sort of.

Here's my take.; 10:08 AM