Is a Lack of Hope a Lack of Trust?

[Cow Poke]

Hi and thank you, everyone,

I did a pretty bad job putting it into words. OBP got the gist but it came out backwards.

1) Those things I know He promised I know He will deliver - No problem there.

2) That He will grant those requests within His will - and minus the doubting - I firmly believe.

Where I was having trouble was the 'request I think He'll say no to'. I'm okay with Him saying no (not the answer I want, obviously) because He's God and I'm (thankfully) not. My question was whether resigning myself to a no without further prayer / waiting for an answer was the same thing as not trusting Him to possibly say yes - and I think it is. Paul tells us to bring all requests in prayer and supplication and Jesus tells us to be persistent in our requests. When (and that will be sooner than I'm ready for - ACK!!!) He answers, then that's that. In the meantime, it can't hurt to ask and having asked, to work on other things (strength, wisdom, not losing my tenuous grip on sanity... Yeah, I know - I already lost it.).

And yes, Mark 9:24 did come to mind. Getting a LOT overly negative and a little panicky, can you tell?

I'm oddly calm and not angry. God is good!

Thanks again!

A prayer that has always served me well, though perhaps a bit unorthodox (but not in a doctrinal sense) is, "Lord, you know I can be a real blockhead, and I can manage to convince myself that something is 'your will' just because I want it, so... you're going to have to make this CRYSTAL CLEAR, if you want me to ...... "

Total honesty.

[Teallaura]

[mossrose]

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[One Bad Pig]

Something I read today. . . .

Source: Evagrius of Pontus on Prayer (late 4th c.)

31. DO not pray that what you will should be done, because your [will] is not in full harmony with the will of God. Pray instead as you were taught, saying, Let your will be done in me (cf Mt 6:10, 24:2). And in all matters ask of him in this way that his will be done. He wills [only] what is good and profitable for the soul; but that is not always what you seek.

32. I HAVE often prayed, requesting that something I thought was good for me be done for me, insisting on my request, and irrationally [attempting to] force God’s will. And [thus] I did not leave it to him who knows what is profitable to arrange (cf 1Cor 10:23). And when I eventually received what I asked for, I was very sorry I had asked for my own choice; for the matter did not turn out as I had imagined.

33. WHAT other good is there but God? (cf Mk 10:18) So let us leave to Him everything that pertains to us, and [all] will be well with us. For He is wholly good and the giver of good gifts (cf Jas 1:17).

34. DO not become distressed if you do not receive at once from God [your] request; he wishes to benefit you even more as you continue steadfastly in prayer (Rom 12:12). For what is higher than [enjoying] conversation with God and being taken up [lit distracted] with [conversational] intercourse with him?

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[footwasher]

[Truthseeker]

I had a huge need recently and I asked God to answer it so that I could use the incident to convince unbelieving friends that God was with me and my urging them to come out of Egypt was genuine. Well the work was accomplished and now I'm here.

Next job, follow up on those friends...

I am puzzled how to understand that passage above. A reason is that often people say they "need" something, when they really mean they "want" it.

[Littlejoe]

Can you trust God to take care of you no matter what? If so, then you're fine! I can tell you from personal experience, losing two different "nice" jobs unexpectedly, that God always took care of us. It was actually crazy, we seemed to do just fine (or even better) on unemployment and odd jobs than I did working... However, I ended up with my 3rd "dream job" that is only 4.5 miles from home...before I was driving 90+ miles a day back and forth from work. If I had gotten my will instead of God's, I would still be driving hours a day commuting...thank God it didn't go my way...

[footwasher]

I am puzzled how to understand that passage above. A reason is that often people say they "need" something, when they really mean they "want" it.

There is a scarcity of Christians here. Not wanting my children to marry pagans I had to travel to another country to find them spouses. Ooooh! So biblical!