Is it a waste to pray against your true feelings?
- Thread starter Hakawaka
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It may well be an act of faith to pray when it is counter to your desire; trusting that God will change your desire in your reasonable service. This isn't always the case, as I stated in another post, but it could be.
Hi Bro... After reading your short post I feel I should point out that your first sentence conflicts with your second sentence. First, you say, "Prayer, when the heart is NOT involved is just words." Next you point out that Jesus chastised prayers that are great in words but NOT done "with their hearts OR spirit." There really is a connection between heart and spirit. The mother of a missing child prays for his return out of a heart and spirit that longs for him continually, day and night. Her prayers for him are heartfelt and in the spirit. IMHO a prayer in the Spirit and in truth must come from the heart.
John 1:18: "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."
God carries His Son, Jesus, in His bosom. That's another way of saying that Christ is in the heart of the Father in the same way the missing child is in the heart of his mother. So, when Jesus tells us that we are in Him as He is in the Father...Where are we, really?
The "mystery of Christ in you" is a heart and spirit thing. They can't be separated. "At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you." John 14:20.
Continuing:
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Matthew, Chapter 24:
11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Those here who are knowledgeable in the Original Languages of the Bible point out that John 3:16 can be misunderstood by some because they think that when it says "believeth" it means a one time thing. Yet, the truth is that this "believeth" spoken of by Jesus is a continuous, on going, unending belief. This makes clear the meaning of the Scriptures posted above IMO.
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Matthew, Chapter 24:
11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Those here who are knowledgeable in the Original Languages of the Bible point out that John 3:16 can be misunderstood by some because they think that when it says "believeth" it means a one time thing. Yet, the truth is that this "believeth" spoken of by Jesus is a continuous, on going, unending belief. This makes clear the meaning of the Scriptures posted above IMO.
I would say yes, pray against your flesh feelings as King David did,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Psalm 50:10)
Ask The Lord Jesus who lives in us (1 John 4:15) to help you have. change of heart. I am doing this about a unbeliever I felt affection for, but I so suffer from what you speak where I do not want someone to be blessed who is my enemy. And I have to ask The Holy Spirit to stir me to see them through new eyes (Acts 26:18) and new ear, as Jesus says, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:22).
I believe that prayer has power and that power comes from God so even if we feel in our hearts not genuine about it but pray earnestly anyways that power in prayer is not dependant on us but the spirit that lives in us.
Yes there are prayers with lofty words but that isn't the same as praying for your enemy even when your heart doesn't agree with it because if the power of prayer was dependant on our feelings then the power wouldn't be from God now would it?
Yes there are prayers with lofty words but that isn't the same as praying for your enemy even when your heart doesn't agree with it because if the power of prayer was dependant on our feelings then the power wouldn't be from God now would it?