The Prayers God Will Not Hear! (Part 3 of 3)

Prayers designed to impress people will never impress God.  Hypocrites never fool Him.

June 23, 2021

"Beware of the scribes...  Which devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayers:  these shall receive greater damnation."

Matthew 12:38-20

Part 3

Yesterday:  God will Reward these Pretenders with His Judgment!
“Which devour widows’ houses.”
“And for a pretense, make long prayers.”
“These shall receive greater damnation.”

All the while the scribes were showing off their fancy praying ability, they were robbing the vulnerable and weak.  God saw through all their phoniness!  As He will see through ours if we pray with the wrong motives in our hearts.

While the scriptures about these evil scribes and their false prayers are still fresh in our minds, would you please indulge me in sharing some other thoughts on the wrong kinds of praying today?  There are two errors in praying we need to consider.

 

Today:  Believers, Beware of False Teaching about Prayer

Dear friend, please read these words carefully and give them some serious thought.  Nowhere can we find in the four Gospels, or the New Testament (or Old Testament for that matter), where any Christian ever addressed a prayer to Mary or any of the “saints!”  Mary was a dear, wonderful, believing lady.  She is the earthly mother of Jesus, the Son of Man.  As is God’s choice, she gave birth to Jesus.  Mary and her husband Joseph raised Jesus to adulthood (Luke 2:51-52).  They were an essential part of Jesus’ young life.  But understand, the Bible never tells us to pray either to Mary or to the saints.  These ideas are not from God but are artificially manufactured traditions outside of clear Bible teaching.  As followers of Jesus Christ and the Bible, we obey what the Scriptures teach us.  This means that we only pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Think about this also.

In all of the Bible, Mary gave only one command.  “His [Jesus’] mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it” (John 2:5).  This was at the marriage in Cana of Galilee.  And when the newlyweds ran out of wine to serve their wedding guests, Mary, who was very caring, asked Jesus to help the couple.  Much has been written about their dialogue, but for now, we will think about this.  Mary’s “command” to the servants was simple, “whatever Jesus tells you, do it.”  She diverted the attention from herself to her Son.  She did not take the lead.  Her thoughts to the servants will do us well to remember in whatever situation we find ourselves,  “Whatever Jesus tells you to do, do it!”  The Bible is His Book, telling “His Story.”  In it, we will find principles and helps for our daily use.  We need to be committed to doing whatever He says to do.

The Bible also tells us that every believer, saved by the blood of the Lamb, is a saint.  Saints are not just a select exceptional few pious individuals that the “a church” says “made the cut, and now has become a saint.”  That is false doctrine.  A church can no more make an individual a saint than it can save a soul from Hell.  Only God can do this!

Believers, we all need to carve out of our busy schedules some alone time with God each day!  If you have been born-again for any length of time, you can easily understand why we need to pray.  We, though saved by grace, are still sinful humans with many needs.  We worship and serve the God who is worthy of all glory and praise, and we certainly ought to praise Him in prayer often.  And He, being our Savior and the Good Shepherd of our souls, has promised us that if we bring our requests to Him, He will answer us.

Yes, we need to pray!  But why did Jesus pray?  He is God the Son in human flesh.  And yet we see Him throughout the Gospel’s praying often.  Jesus saw the need to be speaking with His Father frequently.  Remember, as the God-man Jesus is a human, He too needed to talk with His Father and receive His daily  “marching orders” from Him to maintain doing His Father’s will.

Dear friends, if you have realized today that your prayer is lacking, there is no better time than right now to change how you pray.  Begin praying today to God the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, through the authority of Jesus Christ’s name.  He is the Son of God (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24).

 

Quote:  “Prayer honors God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid”[1] (Edward McKendree Bounds).

 

 

 

[1] Bound’s quote Downloaded: Monday, June 7, 2021.  From: https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/prayer.html.