00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 72 of the inspired Stewardship podcast. I'm Fraser Reis, author of Wealth. Actually, I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the right relationship with all of your gifts is the key to doing this. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Mater Way prey without stopping,
00:00:39 we continuously prey and that prayer is answered because that prayer is perfectly in alignment with what God is asking for us to do. But the truth is, that's really hard Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in. The inspired Searchie podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world in todays spiritually Foundation episode about impacting the world.
00:01:36 I talk with you about the phrase that no is sometimes the answer to prayer. Why this isn't exactly the right way to look at it and how to pray without ceasing so you can move forward in faith.
00:01:51 Prayer is one of those things that sometimes comes up in conversation, and it's interesting to hear how people talk about it and what people believe about it.
00:02:02 And I'll be honest. Prayer is one of those things that I've struggled with a lot throughout my life.
00:02:08 I've had a hard time with going through the actions of prayer. I've had a hard time believing that prayer was something that was valuable.
00:02:16 I've had a hard time with accepting that prayer is something that works. And one of the things that a lot of people have said I've heard it said to other people,
00:02:27 when they're talking about how they prayed for something and that it didn't happen, is that you know well,
00:02:33 sometimes the answer to prayer is yes, Sometimes it's no, and sometimes it's not now, and I've even said that myself.
00:02:43 But as I've gotten older and as I began to look at the Bible more and really think about this?
00:02:49 Maur. It's It's made me think a little bit more about how that works, how that sounds and what that really means to us as Christians,
00:03:00 because think about it for a minute. The truth is that most of the time when I pray, it's It's not like I hear this auditory answer from God where God comes down and says,
00:03:12 No, that's not the way it's gonna be or I hear a yes Instead, what happens is I pray about something,
00:03:20 and sometimes things happen that I can observe, and I can see that appear to be a response to that prayer.
00:03:27 And other times I don't see something that became a response to that prayer. And so basically, I tend to assume that anything that happens after I pray that seems to be in that direction.
00:03:41 Well, that must mean God said yes and anything that doesn't happen well, that must mean God either said no or God said.
00:03:49 Not now, but that's not always as simple as it is. You know, the truth is, I think that prayer is more complicated than that,
00:04:01 and I talk a lot on the podcast about both ends things where you have to accept things as Maur than one thing at a time.
00:04:08 It's It's not about either, or it's about more than one thing being true. And I do think sometimes you know,
00:04:15 God looks, that something we're praying for and recognizes that it's not good for us and therefore doesn't provide it.
00:04:23 But there's another way of looking at this than just the answer is no. See, the Bible actually says.
00:04:30 And in Mark, Chapter 11 Verse 24 it says. Therefore, I say to you all things for which you pray and ask,
00:04:41 believe that you have received them and they will be granted to you. It's talking about having faith when you pray and about how that faith means that the prayer is answered,
00:04:57 that God will answer prayer that has prayed in faith. Well, then, what about faith? Well,
00:05:06 the truth is, faith, remember, is about believing things, and it's about aligning yourself over time with the will of God and trying to move Maur and Maur into relationship and alignment with God.
00:05:20 And I think what happens sometimes is when we're praying. If we're not praying for things that are the will of God,
00:05:27 then we're not really praying in faith and therefore it doesn't actually happen. But if we are praying fully into the will of God,
00:05:37 then we are praying in faith and it does happen. So is it really that God is saying no?
00:05:43 Or is it just that we have it yet really gotten deep enough into our relationship with God to really discern the will of God?
00:05:54 And so we're still working that direction. We're still a little bit out of alignment. We're still not fully aligned with what God wants us to do and for our calling.
00:06:06 And the truth is, I think sometimes that's a lot more complicated. And that's a lot harder to look at because see,
00:06:13 the truth is then that puts the burden on us to take action. That puts the burden on US tow work harder on ourselves to work on our relationship with God,
00:06:24 toe deepened our faith into deep in our spiritual walk and to spend more time in disciplined and effort and try toe work towards bringing ourselves into alignment with God.
00:06:40 And it's so much easier to just believe that we can pray and sometimes God will say yes and sometimes God will say no.
00:06:46 And sometimes God will say not now, and we don't need to worry about it. We don't need to take any action.
00:06:52 We can just sit back and wait, you know, right now is this is releasing the world is in the midst of a pandemic,
00:07:00 and sometimes people say things out of faith that really are unkind toe others that put others at risk that make others hurt.
00:07:13 That cause frustration and fear. And that's not being alignment with the will of God. That's not what God wants for us to do for each other.
00:07:22 God wants us to walk with each other together so that we can hold each other up and we could be the hands and feet of Christ on Earth.
00:07:34 We can do the things that need to be done to show the world the church, and that doesn't have to be gathering in a building.
00:07:43 That means walking together in faith and providing providing the security that we have showing the gospel and telling the gospel and spreading the word and doing the hard work on ourselves,
00:08:01 so that as we move forward as we keep talking as we doom or as we move ourselves into that spiritual alignment.
00:08:13 Then we pray without stopping. We continuously prey, and that prayer is answered because that prayer is perfectly an alignment with what God is asking for us to do.
00:08:27 But the truth is, that's really hard. As I said at the beginning, prayer is one of those things that I continue to struggle with.
00:08:34 I find it hard sometimes to pray. I have to really set the environment up and create things so that I can do it.
00:08:44 I've gotten better at it over time, but it's something I have to be deliberate about. So I ask you,
00:08:51 What are you doing To create a time and a space for you to pray for you to faithfully sit down and pray that God's will be done and that you take action and alignment with that?
00:09:05 What are you doing too deep in the relationship? And right now, if you're one of the people that stuck at home during all of this,
00:09:12 this is a great time to work on your prayer life and not in a demanding way, not in a needy way.
00:09:20 This isn't God the cosmic vending machine. This is about building a relationship. This is about having a conversation with your dear friend and asking your friend what your friend wants for you to be doing.
00:09:35 And then as you hear that answer, moving forward in faith. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast.
00:09:51 As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way toe live your calling.
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00:10:33 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world