(February 18, 2014 at 2:21 pm)MitchBenn Wrote: Sorry if this idea has been mooted before, but ...Christ in luke 11 defines what prayer is. "When you pray pray like this:" then He recites the Lord's Prayer. In this prayer we acknowledge the deity of God. His place and over all authority, we pray that His kingdom come/will be done.. In this aspect of prayer we are not able to ask for intercession. Rather we are being directed to ask for whatever God want and will for our live to take precedence. So in the only model of actual prayer we have in the NT we are asking that God change our will to match His own, not the He change His will to match ours. From their we are indeed directed to ask for our daily needs. Then To keep us from temptation and evil. Finally we close the only thing Christ ever modeled or certified as an offical prayer.
It occurred to me the other day that, if one accepts the notion of God as omniscient, omnipotent and ineffably wise, isn't the whole notion of prayer inherently blasphemous?
If God is omniscient, then whatever issue you're trying to draw his attention to, he already KNOWS about. As such, if he is refusing to intercede, he must have his reasons, being ineffably wise.
As such, to pray for intercession, whether on your own behalf or anyone else's, is either to deny God's omniscience (by drawing his attention to something you seem to think he's somehow missed) or to question his judgment (by challenging his decision not to intercede, or, if he has ALREADY interceded, by pointing out that he has, in your opinion, interceded incorrectly).
You're questioning his competence, in any event, by essentially telling him how to do his job...
Thoughts?
That said there are many times when we ask or seek things from God. So if a prayer is what Jesus modeled in luke 11 what are we doing when we ask for things?
In OT times and in the first century Church this was known as supplication or petition. Which basically means your asking God for a favor. There is no sin in this, but at the same time know this is not an actual prayer.
God Always answers offical prayer in the positive. Supplication however is another story. Think about it if you had a kid that only want you to give so he could receive/take from you and the other children, would you be as willing to give that child the things he did not need. As you would be willing to give a child looking to work with and support your decisions and to support his brothers and sisters before he did for himself?
