Fall Back Principles
A. Anything which drives us into the presence of God is good.
The “anything” which drives us into God’s presence to pray is good because it starts or fires up our prayer life.
We never get good at anything unless we start.
And we never apprehend, or experience God, eternal, abundant life fully until we start listening to and talking to God.
B. As children of God, He is always working for our best, in His will, and that is the character of our Savior.
Romans 8:28-28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;
C. As children of God, we will always discern the true voice of God our Good Shepherd, over the false voices around us. Now how are route to God meanders, we will eventually hear the true voice of God.
John 10:2-5
“But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 “And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
John 10:13-16
“He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 “And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.
D. Biblical warnings are, Biblically speaking… Biblical.
The New Testament is full of warnings. The Biblical writers were know more omniscience than we are part of a responsibility of a reminder-er, is to at times warn. Just as when we considered the writings of J.C. Ryle.
E. And now a warning. Over the last few weeks I have heard some concepts which need to be addressed because they are incorrect in the highest.
F. God does not need our prayers.
1.. God does use our prayers.
a. Genesis 20:7 and 20:17 God did not heal until after
Abraham prayed.
b. Job 42:8 and 42:10
c. God lets us join Him in His work,
but He does not need our prayers.
The Bible is clear, prayer does change things.
G. God’s commands are never meaningless, even if we cannot comprehend His purpose in them..
1. The overriding reason we pray, is not to make things happen,
but to draw us closer to Him.
The real-time issue(s) to ponder:
A. God does not need our prayers and actions.
B. Believing in the effectiveness of our prayers, is not the primary justification of our prayers.
So What?
The principles are set here because I believe the real-time issues are critical to our well-being as God’s children.
So What meditations:
A. What drives us to prayer is good.
B. We miss the depth of the Christian life, when we don’t listen and talk to God.
C. God is always working for our earthly, and eternal good - the Character of Jesus our Savior.
D. God’s children, despite our individual paths will always be drawn to the voice and word of our Good Shepherd.
E. We need warning in our Christian lives on earth.
F. The main reason we pray is our relationship with God.
Meditate on these concepts. We introduced them in the episode “Does God Need our Prayers?” The Free Range Preacher on Prayer podcast is going to take time and leave time for meditation on these concepts. There will be much less disappointment, frustration, and satisfaction once we grasp the concepts that, God does not need our prayers, and the commands of God are never meaningless.
