How much do we miss in life because we do not pray believing God will answer our prayers?

Matthew 7:7 & 8 – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Mark 11:24 – “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

You may have heard of the church in a small Mid-west city of 35,000 that had God answer their prayer. Previously a lottery jackpot of $380 million had been won in Michigan.  There were 127 families, many farmers, who had worshipped in a non-denominational church for many years.  They wanted to add on to their facilities.  It was suggested that each family buy a ticket into the super lotto that had reached over $260 million.  Whoever won would divide the winnings equally to each of the families.  They each pledged to tithe on their portion of their winnings.  It would be enough to pay for the building’s expansion.  There were 127 tickets purchased and the church began praying.

A member of the church won and the money was divided equally with everyone receiving over Two million dollars before taxes.  An unusual thing happened.  Only about 70% tithed.  The Sunday attendance began to drop off.  The Jones family purchased a 22 foot boat.  It seemed the only time they could use it was on the weekends.  The Smith family bought a RV and began traveling on the weekends.  The Johnson couple traveled on the weekends to visit their relatives.  Shortly the minister was called to a larger church.  It took a few months to replace the minister.  At the end of the first year, the congregation was running about 65 families.  It wasn’t long before the church disbanded and those few remaining started going to different churches.

Those who were farmers had always been dependant on God for their livelihood.  They no longer had to rely and trust God to meet their needs.  They had adequate money to take care of every wish.  Do you think this may be why God doesn’t answer our prayer when we ask for a BMW car?  What if God gave us everything we prayed for?  It would be like Christmas every day as there would be no end to what we would be wanting.  How many non-believers would become Christians if they believed God would give them anything they prayed for?

1 John 5:14 – “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

God will not give us more than we can handle.  However, I believe the Bible is very clear: God’s promise is that He will meet our needs and will give us anything we pray for according to His will.  That is why not everyone is healed.  It is also the reason there are the rich as well as the poor.  We live in a sinful world and God will be with us through every disaster that occurs in our life.  He does not guarantee we will have no unfortunate situations take place.  He will give us the comfort and the courage to battle through each negative encounter.  That, we can trust Him to do!  (I made up the church winning of the lottery.  It never happened.  It was just an illustration of what Christians might do if God had answered.)