Another obstacle to answered prayer is selfishness<\/i>. In the Lord\u2019s Prayer, you won\u2019t find the words \u2018I\u2019, or \u2018me\u2019, or \u2018my\u2019, or \u2018mine\u2019. What you will find instead, is: \u2018Give us<\/i> this day our<\/i> daily bread; forgive us our<\/i> trespasses; deliver us<\/i> from evil\u2019 (see\u00a0Matthew\u00a06:11\u201313). Are you getting the idea? The man who prays, \u2018Lord bless me, my wife and two children: us four and no more,\u2019 won\u2019t get a favourable response from Heaven. <\/p>\n
Jesus said, \u2018Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.\u2019<\/i> (Mark\u00a011:24\u00a0NKJV<\/sup>) But that Scripture isn\u2019t a blank cheque: God\u2019s answer to selfish prayers is always no.<\/i> James writes, \u2018You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.\u2019<\/i> (James\u00a04:3\u00a0NKJV<\/sup>) <\/p>\n Maybe you\u2019re thinking, \u2018The Bible says if I delight myself in the Lord, He will give me whatever my heart desires\u2019 (see\u00a0Psalm\u00a037:4). Yes, but your desires must be in harmony with God\u2019s will. God blessed Abraham so that he could become a blessing to others (see\u00a0Genesis\u00a012:2\u20133). <\/p>\n God knows what you want, and He also knows why you want it. Is it only for your own comfort and convenience, or also to fulfil His purposes? Only when you have answered that question honestly, can you pray with confidence. When you look out only for your own interest, only one person is working on your behalf\u2014you! But when your goal is to bless others, God goes to work and answers your prayer in ways you never imagined possible. Try it, and see for yourself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another obstacle to answered prayer is selfishness. In the Lord\u2019s Prayer, you won\u2019t find the words \u2018I\u2019, or \u2018me\u2019, or \u2018my\u2019, or \u2018mine\u2019. What you will find instead, is: \u2018Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses; deliver us from evil\u2019 (see\u00a0Matthew\u00a06:11\u201313). Are you getting the idea? The man who prays, \u2018Lord […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}