Latest / Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith / Why Should We Keep Praying the Same Prayer If God Heard Us the First Time?

Transcript

Why Should We Keep Praying the Same Prayer If God Heard Us the First Time? · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:14
  Audrey: Hello and welcome back to Grace for My Home.
• 1:17
  Audrey: I am Audrey McCracken and I'm so glad to be back with you again this week.
• 1:21
  Audrey: I hope that you and your family are doing well.
• 1:25
  Audrey: We had great plans this weekend.
• 1:27
  Audrey: We had a soccer tournament and all these other things, and it all got canceled because we got so much rain off of the hurricane that was coming up the Gulf Coast.
• 1:37
  Audrey: If any of you are live there, if I have any listeners from that area, I hope that you're doing well.
• 1:42
  Audrey: Living here on the coast of South Carolina, I understand how much a hurricane can uproot your life, even if you're not directly hit, just the power outages and the flooding and all of those things.
• 1:57
  Audrey: And that's one of the things that you just you just learn that that's part of life when you live near an area that's hit by hurricanes.
• 2:05
  Audrey: About 10 years ago, we had a young lady living with us from Germany.
• 2:10
  Audrey: She was staying with us for the summer, and we just loved her, we adored her.
• 2:15
  Audrey: But she was with us during a massive hurricane where we were out of power for about three days.
• 2:22
  Audrey: And I remember her saying, in Germany, we you know we never lose power in German Germany.
• 2:27
  Audrey: And I told her, Well, honey, you don't have hurricanes in Germany.
• 2:31
  Audrey: Germ Germany is landlocked.
• 2:33
  Audrey: The hurricanes, you know, here it just they there's nothing you can do but just hunker down and hopefully be prepared and if necessary evacuate.
• 2:43
  Audrey: So I hope if anyone that's listening was affected, I hope that you and your family are doing well.
• 2:49
  Audrey: Our minor minor inconvenience of having to reschedule a soccer tournament is nothing compared to when you're directly hit by by a massive storm.
• 2:58
  Audrey: We are, besides that, we're doing great.
• 3:01
  Audrey: Um we celebrated last night my mom's birthday and my my my husband's is their they have birthdays one day apart, and so which it it's kind of hard sometimes organizing my family and my sister's family and you know and all the things that go into that.
• 3:17
  Audrey: But we we took them out last night and had a really nice time.
• 3:20
  Audrey: I'm thankful for that time with my family, my sister's family, my husband's mom.
• 3:26
  Audrey: It was a blessing.
• 3:28
  Audrey: But today I had something else planned, but I got an email this week from a listener, and we've kind of become friends, we've been chatting back and forth for some time now, but a listener asked me a question, and I thought it was such a good question, so I thought I'm gonna talk about that this week.
• 3:47
  Audrey: And I'll and I'll save the other idea for another time.
• 3:50
  Audrey: But she had a good question, and I'm gonna paraphrase it.
• 3:54
  Audrey: I hope I don't butcher it or get it wrong.
• 3:56
  Audrey: But her question was if we pray for something and we believe God heard us and you know we we gave that to Him in prayer, why do we continue to pray?
• 4:09
  Audrey: And she and her husband, she was telling me that her husband come from a background where he was taught, you know, you pray once and then you let it go.
• 4:20
  Audrey: You don't don't hold on to it, you let it go.
• 4:23
  Audrey: And even had heard people teach that you pray once, and then after that, you just continue to thank the Lord for answering that prayer.
• 4:33
  Audrey: And I have I have heard those those kind of statements for many years, and I have had to work my way through some of those things in my prayer life and what I believe.
• 4:45
  Audrey: So I thought that's I if if one person has that question, I'm sure there are many out there who have thought about this or who have this question.
• 4:52
  Audrey: So I think uh I I wrote her a personal email back, but I thought I want to talk about this with you guys.
• 4:59
  Audrey: And if anybody has any any other questions you see now that I will address them, not only will I address them personally with you, but I may use it on the podcast because I'm often trying to figure out what kind of things would be helpful for you guys.
• 5:14
  Audrey: But what I'm gonna share today on prayer and persistent prayer, these are my thoughts.
• 5:19
  Audrey: These are my thoughts from walking with the Lord for over 30 years now, and of course praying for my kids for my oldest one's 20, so for a long time.
• 5:30
  Audrey: And the things that have that I've learned about prayer and the the places where I have landed when it comes to this topic about praying for anything really, for our children specifically, but for anything that is weighing on your heart.
• 5:46
  Audrey: The one thing that I try to keep in mind, and I encourage you to keep in mind, is that prayer is not a formula.
• 5:53
  Audrey: Just like walking with God, there is no formula.
• 5:56
  Audrey: If there was a formula, then we wouldn't need faith.
• 6:00
  Audrey: We would just follow the formula.
• 6:02
  Audrey: But prayer, just like serving the Lord, it's it's a faith walk.
• 6:06
  Audrey: And it's one of those things that we learn as we go.
• 6:10
  Audrey: And it's helpful to have somebody along the way that has walked the way for a while that can help us and encourage us, but we have to walk the path ourselves.
• 6:20
  Audrey: And prayer is one of those necessities when it comes to walking with the Lord because that is our that's our communication line with God.
• 6:28
  Audrey: You know, I ask people to pray for me and my children and things that are going on in my life.
• 6:33
  Audrey: I ask people to pray for me, and people ask me to pray for them, and I do, but the prayers of others can never replace our own personal prayers to the Lord because that's our lifeline with Him.
• 6:47
  Audrey: That's how we grow in Him.
• 6:49
  Audrey: I try to pray daily, I try to be consistent in prayer.
• 6:52
  Audrey: That's just a habit that I feel like keeps me spiritually strong and connected with God.
• 6:58
  Audrey: But I will tell you, it's during the times where I'm struggling with something, or something is not going the way I hoped it would, or some one of my children are struggling, those are the times that I find myself drawn to prayer more and more.
• 7:14
  Audrey: Should it be that way?
• 7:15
  Audrey: I don't know.
• 7:16
  Audrey: But it's the way it is.
• 7:18
  Audrey: When one of my kids are struggling, I'm on my knees.
• 7:21
  Audrey: You know, if someone I love is hurting, I'm calling out to the Lord.
• 7:26
  Audrey: So prayer, it it's just a it becomes hopefully it becomes a way of life with us.
• 7:34
  Audrey: But this question about is it right to pray for the same thing more than once or multiple many times, this is a good question.
• 7:43
  Audrey: And I it reminds me of the parable of the persistent widow that Jesus talked about in Luke eighteen, starting in verse one, he says, Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was a cer in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
• 8:06
  Audrey: Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Give me justice from my adversary, and he would not for a while listen to her, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I do not fear God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest she continually come and wear me out.
• 8:32
  Audrey: Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry day, who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them?
• 8:44
  Audrey: I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
• 8:49
  Audrey: So see, Jesus is giving this example of this judge who doesn't care about justice, doesn't care about God, doesn't care about people.
• 8:57
  Audrey: But because this widow was persistent, she got the answer to her request.
• 9:04
  Audrey: And he's comparing this with God.
• 9:06
  Audrey: He's saying, Surely if God who does care, God who bears long with man, surely he will he's better than this unjust judge.
• 9:18
  Audrey: And because she was persistent in her asking, she received what she asked.
• 9:26
  Audrey: And the way I take that is it's okay to keep coming to God and knocking on the door.
• 9:32
  Audrey: You know, Jesus said, Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be open.
• 9:40
  Audrey: And to me, prayer is like that.
• 9:42
  Audrey: It's like knocking on heaven's door.
• 9:44
  Audrey: Lord, I'm here, hear my prayer.
• 9:46
  Audrey: And so I feel like praying for a situation, especially one that is important to you, that it's that the Lord expects us to bring it to him even multiple times.
• 10:01
  Audrey: And that he doesn't it doesn't annoy him or show a lack of faith.
• 10:06
  Audrey: You know, even the Lord Himself, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prayed, he prayed the same prayer three times.
• 10:15
  Audrey: He said, Father, if you will, take this cup from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
• 10:23
  Audrey: And he prayed that same prayer.
• 10:25
  Audrey: And you know, when I go to the Lord in prayer, especially if I have a burden on my heart, sometimes when I leave, that burden is still on my heart.
• 10:36
  Audrey: I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you, I can I can pray it out, I can get on my knees, I can pray it out, but it's still weighing on me.
• 10:44
  Audrey: Now I have had times in prayer with the Lord when as I'm praying, I have felt a release.
• 10:51
  Audrey: I have felt a breakthrough, you might call it.
• 10:54
  Audrey: And I don't know if that was at that moment that the Lord answered the prayer, or if it was at that moment that I realized that God cares and that God has it.
• 11:05
  Audrey: But I at that moment I felt God's got it.
• 11:09
  Audrey: And I felt a release, and I at that time it was easy to thank the Lord for hearing my prayer.
• 11:16
  Audrey: And I appreciate those times.
• 11:18
  Audrey: I love those times, but those times don't always it doesn't always happen like that in prayer.
• 11:24
  Audrey: It doesn't always feel like that in prayer.
• 11:26
  Audrey: Sometimes when I get up, I'm still I still feel the burden.
• 11:33
  Audrey: But another thing that the Lord has encouraged me and reminded me to do in prayer is that while I'm praying, I have to get my eyes on Him.
• 11:43
  Audrey: See, I I think this is my personal opinion, I think that the whole process of prayer, oftentimes it isn't just to answer our prayers, isn't just that we might get our prayers answered, but in the process, God does something in us.
• 12:01
  Audrey: Prayer helps us to put our faith in Him because as we go to Him, as we give Him our burden, it says in Philippians 4, verses 6 through 7, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
• 12:20
  Audrey: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
• 12:28
  Audrey: So just the act of taking my burden and taking my need to the Lord in prayer, just that act, even before the answer comes, God promises that that will bring peace to my mind and my heart, that that will guard my heart and my mind.
• 12:44
  Audrey: And so sometimes I think that just going to Him is what brings the peace, even before the answer comes.
• 12:53
  Audrey: And yes, there's thanksgiving in there.
• 12:55
  Audrey: Lord, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
• 12:57
  Audrey: Thank you for this opportunity to come before you and to cast my cares on you.
• 13:01
  Audrey: Thank you that you care for me and you care about the things that that I care about and that burden me.
• 13:08
  Audrey: And as I'm praying, the Lord reminds me, Audrey, you've got to put your eyes on me.
• 13:13
  Audrey: Because see, sometimes these these situations, these circumstances, they get so big.
• 13:18
  Audrey: They feel bigger than me, bigger than anything else in my life.
• 13:23
  Audrey: They're huge in my mind and in my heart.
• 13:26
  Audrey: And they even feel bigger than God.
• 13:29
  Audrey: And so when I go to the Lord in prayer, my mind is on the problem.
• 13:34
  Audrey: My mind is on this mountain that's standing before me.
• 13:37
  Audrey: And during prayer is when I learn to look up and to put my mind and my eyes on God.
• 13:44
  Audrey: And then I see, oh, God's bigger.
• 13:51
  Audrey: That is telling me that everything's gonna fall apart and everything's horrible.
• 13:56
  Audrey: He's bigger.
• 13:57
  Audrey: And so as we're praying, God is doing a work in us, he's helping build our faith.
• 14:05
  Audrey: And and as I lay my burden at his feet, it comes off of my back, and I can praise him, I can enjoy him, even if I don't immediately see the answer.
• 14:18
  Audrey: Now I've had, and I'm sure you have too, I've had days where I've had wonderful prayer and knew that God heard me and put it at his feet, and that's where it was, and then the next day it was right back on my back, it was right back there weighing me down.
• 14:33
  Audrey: And instead of feeling guilty, because what good is that gonna do?
• 14:37
  Audrey: What is feeling guilty?
• 14:38
  Audrey: What good is that gonna do?
• 14:40
  Audrey: Instead of feeling guilty, I'll come right back to the Lord.
• 14:42
  Audrey: Lord, I know we talked about this yesterday, but today this same thing is it's bur it's bothering me.
• 14:50
  Audrey: It's I'm worried about it again.
• 14:52
  Audrey: Will you help me?
• 14:53
  Audrey: And guys, that's building a relationship between you and your father.
• 14:57
  Audrey: It's okay.
• 14:59
  Audrey: You know, he knows us.
• 15:00
  Audrey: He knows if we're worried anyway.
• 15:02
  Audrey: We might as well take it to him, right?
• 15:04
  Audrey: He's not disappointed in us because we don't have enough faith.
• 15:08
  Audrey: He is helping us build our faith by bringing it to him, you know, and he doesn't judge us.
• 15:14
  Audrey: He's not judging us because we have to pray about the same thing multiple times.
• 15:19
  Audrey: He cares about us, he loves us.
• 15:22
  Audrey: I will bring that thing back to his feet and I will pray it through.
• 15:26
  Audrey: Just like we never had this conversation.
• 15:29
  Audrey: And yes, there are times when I have felt the Lord say, Audrey, I've got it.
• 15:34
  Audrey: And it's much easier when you when you have that kind of breakthrough that the next time you pray, just to say, Lord, I I remember you told me you've got it.
• 15:44
  Audrey: And by your grace, I'm gonna leave it at your feet.
• 15:48
  Audrey: But thank you that you've got it.
• 15:50
  Audrey: And I'll just I'm still praying, right?
• 15:53
  Audrey: I'm still praying.
• 15:54
  Audrey: I'm just saying, I know you got it.
• 15:56
  Audrey: I know you got it.
• 15:57
  Audrey: Just help me, Lord.
• 15:58
  Audrey: I believe, help my unbelief, right?
• 16:00
  Audrey: Who hasn't prayed that prayer?
• 16:02
  Audrey: If you haven't, you should.
• 16:03
  Audrey: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
• 16:07
  Audrey: And like I said, these things pull us closer to the Lord.
• 16:11
  Audrey: You know, that's what prayer does.
• 16:14
  Audrey: And guys, keep in mind, remember, keep in mind that sometimes when you start praying for a situation, especially with a person, sometimes the situation gets worse.
• 16:28
  Audrey: You know, and and we need to go back to the Lord because we're praying, but it seems like the opposite of our prayer is what's happening.
• 16:36
  Audrey: You know, I I spoke a few months ago about a situation I had with one of my sons.
• 16:41
  Audrey: You know, I don't like to go into too much detail on the podcast because my my boys deserve privacy too.
• 16:48
  Audrey: And I have some local people who listen to my podcast, and nobody wants their stuff, you know, blasted all over the place.
• 16:56
  Audrey: But one of my sons, he was going through a particularly hard time.
• 17:00
  Audrey: And I came to the Lord with it, and I knew God heard my prayer.
• 17:05
  Audrey: I mean, I prayed and I knew God heard my prayer because when I got up, I just felt so much better.
• 17:11
  Audrey: And I knew God's got it, I know he's got it.
• 17:14
  Audrey: Well, guys, it got worse.
• 17:16
  Audrey: And it didn't seem to get better, it it seemed to get worse.
• 17:20
  Audrey: And I had to bring it to him fresh and anew, and I had to say, Lord, I know you said you're on this, right?
• 17:28
  Audrey: But it's getting worse if you hadn't noticed.
• 17:31
  Audrey: And I need you, I need you in this situation.
• 17:35
  Audrey: And he loves us just like I love my son enough to get on my knees and pray for him, so God loves me enough to have mercy with me and grace with me when I'm struggling with doubt and unbelief.
• 17:52
  Audrey: But those that season brought me closer to God.
• 17:56
  Audrey: I didn't I don't like it, I did not I did not like it, I do not want to go back to it, I hated it.
• 18:03
  Audrey: But when I look back now, I see how my faith grew because I had to learn to trust God in the in an area where I couldn't control the outcome.
• 18:15
  Audrey: And there are situations in my life right now like that.
• 18:20
  Audrey: There are things I'm praying for every day, and I haven't seen the outcome, I haven't seen the answer.
• 18:27
  Audrey: But I trust that God hears my prayer and that he cares about the things that affect my life, and he cares about the things that affect your life because you're his daughter, he loves you.
• 18:41
  Audrey: And so if coming to the Lord multiple times about the same thing, if you just feel like that's a lack of faith on your part, and and I just want to tell you, don't feel that way.
• 18:52
  Audrey: Even the Lord Himself came to the Father three times about the same thing until he was settled, until he had peace.
• 19:01
  Audrey: And you notice how he prayed, Lord, not my will.
• 19:04
  Audrey: God, not my will, but your will be done.
• 19:07
  Audrey: You know, we have a will.
• 19:09
  Audrey: We have what we how we want things to end up and work out.
• 19:14
  Audrey: And if that is God's will, wonderful.
• 19:17
  Audrey: But if it's not, we must choose his will and trust that he sees the big picture and we're only seeing the small piece.
• 19:28
  Audrey: And we want his perfect will.
• 19:30
  Audrey: We trust that his perfect will is better than our than what we want with our limited knowledge.
• 19:37
  Audrey: You know, even if it hurts, Lord, even if it hurts, and it often does.
• 19:41
  Audrey: You know, I wish prayer was was more clear-cut and not as messy and you know, more I wish it was more like a formula, but it's not, because it's it's a relationship.
• 19:54
  Audrey: You know, and just like you know, we can't, there's no formula to produce perfect children, right?
• 19:59
  Audrey: There's not.
• 20:00
  Audrey: If you think you have found it, then you will be disappointed because there is no formula, because we're people.
• 20:07
  Audrey: You know, God did not make us as robots, he didn't make us that way.
• 20:11
  Audrey: He didn't make it where if we push this button, we'll get this result.
• 20:14
  Audrey: We're all individuals with our own free will, and so we we can't control each other.
• 20:20
  Audrey: We shouldn't be trying to control or even manipulate each other through prayer.
• 20:26
  Audrey: You know, that's part of respecting the free will that God has given us, and that's why, you know, going to the Lord in prayer is not a formula because we're dealing with real people and we're dealing with real situations and we're asking God to do what we can't do.
• 20:46
  Audrey: Even God is not going to override a person's free will, ours or others.
• 20:52
  Audrey: He's not.
• 20:53
  Audrey: Now, my prayer is that their eyes would be open.
• 20:57
  Audrey: If you have a son, a daughter who's a prodigal, pray that their eyes would be open.
• 21:04
  Audrey: You know, I think about the prodigal son, and you know, it was not the pigs, it wasn't eating the pig's food that made him want to return home.
• 21:16
  Audrey: You know, it wasn't coming to grips with that he'd lost all his money and all of his friends that made him want to return home.
• 21:25
  Audrey: God opened his eyes.
• 21:28
  Audrey: And yes, it took that, it took those things, but and God orchestrated, I believe, the circumstances that got him to that place, but ultimately God opened his eyes.
• 21:40
  Audrey: And that's my prayer for prodigals is that God would open their eyes, that they would see clearly what is happening around them, and that they would crave the father's home, that they would crave the wholesomeness and the cleanness and the love and the joy of returning to the father.
• 22:05
  Audrey: And see, that's not a manipulative prayer.
• 22:08
  Audrey: You know, I'm not asking God to override someone's will.
• 22:12
  Audrey: I'm asking God to open their eyes to see that there is nothing in this world as good as our Father and returning to Him.
• 22:22
  Audrey: So I hope that this has been helpful to you today.
• 22:25
  Audrey: I hope that I haven't been too rambly, and that it will help you when you go to pray to know that God, He is not annoyed with your much asking.
• 22:38
  Audrey: He loves you and He loves those that you love, and He has a good plan for us and for them, and we can bring them to Him every day and know that they are in His care, that we have put them safely in the Father's hands, and He cares for them and He cares for us.
• 22:56
  Audrey: Let's pray.
• 22:58
  Audrey: Father, I thank you for shining your light on us, that we do not have to walk in darkness.
• 23:04
  Audrey: And I pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes and open the eyes of those we love, that they would see you clearly as who you really are.
• 23:12
  Audrey: And Lord, we ask you, Lord, to teach us to pray.
• 23:16
  Audrey: Just like the disciples asked Jesus, Father, we ask you, teach us to pray.
• 23:21
  Audrey: And Lord, help us, Lord, when we pray, not just to not just to say the right words, but Lord, to really share our heart and Lord to feel your love and Lord, your care for us, that Lord, we would want to come back and pray.
• 23:38
  Audrey: Lord, that it wouldn't just be, Lord, a one-way communication, but Lord, that we would sense your presence, and Lord, that we would grow in you as we come to you, and Lord, that our faith would be built up, Lord, that ultimately every time we pray, Lord, that we would know you a little better and trust you a little more.
• 23:56
  Audrey: And Lord, we give you praise in Jesus' name.
• 23:59
  Audrey: Amen.
• 24:01
  Audrey: Bye-bye.
• 24:02
  Audrey: Have a great week.