To whom are we to pray, the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit?

All prayer should be directed to our triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that we can pray to one or all three, because all three are one. To the Father we pray with the psalmist, “Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray” (Psalm 5:2). To the Lord Jesus, we pray as to the Father because they are equal. Prayer to one member of the Trinity is prayer to all. Stephen, as he was being martyred, prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). We are also to pray in the name of Christ. Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to always give “thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Jesus assured His disciples that whatever they asked in His name—meaning in His will—would be granted (John 15:16; 16:23).

We are told to pray in the Spirit and in His power. The Spirit helps us to pray, even when we do not know how or what to ask for (Romans 8:26; Jude 20). Perhaps the best way to understand the role of the Trinity in prayer is that we pray to the Father, through (or in the name of) the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. All three are active participants in the believer’s prayer.

Equally important is whom we are not to pray to. Some non-Christian religions encourage their adherents to pray to a pantheon of gods, dead relatives, saints, and spirits. Roman Catholics are taught to pray to Mary and various saints. Such prayers are not scriptural and are, in fact, an insult to our heavenly Father. To understand why, we need only look at the nature of prayer. Prayer has several elements, and if we look at just two of them—praise and thanksgiving—we can see that prayer is, at its very core, worship. When we praise God, we are worshipping Him for His attributes and His work in our lives. When we offer prayers of thanksgiving, we are worshipping His goodness, mercy, and loving-kindness to us. Worship gives glory to God, the only One who deserves to be glorified. The problem with praying to anyone other than God is that He will not share His glory. In fact, praying to anyone or anything other than God is idolatry. “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).

Other elements of prayer such as repentance, confession, and petition are also forms of worship. We repent knowing that God is a forgiving and loving God and He has provided a means of forgiveness in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. We confess our sins because we know “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) and we worship Him for it. We come to Him with our petitions and intercessions because we know He loves us and hears us, and we worship Him for His mercy and kindness in being willing to hear and answer. When we consider all this, it is easy to see that praying to someone other than our triune God is unthinkable because prayer is a form of worship, and worship is reserved for God and God alone. Whom are we to pray to? The answer is God. Praying to God, and God alone, is far more important than to which Person of the Trinity we address our prayers.

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TYPES OF FASTS IN THE BIBLE...

There are six different types of fasts in the Bible.

1. Normal - abstaining from food.
Example: Jesus “ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them was hungry” (Luke 4:2).

2. Absolute - abstaining from food and water; normally no more than 3 days.
Examples: For three days Paul was blind, and did not eat or drink anything” (Acts 9:9), Moses (Deut. 9:9), Israel (Ezra 10:6), Israel (Esther 4:16).

3. Partial - restricting diet of certain foods or a meal a day.
Examples: Daniel “so the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead” (Daniel 1:16), (Daniel 10:3).

4. Regular - fast days that commemorate an event or weekly fasts on a regular day.
Examples: Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27; Ps. 35:13; Is. 58:5), a fast day (Jer. 36:6); four separate festivals (Zech 8:19); twice a week (Luke 18:11-12).

5. Public - fasts called to times of special need and emergency. Almost all regular fasts were public fasts, but all public fasts are not necessarily regular ones.
Examples: King Jehoshaphat when Judah was invaded (2 Chron. 20:1-4), Ezra returning the exiles (Ezra 8:21-23) Ninevah, as a result of Jonah’s preaching (Jonah 3:5,10).

6. Involuntary -no desire for food because of anxiety, sorrow, or mental distress (Dan. 6:18), and where a person finds themselves in a situation where no food is available (Matt. 15:32; 2 Cor. 6:5, 11:27)

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Does God Punish Us When We Sin..?

God hates sin. He does not like his children involved in it, and He pleads with everyone to repent of their sin and to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. However, sometimes sin gives God no other choice but to punish us unless we repent or turn away from it. God's punishment is sometimes complex to our limited minds; therefore, we sometimes develop attitudes that God will immediately punish us for even the slightest mistake. Actually, this is not so because God is patient with all of us. However, we must continue to deal quickly with our sin before God has no other choice but to administer punishment. Let's examine God’s methods of punishment below. 

It is important to understand God’s two types of punishment. 

First, there is the punishment that God will pass to those who never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is punishment that consists of eternal separation from God in a place of torment, known as Hell, after physical death. This punishment is also known as God's judgment for the non-believer. The Bible says in Luke 12:5-8 (NIV) that we should fear God because He has the power to throw a person into Hell after the body is dead. The other type of punishment is discipline from God the Father on His “children” who are the true believers (Christians). It is discipline intended to teach and direct His children, and is done out of love, as explained in Hebrews 12:8-9 (NIV). It is equivalent to the way we as parents discipline our children when they fall short of our standard or do something we consider to be wrong. 

God will not punish the Christian for sin after physical death in eternity. 

This is the beauty of the Gospel in that the blood of Jesus Christ covers the believer's sins for the past, present (today), and the future. For the believer, it's “almost” as if we are sinless because Jesus already took the punishment for our sins. Judgment day for the Christian is much different than for the unbeliever. In eternity, the Christian will have his or her works or actions while on this earth examined to see if they were done with the right motives. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (NIV) tells that the works or actions done during the life of a Christian will be put to the “fire” test. This means that, on the day of our judgment, good works or actions (with good intentions) will be rewarded, but bad works or actions (including good works with bad intentions) will not count. Furthermore, this means that although the believer will still be saved, they will lose their “could-have-been” possessions, accomplishments, or rewards (due to bad works) like a person will lose their possessions if their house burns down from fire.

Absence of punishment for sin does not mean the believer is without consequences in this life. 

 Many people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and become Christians after their lives are damaged by their sin. It's usually at this time that a person seeks God because nothing else has worked. But accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior will not free you from all punishment you might receive for your sin. For example, if you injured someone while driving intoxicated, you will still have to pay the penalty for that crime. Matthew 5:25-26 (NIV) gives an example of how one should settle adversarial matters quickly, or they'll risk being thrown into prison until every last penny is paid. This passage appears to deal with the topic of owing someone money for so long that the matter has been taken to court, but the point is that the penalties (getting thrown into prison) cannot be reversed.

God is also patient and long-suffering with us. 

The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) that the Lord is patient with us and wants every one of us to come to repentance. He wants no one to perish in their sin. If we confess our sins, we will be forgiven and many times avoid God's punishment. A good example is God's patience while Noah built the ark. In fact, God waited 120 years for Noah to finish the ark and for people to repent; however, no one repented, so only Noah and his family were saved. 1 Peter 3:20 (NIV) also says that God “waited patiently in the days of Noah.”

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Christian Advice for Newlyweds.

Congratulations on your recent wedding. It may have been last week or a few years ago, but if you consider yourself a newlywed and are looking for Christian advice, I hope this will be a help and encouragement to you. Even if you are not a newlywed, you may find help in these simple reminders.

Make Your Spouse Your Best Friend

You don’t have to sever ties with other friends when you get married; however, you should build a relationship with your spouse that will endure through your life. Friends will come and go. Relationships will change. People move and distance strains old friendships. But your spouse will be with you the rest of your life. Keep that in mind as you begin to build a relationship with one another.

Obviously you already have a special bond or you would not be married. Congratulations. Don’t stop building your love for one another just because the preacher presented you to the crowed as Mr. and Mrs. Newlywed. Your lifelong journey together is just beginning. Work on your relationship by building more and more trust in your spouse. Create experiences that you two can fondly look back upon and remember with joy. This does not have to be expensive trips and gifts. Living your life with shared experiences will bring you closer together.

After returning home from our first four-year term on the mission field I struggled to understand that my friends had experienced four years without my wife and me. They built memories and shared a life with someone else in our place. We are still best of friends with them, but they will never know what we went through on the field and we can’t understand their lives either. But you know who was with me? My wife. There is no one on this earth who can say they fought the same battles or enjoyed the same experiences as I did except her. Our relationship is stronger today because we have grown together as friends.

Honor God in Your Relationship

To build a strong Christian home and family you must honor God and His Word. When you begin ignoring the principles of the Bible then you cannot expect to have a good relationship. Go to church. Read God’s Word. Ask God for guidance in your marriage.When you were dating there was a mutual respect—otherwise you probably would not have gotten married. Don’t lose that.

Respect Each Other

When you were dating there was a mutual respect—otherwise you probably would not have gotten married. Don’t lose that.

In general, men like to be respected for their intelligence and physical strength. Wives, feed that ego. It may sound silly to you, but when you respect this strength and ego you will build a stronger husband who wants to do more and more to cultivate a relationship with you.

Ladies want to be respected for their creativity and resourcefulness. Men, respect that in her. She wants to be an asset to your life and help build your marriage in a God-honoring way. She is successful when she knows she helps you be successful. Praise her for that. Let her, and others, know that you could not be as productive without her.

When you stop respecting each other you begin to tear down the strength of your relationship.

Honor One Another

Besides private respect you should publicly honor your spouse. Honoring them means to defend them before others. Speak positively and respectfully about your spouse to their friends and family.

We have all been in too many situations where spouses speak negatively about one another. Even at church functions when men get together with men, or women with women, conversations can quickly devolve to complaining about how husbands and wives do this or that. Don’t malign your spouse before others. Build them up with honor and respect.

Keep Private Matters Private

Along with honoring one another you should keep your private life private. When you have problems in your relationship you seek help from someone qualified to give the help you need. Don’t blab your problems to anyone who will listen. Your pastor can help you. Or you may have an older couple in your church who you can go to for advice. Don’t let your spouse find you you have been telling your private issues to the church gossip. That will destroy the respect and honor you have tried to build in your marriage.

Stay Out of Debt

There is a huge problem in our country concerning debt. It is not just that there is so much of it, but that it is considered normal and expected for people to be in debt. The Bible warns in many places against getting into debt. As a young couple let me implore you to obey God and avoid debt.

Proverbs 22:7 says that the one who borrows from another becomes the servant to the lender. Don’t take this lightly. If you are in debt then work as quickly as you can to get out. How can you be a servant to God if you are a servant to the bank, the car dealership, the credit card company and the rental store? If God asked you to serve Him as a missionary how many months or years would you have to work for your credit masters so that you could serve your Heavenly Master? You cannot completely serve God if you are a slave to the bank.

A Covenant Not A Contract

A contract is written to say, “if you will do this, I will do that.” Or, “if you don’t do this, then the consequences are …” In a contract what you do is dependent on the other person. However, a covenant is a promise: a one-sided promise that says you will do (or refrain from doing) certain things because you choose to do so. In marriage the covenant is made because of love. It is a promise from you to your spouse regardless of what they do or how they act.

Your marriage is a covenant with them. It completely depends on your decisions. Marriage is not a contract that is dependent on the actions of the other person.

Marriage is Never 50-50

Along the lines of your marriage not being a contract you should not see your responsibility as 50% of the responsibility. Or, another way to put it is saying that he is responsible for 50% of the marriage and she the other 50%. Doing so causes you to base your response on the actions of another—just like a contract. Each of you should feel like 100% of the success of the marriage rests on your own shoulders.

Years ago I was in a class with an older teacher. Most of the students were younger than I—in their 20s. We got on the subject of marriage one day and the teacher commented that she always thought the success of a marriage was 100% the responsibility of the wife. If the marriage failed, according to this teacher, it was the wife’s fault. I followed her comments with my own opinion. I have always felt that if a marriage failed it was solely the fault of the husband. I really believe that if my marriage has problems it will always be my fault. I have the power to rectify any problem with my wife. If problems arise it is always because I did not do right by my wife.

The younger students categorically disagreed with the teacher and me. This was not a Christian group of students. Every one of them said that a marriage was a 50-50 relationship. They believe that a marriage fails because one doesn’t do right, but has no power to control the other person’s actions.

Guess who had been married and divorced in the class? Some of them more than once. Most of them admitted to having had multiple bad relationships. The teacher had been happily married for over 40 years. I am quickly approaching 20 years of marriage and couldn’t be happier in my relationship with my wife.

Take 100% of the responsibility in your marriage and you will have a stronger foundation for problem solving and relationship building.

Don’t Read Each Other’s Mail

More important than the mail you get in a little box in front of your house is the mail God sent to each of you in Ephesians 5. Basically it says, “Husbands, love your wife.” To the wife, “Wife, submit to your husband.” These are messages sent to specific people. You should not read the mail that has not been addressed to you.

To the wife reading the mail God sent to her in Ephesians 5 you simply need to submit. God has given authority in the family to the husband. God will hold him responsible for the way he leads; therefore, wife, you need to submit to his authority.

Men, God’s letter to you is to love your wife and be aware that you are held accountable for the leadership in your home. Whether she submits or not is not your responsibility. Yours is to love.

Don’t read each others mail. If God told you to love then it is to be done regardless of her actions. If God told you to submit then He wants you to do so even if your husband does not love. Read your own mail and keep your nose out of your spouse’s.

Take Interest in Your Spouse’s Interests

I am not saying that men need to learn to cross stitch (however, you may find you enjoy it), but you need to at least be interested enough in your wife’s hobbies and passions to support her. Your relationship will not get stronger if you roll your eyes every time your wife talks about a new dress pattern she found on sale. Ladies, you may be surprised as to how genuine interest in woodworking or fishing can open up conversation opportunities that you thought you would never have. You don’t need to learn to field dress a deer, but don’t huff and sigh every time he brings up the topic with his friends.

You can honor, respect and strengthen your marriage by being supportive of one anothers interests.

by David Peach

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Does God hear / answer the prayers of a unbeliever / sinner...??

Does God hear the prayers of the unbelievers?  Will He answer prayer requests of the unsaved?  If someone is not a Christian, will God still answer their prayer?  Is there any hope for God answering prayers for those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?

Praying in God’s Will 

It is clear from scripture that God not only hears prayers of His saints, but that He also answers their prayers.  God says to Christians that He will listen to your prayers.  He will also answer your prayers.   In fact, God tells the believer that they can come to His heavenly throne boldly and ask Him for help (Hebrews 4:16).  But our prayers must be in alliance with God’s own, perfect will (Matt. 26:39).  Sometimes the answer is no, at other times the answer is different from what we ask for because He knows what we need better than we do.  What we want and what we need is not the same thing.

God Hears and Answers the Believers

Luke 11:9-10 says that if it is His will we can “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.”  Further, in Psalm 34:17 He says “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.”  In fact God tells His people to pour out our hearts to him, for God is our refuge (Psalm 62:8).

When God Doesn’t Answer a Christian’s Prayer

God will not answer the prayers of believers if they are living in unrepentant sin or fail to forgive others.  Matthew 6:12, 14-15 makes it plain that even a Christian’s prayer may not be heard as Jesus testifies by saying that we are to “…forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  Therefore, a believer that is living in sin or fails to forgive others has their prayers blocked since they are out of fellowship with the Father.  They will never lose their relationships but continual sin can affect their fellowship.  If my children continue to be willfully disobedient, they must understand that I am not going to grant their requests since they are not doing what I ask them to do.  God will never answer the prayer of a Christian while they are regarding sin in their heart (Psalm 66:18).

Does God Hear Unbeliever’s Prayers?

Now let’s answer the question as to whether it does any good for someone who is not a Christian to pray to God and expect Him to hear and answer their prayers.  The Bible clearly says that God will not answer prayer requests of those who are not saved nor will He even listen to their prayers (John 9:31).  Believers have had their sins forgiven but those who are not Christian are separated from God by their sin (Isaiah 59:2).  I Peter 3:12 plainly says that God will hear a believer’s prayer but not those of the unsaved: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Proverbs 1:26-29 speaks to everyone who does not believe in Him and gives a warning for those who don’t  that “…when disaster strikes you;  I will mock when calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD.”

How Can You Be Heard By God Today?

With all the natural disasters in the world today, He is asking you today to come to Him and accept Jesus Christ as Lord.  Then He will hear and answer your prayer.  You can know for sure that your prayers make it to His ears and that He will answer you.  Psalm 17:6 gives you all the reassurance you need if you become a child of His that He will hear and He will answer your prayers: “I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer.”  It is my hope and prayer that you will become a child of His today:
Admit you are a sinner and you are in need of forgiveness and that you repent of your own way.
Believe that Jesus Christ is the One and Only way and that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead.
Confess with your mouth and from your heart that Jesus is Lord and Savior and confess Him to others who are lost.



by Jack Wellman

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Why Does God Wait to Answer Prayer...???

 Why would God wait to answer our prayers?  Wouldn’t we expect that since God is all-powerful that He would answer immediately?  What is the purpose for God’s delaying our prayer requests?

Outside of God’s Will

One reason that God may not answer our prayers or that He waits is that we are asking for the wrong thing.  We may be asking for something that is not in God’s will for our lives and we might be asking for selfish reasons.  James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”(James 4:3).  For example, if we ask for money and we are not already giving to our local church or we have not been helping the poor, why should God give us more money so that we might spend it on ourselves?  Also, we might have the wrong motives in asking for something.  If we ask for a better job, the job that we think would be better may actually be worse than the job we have now.  God is sovereign and He knows what is best, and holds our best interests in mind for our future (Jer. 29:11).

In the  Lord’s Prayer, we are to ask that His will be done on earth just as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).   We know that God’s will for believers is to grow in grace and knowledge, so we can ask for spiritual understanding of His Word just before we read the Bible.  There is confidence in praying when we know His will for out lives as it says in I John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

We must remember to pray with faith.

Doubt

When we pray, we may have serious doubts about God’s ability or willingness to answer our prayer.  James 12:6-7 indicates that if we pray in doubt, God will not honor our requests saying, “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”  God may be waiting for us to pray in real faith, in expectation of receiving an answer, or to see if we are serious enough to continue to pray for it.

Sin Stops Prayer From Being Answered

God will not answer the prayer of a believer if they are in a state of perpetual, unrepentant sin (I Pet. 3:12). Psalm 66:18 is clear that “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.“ If we are obedient, He will hear our prayers (John 15:7) but if we are unforgiving, He will refuse our petitions before His altar (Matt. 18:35).  Matthew 5:24 is says that when we fail to forgive others, this is cause for a failed request for His help, “leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Prayer is Answered in God’s Timing

God also expects us to wait patiently on His perfect timing (Psalm 66:18).  In Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise.” The minor prophet, Habakkuk speaks for all of us when he grew impatient in waiting for God to answer his request in 1:2, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?”  I can most certainly identify with Habakkuk in his sentiments.  Psalm 37 is a great Psalm to read when you are seeking the desires of your heart with the realization that it may take some time. Read these key verses from Psalm 37 on waiting:

7  “Rest before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not worry when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.“

25  “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”

34  “Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.”

Sometimes the desires of our heart take time.  They do not happen overnight.  God is most often at work when He appears to be the most silent.  Even though Daniel had to wait three weeks before his prayer was answered, God had actually answered his prayer that very day that he prayed.  Don’t think that since God does not immediately reveal to you His answer, that He has not answered it  and has not answered it right away.  Daniel had his prayer answered the very same day of his request but it took three weeks for God’s sovereign timing for it to reach him – and it did at exactly the right time, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them”(10:12).

Stories of Waiting For Prayer To Be Answered

Don’t ever give up on praying.  God shows us that persistence pays off in Luke 18:1-8, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.  And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”  The point of this parable is that if we continue steadfastly in prayer God will honor that persistence.  Never give up on praying because God may be waiting to see if it is important enough to us to continue in prayer, day and night, day after day.

I heard the story of a faithful mother who had been praying for 28 years for her son to come to faith in Christ.  Year after year her son was rebellious.  He abused drugs, was in and out of jail, and showed no signs of ever knowing Christ.  The days and years dragged on with absolutely no indication that there was anything different in the man‘s life.  Then one day, 28 years after his mother first prayed for him, this man came to a saving faith in Christ.  Today this man, Terry Williams, uses his testimony to help other prison inmates find their way to a relationship with the only One Who can save: Jesus Christ.  What if this mother had given up?  What if she decided it was not important enough to keep praying each and every day?  What a difference this mother made in her steadfast prayers due to her undying love for her son.   Today her son is making an eternal difference for others in prison.  This was all due to prayer.  Even though she had to wait

-by Jack Wellman

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