Friday, April 4th | Be Careful What You Pray For

You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, and we are back once again in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadon Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shah, welcome to the show. It's good to be here.

Thank you. Good to see you. Happy Friday in the studio today. Happy Friday in the studio today indeed.

There's something that I've been wanting to get off my chest for a little while. Clearview Church is growing. Our staff is growing. We've got a lot more people who are working here day to day to day. And that's a great thing because the work is getting done.

A lot of progress is being made because with Pray.com, you know, there's a lot more content being uploaded. So we need a lot more hands to sort of facilitate that, manage that setup, you know, tear down, manage the schedule, all that stuff. But one of the things that I've noticed with there being more people here weekly, my, so I don't have my own private bathroom, but I have a bathroom that I go to that's at the very end of the building.

You know, you think, you know what I'm going to say? There's a, there's, we have, you know, bathrooms where we're like stalls and urinals and stuff like that. And then we have single bathrooms that are just a room. And so there's one that's at the very, very opposite end. That's like, you know, it's not mine, but that's, you know, that's where I go.

Right. That's just a bathroom. And before, yeah, that's the one I frequent. And before there was almost never someone in there right now when I go to it almost always there's someone in there. So I don't want to turn this into a gripe, into a gripe vine, but stay out of my bathroom. Why are the, why are so many people using the bathroom so often? I think they have the same, same ideas that that is my private bathroom. That's the one I go to because it's so out of the way.

There's no chance. Less likely to encounter people. It's sorta like, I don't know if this is a public school thing or not, but like when you go into a private bathroom, I'm sorry, when you go into a public bathroom, you are on guard. Like you, you don't, I don't know.

Was it like that in India? Like when you go into the bathroom, it's a very vulnerable thing. I mean, you go to the bathroom. I didn't know if like, like school, cause you went to a Catholic school.

Yeah. And so I didn't know if it was, I've only ever been in public school. Like in public school, it's like, if you go to the bathroom in the wrong time of day, you might get robbed. You might get stabbed or you might just have people just peeking over and like, like making fun of you or whatever. I didn't know if that's a universal public bathroom thing in schools or offices. Pretty much the world over.

That is, that is not a fun place to be. Yeah. But yeah, our staff has grown so many more people. So now it's like, okay, we need to have a schedule laid out. Like you go here, I'm going to go there. I hate to be a Sheldon Cooper, but yeah. Color coded chart in the office.

Please follow the chart. And there's plenty, there's plenty of bathrooms in the church. Like don't get me wrong.

So stop picking mine. But yeah, there's one that's like really secluded. Like you have to, it's a walk. Like you only need to, I would only go like once, maybe twice a day. Cause like it's a walk to get there, but it's private. I know nobody's going to come look like looking around or, or be knocking on the door or anything.

But now every time I go, it's like, there's someone in there. Yeah. And I don't know if it's worth a discussion with the, with the, with the other staff. I don't know. I don't know what the, what would you do?

I think the chart is the answer. Yeah. You don't care at all. You go in one of the public ones. Like that's just like, that's got like stalls and stuff. I mean, you gotta go. You gotta go.

Yeah. But I mean, like I, I would never do that. Like to me, that's like using a public bathroom when you don't have to. You don't care?

If you got to go, you don't care. Do you Dr. Shaw? No, I don't.

I don't know, man. I get, I get real nervous. You get a little flighty in the bathroom. Anyway. That's my, that's my point of the discussion is life's not always the same. That's true. So if you have gotten comfortable in your system, this regimen you have in life, things may change.

God might shake it up a little bit and it happens. And it may be in the form of bathroom for John and it may be something different, but that's okay. You learn how to adjust, adapt, keep moving forward. That's the main thing.

The main thing. That's right. Things change.

It's okay. I love that. Our verse of the day today is coming to us from James chapter four, verse three. You ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures.

That's something I think people don't think about that. I show you ask a miss, can you pray wrong? Is there a wrong way to pray? You're not really taught that, that you can pray incorrectly. There is, there is incorrect prayers. And sometimes God may even answer incorrect prayer.

What I mean by that is sometimes when we are so determined for an answer that I want this answer, this one, this one, this one. Sometimes God does answer and then we are frustrated and we are at loss. We are confused. What do we do now?

What do we do now? And that can happen. There's been a lot of times I think where people got the answer to their prayer, but they still attribute it to God either not answering or like, you know what I mean? Like, I think a lot of times we pray for something and then we forget that we asked for this. So we find ourselves like in a situation in life and we're frustrated and it's like, well, God's like, you asked for this. You wanted this.

Yeah. Oh, I think that shot, I think I'm understand what you're saying, but correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying God will give us, he will answer yes to the prayers that we are asking for wrongly sometimes to show us this thing that you're asking for. You didn't even really want this. This wasn't the best thing for you. So I'm going to give it to you to show you that this is not what you need.

Yeah. Sometimes God will do that. Now here in Matthew seven, it talks about how, you know, God gives us the best, the good things. It says in Matthew seven, seven ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened or what man is there among you if his son asks for bread that he will give him a stone or if he asks for a fish, he will give him a serpent.

If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father or your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him. That's a good point because I feel like the discussion really isn't, can we pray wrong? It's really, are you even praying at all?

You know, are you even asking for the things that you want? That's right. I think that's interesting because sometimes with these verses of the day, I think sometimes I walk away thinking that this is the point, but I don't know how many people, and I'm sure there are people who are praying incorrectly, but I think maybe Dr. Shaw, you, you know, you've talked to people way more than me. There are plenty of people who are just trying to struggle through life and they're not even praying at all.

Like they're not even asking God for the things that they need. Right. And that's, that's, you know, when you think about that statement there, of course it is about God giving us good things, not evil things. If we ask good, he's not going to give us evil. That's what, you know, that's what he's saying there. So how much more will your heavenly father do that for you if you as earthly fathers do it for your children? Right.

But also want us to go back to the original discussion that we began with. What if you ask for a serpent? Yeah, is God going to give it to me?

What if he asked for a scorpion? Are there times that God may answer certain things only to show you that, that this is why you should not persist on wrong prayers? Will God, I feel weird saying this, but will God harm me? Because I asked for it to teach me a lesson.

Will God give me something that will harm me? Yeah, true, true. That maybe that's the best. I think sometimes, uh, sometimes God does allow us to go down that path.

Wow. And, and we do get that serpent in our hands and then we get bit or we get, do get a scorpion and then we get a, you know, we, we get stung and we realize that was not good. This is sort of the equivalent of letting your kid do something that you know is going to hurt them while you're still there to help them pick up the pieces to teach them a lesson. Right, right. Like there were times where like Gavin would reach for the electrical socket when he was a baby, he would reach for the, the stove eye and I would never let him touch it like, like to teach him that it was hot. Right. But you, but you do kind of pop his hand or maybe there are times where like he's jumping on the couch and I'm like, Hey, if you jump on the couch, you're going to fall.

And I would just let him jump on the couch and he would fall. But it's not the same as like putting his hand in the elect, something that'll really, really right. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, sometimes people use the James four, three passage which you just read in the opening, which is you know, you have not, it says what causes fights and quarrels among you. Don't they come from your desires that battle within you, you desire, but you do not have. So you kill, you covered, but you cannot get what you want.

So you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Not everything is spending, is getting, is asking for your pleasure.

Sometimes you may ask for someone's doom, right? Right. But I think God may answer certain prayers, but that's not what we need. And there is something better that we can say, God, not my will, but yours be done. It's like we're asking for things, but we almost don't know to be asking for the best thing.

You're asking for what we want in the short term, but not for what God really has in store for us in the longterm. Right. Right. May thy kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Sometimes we will pray for our will to be done. Right. Yeah. Okay.

And so the Lord's prayer is also correcting us because people are praying and it's not like they're praying and not getting answers. I think there may be certain answers coming. You're asking me for this and you're very persistent in asking for this. Now there are many ways you can learn here. Here's one way you're going to learn. You ask this, here's your answer.

Now, how does that go? Oh, this is terrible. This is terrible.

I wish I didn't have this. Right. This is why it should not be your will be done. It should be God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So let's change your prayer from here on. Now you have a lesson here.

Now you have proof here. This is what happens when you force your requests on God. And he said, well, God doesn't get forced. No, sometimes God will answer because he's an answering God. He's not like a machine that just does what we ask him to do.

No. Many times he won't ask her. If I say, God, give me a million dollars. God is not going to do that. But if you keep saying, God, make me rich, please make me rich. I just don't understand why you cannot make me rich.

He may just give you that lottery, but you're going to lose your marriage in the process. Wow. So a lot of times people will say like when God isn't answering prayers or when you go through or when he's not answering them the way you think, or you're going through trials in life, those are just, those are opportunities for you to show your trust in God. But I think if I hear you correctly, you're saying that God is also teaching you what to ask for and how to ask.

Right. Like you're, God is teaching God, you're going through trials in life, not to get through to the other side and say, thank goodness I made it. Thank you God for seeing me through.

Now I trust you more. It's also, and maybe more so you didn't, you did not come to God correctly. And God is using that to teach you how to approach him, how to ask for what you want. See many times people will ask the question, God is not answering my prayers. Why won't he answer my prayers? You know, that's, that's most people's question.

Right. Why won't he answer my prayers? I think there's, we may need to change that question a little bit. We just had a guy writing yesterday, I think on yesterday's show that, that asked that exact same question.

Why, why isn't he answering? Right. Maybe I think there's another aspect to prayer. Prayer is very powerful by the way.

Prayer does work. When you come to God, there is a living true God. And when you talk to him, he hears your prayers.

And here's an amazing thing. He also answers those prayers. Now he loves us too much to answer every prayer, but sometimes when we become very stubborn and we won't budge until that prayer is answered, it has to be answered. And I will not stop until it, God may give it to you.

Now you have the scorpion, you have the serpent in your hand. What are you going to do with it? That's a good, that's a good point. I mean, just even thinking about myself, like right now, my wife and I are in the like home buying process where we're like looking for a home, looking for the right home, the perfect home. And that's, it's been a constant source of our prayers it to the point where like, I'm getting frustrated that we're not moving into a house and I'm hearing this and I'm thinking, you know, maybe this is God's saying to us either, either it's not the right time or you're not asking correctly.

And I don't know. And I'm kind of hearing you, Dr. Sean, I'm trying to parse that out. Like what is, and I think we talked about this before, where there was a house that we really loved and it got, it got bought. And so I was confused cause we'd prayed over and prayed over and prayed over it together separately. And I remember coming to you, Dr. Sean, asking, what is the lesson? Is it that, Hey, we didn't jump on it when we should have, we didn't trust God or wait because the best is still to come.

And I feel like a lot of times with, with my prayers, and I don't know if you guys ever feel this way, but I feel like that. I'm like, there's one of two lessons or multiple lessons that I'm supposed to be learning like about this, which one is it? And is the fact that I don't know indicative of I'm not where I should be. You know what I mean? I hope that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, I've certainly felt that way before. Like the, the lesson that I should take away from this is either I didn't move soon enough or there's, there's something better coming, but I don't know which, I don't know which one you're trying to teach me Lord. And the fact that I don't know, is that in and of itself the lesson? Correct. Correct.

Am I, am I, is it, is it, am I to the point in my Christian life where I should know, okay, this is the lesson God is trying to teach me or does that always come later? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I would say yes, God does answer prayers. Yes. God will not answer certain prayers, but then there are times that God may answer a prayer because you are refusing to listen to his voice.

Yeah. And that answer to prayer is the process through which he's going to break you and work in you. You know, he, he did that with people like Abraham and Sarah. They wanted a child. They wanted a child. They wanted a child. They want a child. Uh, they knew God was the one behind it. Right. God was saying, be patient, be patient, be patient. And you know, they're doing all kinds of weird things, you know, frustrated.

And then of course they got the child, but that was the wrong child. Ishmael. Ishmael. Yeah.

Okay. And he said, well, there's no prayer involved there. Well, they were talking to God on a daily basis.

That's right. I would say that is prayer enough. Why did God not stop Abraham? Why didn't Abraham that day when he was going into the tent with Hagar did not all of a sudden have a, uh, uh, uh, you know, a seizure, stop the whole thing.

Right. Why didn't God just falls over here in Hagar's heart? And she goes, Oh, I don't want this man. And she runs through, you know, runs away back to Egypt.

Why didn't that happen? Why didn't Sarah have a complete change of mind? Why didn't Sarah go, you know what, maybe this is wrong. I don't know why I think so, but I think maybe God's telling me this is wrong.

Right. Why did they all go to get, go forward with this diabolical scheme of, of my husband who is the father of the faithful is now going into the tent with an Egyptian maiden and they're going to have a child and this one will be the one will be my child. This is the way God's going to work this.

He said, well, that's just disobedience. I think it was also God allowing it, right? Because this is God's master plan. This is like at the beginning of God's master plan of salvation that there's no, there's no reason to think that he's not allowing these three people to come together and do what they're wanting to do. Like he's not out of control of that situation, which then zoom out to a much larger concept. Does God allow our disobedience and sin as part of his master plan?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So in this situation, I would say, Oh, David asked a great question. If you want to ask that question would be a great way to lay this out. So my question was, I, when I read a lot, like one of the books that has formed a lot of my prayer life is one that you recommended by John R. Rice, you know, asking and receiving. And he in the chapters talks a lot about being persistent in prayer and not giving up. So how do you differentiate the difference between that persistent prayer and stubborn prayer?

Great question. Persistent prayer is praying in God's will. It's staying on your knees before God, not giving up, ask, keep asking, not keep knocking, seek, keep seeking. Those are, that's persistent prayer, stubborn prayer. Great way to frame that, David, is the prayer that says, I don't care what you're asking for right now.

I want this. And it's not a selfish prayer. You may be praying for your child. You may be praying with somebody else, but it says stubborn prayer.

God may give it to you. It's a prayer that has no wisdom in it. It has no submission in it. Yeah. And it does not have God's wisdom and guidance in it.

Right. God's word is not in it. So people will say like, no, God will just not do it. If you just Google it online, what you'll find is pretty much every entry is about why won't God answer your prayers? What if God does answer certain prayers that are not according to his will to get you straight? Now God's not going to answer a prayer, not according to will like, what if there are other ways to God than Jesus? Yeah.

He's not going to lead you over to Islam or some other. Yeah. Like I'm just going to make, you know, find another way because you're being stubborn. So I'm going to create another Jesus somewhere.

No, he's not going to do that. Right. But then in your own personal life, if you keep asking stubbornly for something and you're just not going to listen, the only way to break you would be to give it to you. And I think about the, I agree. And I think about like the lasting impact of that, like that disobedience and that answered prayer for Ishmael, like think about all of the things that are going on in the Middle East today. You know, that disobedience had lasting consequences, but God knew in his plan that it was going to happen. And maybe it could even be the case that like the answered prayers that work not in our benefit will eventually work in someone else's benefit or will work to show someone else like, oh yikes, I don't want to handle it the way Abraham did, or I don't want to handle it like these three did. And then there are other passages in the Bible that had similar situations.

I mean, you, you turn over into the New Testament. Okay. You see Judas, the fact that Judas is talking to Jesus, right?

Right. That in a sense is prayer, right? Prayer is talking to God, right?

Asking him for something. Well, if you notice what happened at the, the, the last supper, the conversation, um, when Jesus said, one of you will betray me. Now they go around the room around the dining table and they're asking that question, is it I, is it I, is it I? And Judas asked that question, is it I? And Jesus says, you've said it. That's a good point for him to go, Jesus, please help me. I don't know what's taken over me.

I need help. I don't know how God would have made it work. Maybe some of the way would have happened. Some other person would, would have betrayed Jesus. Cause he says that son of man indeed goes, but woe to the man through him, to whom he is being betrayed. The Judas had a way, but he was so stubborn that he was like, I'm gonna look you right in the eye and say, is it me?

Because at that point he had already made up his mind to be made up his mind. Jesus said, it is, as you said, is it me? Am I going to be the one to betray you? Do you think there was a taunting aspect to it? I don't know.

The Bible doesn't say that, but I think it was a deceiving aspect. Like let's try to throw him off. Yeah. I am. I don't believe in you. I don't believe you're the one. See the whole thing that he was trying to make Jesus the King and that's, that's all, that's all modern scholarships, reinventing of Judas.

No, no, no. He, he was simply like this guy. I thought he was going somewhere with this, but he is not. So I'll sell him.

I'll make some money off of this. Yeah. And so he, when he asked that question, in a sense, he was saying, I am good. I am good.

And what I'm doing to you, I am good. And Jesus said, okay, you got it. And then he says, whatever you do, do quickly. Jesus is the one allowing this.

He's the one allowing. Whatever you do, do quickly. Why didn't Jesus stop him?

Why didn't Jesus say, Judas, we got to have a conversation. Let's have a heart to heart here. No, whatever you do, do quickly. Yeah. And he goes out and it was, it was night, which means and Satan entered him. Yeah.

Yeah. But and so people, I see what you're saying. Cause people will typically say, well, you know, he would never let Jesus, he would never, a loving God, a loving Jesus who's all powerful and who does answer prayers would never let Judas walk out to his doom.

But that's exactly what happened. He let him, he let him do it. So I want to talk to people here who you may be praying for people in your life, people you don't like, people who may be hurting you. What are your prayers? God break them. Maybe you shouldn't pray that prayer that break them, maybe death. Yeah. Do you want that?

You want to live with that for the rest of your life? Unless you don't believe in prayer, unless you think prayer is not real. It's just a joke. Unless you believe that God is just supernaturally, just going to filter everything. I was like, yeah, yeah, I heard that Gabriel, but I'm not answering. You didn't know we're not answering that stupid prayer. Now what if God doesn't work that way? He's like, really? He's that determined that evil in his heart. Well, here's what I'm going to do. Go ahead and give it to him.

Gabriel's like, you want me to kill him? That person for them? Yeah.

That's what they want. Go ahead and do it. Okay.

Done. And you go, Oh no, no, no, no, no. That's not what I wanted. That's not what I wanted.

That's not what I mean. I was just angry. I was just having a bad day.

I thought you filter everything out. Like I can just vent to you and you just like, like, yeah, most of those prayers I don't even listen to. Then I think we need to rethink what prayer is really about. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe it's quite more powerful than we realize. Maybe you're right. Maybe we're praying these prayers because we, at the end of the day, really don't believe that that it works or that we don't believe in the power of prayer. We really don't even understand what prayer actually is because I think that people who do pray and I know people pray that kind of stuff. People pray for the destruction of other people or for selfish gain. And I wonder if it's like, I'm just doing this because it feels good to vent and to get it out.

Or if it's like, I just don't. Or they want to, it's not even selfish gains. Of course, James talks about that, that God does not give you, you don't receive because you want to spend it on yourselves.

What if the prayers are not really spending on yourself? It's more for justice. It's more for retribution. It's more that I, I need to be vindicated here. This is for my vindication.

That's why I want this. So it's not about God, just help me get a Ferrari. No, no. This is about they wrong me and I want this to be rectified.

Well, my son rectified everything. Trust him. No, that's not enough. That's not enough. I work all things together for good. Trust me in that.

Not enough. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. So no matter what's happening, I love you. You love me.

That should all matter and love me and just trust me. No, I need to be vindicated. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Here's what you're asking for.

Here you go. What do you, wow. Yeah. What is your word if, okay, let's, let's say someone's going through something in life.

I don't even know how to, I don't even know how to frame it. How, how do you know? Okay. I'm going through a struggle in my life right now.

Maybe God is doing this to me or maybe God is allowing this to happen to me because somebody has prayed harm against me. What do you do? Well, I mean, if you know anything about the subject of envy, you know what happens if somebody is envious against you, by the way, jealousy, envy, two different things, right? Jealousy means I have something I'm not going to share. Envious.

You have something that I want, right? Two different things happening here. What happens when somebody is envious towards me? What does God do? He humbles you. He humbles the person being envied.

Being envied is really the one who loses. Like if Ryan has something that I want and I'm envying Ryan, God is going to strike, I guess, for lack of a better word, Ryan. Yeah.

Not really strike him, but he's just going to make him unenviable. So go back in the book of Genesis, Joseph's brothers envy Joseph. Well, who ended up in a pit and on an auction, Joseph, not his brothers. Yeah. I was thinking of Cain and Abel as well.

Right. Cain and Abel, same thing. Joseph and his brothers or David was envied by his brothers. You know, they couldn't speak peaceably to, well, they didn't speak peaceably to him. They were mocking him when he came to the battlefield against Goliath.

But guess who had to run for his life? David. David.

Yeah. Get into the New Testament. The Pharisees and the scribes envied Jesus, right? Because he was one who spoke with authority. Well, who was the one who got crucified?

Not the Pharisees and the scribes. Jesus. Jesus.

Yeah. And Paul, right? He was envied by some of the other preachers and they were talking junk about him and all that. Well, who got a thorn in his flesh? It was Paul.

Paul did. I was like, God, give him a thorn. Two thorns for him. One hit him. He gets a thorn and a half. Everybody gets a thorn.

It's like, no, Paul, you're going to be the one who's going to struggle. Wow. Yeah. So yeah, that's a great question. Would that happen? Yeah, that could happen.

I think that does happen. But just know, I mean, who is closer to God at that point? Who has God's grace upon them? It's not the one who is envying. It's the one who is being envied. Because it all still turns out for good because when we're weak, then we're strong because it's his strength enough.

Yeah. And you keep growing and you keep touching lives and God is blessing you. And the world says, yeah, I see all that blessing.

I just don't want his life, man. Look at that. God says good because I don't want you to envy him. And so if you're that person who's being envied or, and it's not that God is punishing you for having too much to teach that person a lesson. It's really that you are just going through the process that God has, that it's always been. Yeah. It's in God's economy to help that person not to envy you anymore.

You became a source or a focal point and you don't need to be. And so I'm going to take that away. And so, well, on the day of judgment, there is no way that person can say, but you gave him everything.

God's going to say, no. Did you see that thorn? You see that thorn? Yeah, I saw that thorn. Yeah. I didn't give him everything.

You have zero. No, every mouth will be silent in heaven. So going back to the subject of prayer, you know, pray, but pray like Jesus taught us to pray. Pray, you know, Father, our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, or your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, means not my will, yours. So when God shows you, maybe your prayer needs to be altered, alter your prayer, make it line up more with what the word of God through the Holy Spirit is teaching rather than stubborn prayer like David said.

Yeah. There's a reason he gave that blessing. Be persistent for somebody to be saved, for somebody to be reconciled, for God's blessing. That's persistent prayer. Healing, God heal. Those are good prayers. God straighten them out. God break them. God deal with.

Okay. Those are stubborn prayers. Those are not persistent prayers. Good point.

You don't want the answers to those prayers. That's right. To be, yes. So good. So helpful for us, especially as we head into the weekend, remain in a spirit of prayer. And I hope today's episode was helpful for you in clarifying what we mean by that spirit of prayer. Guys, make sure you join us on Monday, same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today Show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes, and you can always support us financially at ClearviewTodayShow.com. John, what do you want to leave our listeners with as we head into the weekend? John B, if you're not in church, or if you don't have a church, or if maybe there's something going on, if you're not able to physically be in church, you can always join us online here at the Clearview Today Show. You can join us, well, not at the Clearview Today Show, Clearview Church, Henderson, North Carolina. You can find us on Facebook, or you can always just watch our live streams as they're happening on ClearviewBC.org. All the links are going to be in the description.

You don't have to worry about writing those down. Make sure you follow Dr. Shaw on Pray.com. Thank you to everyone who is giving to the ministry, who's supporting us following Dr. Shaw. All of his content is right there on Pray.com. Make sure you download it today. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you Monday on Clearview Today.