Question about answered prayers and "praying hard"

[DRDS]

Hey everyone, I was wondering about this when hearing a pastor talk about prayer. I have also heard many fellow believers in church say that if such and such prayer is not being heard or answered, you need to "pray harder", just what do they mean by that?

Does it mean to pray longer, pray louder, or pray until you bust a artery in your neck?

I mean does God want us to pray like we are passing a melon sized kidney stone in order to work in our lives?

It doesn't seem to make sense because after all God is all knowing and He already knows what you want and what you need even before you ask Him.

And if for instance if you are praying for a family member to be cured from a deadly disease and it just so happens to be God's specific will for that person to go be with Him no matter how "hard" a person prays would it not make a difference?

With me currently my method is to just neatly, plainly, seriously, but not on the edge of passing out, make my requests known to God and then just trust Him and to just allow whatever He wants to allow to happen.

Is that a good way to go about it or do I need to somehow impress Him with how "hard" I pray? What do you all think?

[Kurieuo]

It means you need to cut yourself, and dance, work up a sweat until God sends fire... ahh hang on. Think I'm getting confused with Baal worshippers.

Have you asked your pastor or those in your church what it means?

[DRDS]

Well it's not actually a think I hear in church today but like on television and at other churches I've heard many people say "well if you are not getting your prayers answered you are not praying hard enough or you need to pray harder" Bottom line I was mostly wondering if God puts a premium on how loud, long, passionate, and emotional our prayers are or would a simple spoken or thought prayer with faith will be enough.

[Danieltwotwenty]

Well it's not actually a think I hear in church today but like on television and at other churches I've heard many people say "well if you are not getting your prayers answered you are not praying hard enough or you need to pray harder" Bottom line I was mostly wondering if God puts a premium on how loud, long, passionate, and emotional our prayers are or would a simple spoken or thought prayer with faith will be enough.

I am pretty sure God is not deaf, if prayers are not being answered maybe they are not being answered in the way you want them to be answered.



Dan

[neo-x]

I am pretty sure God is not deaf, if prayers are not being answered maybe they are not being answered in the way you want them to be answered.

or ur asking the wrong thing in prayer

[Silvertusk]

Every single prayer gets answered - Sometimes the answer is No.

[jestes]

While many times prayers get answered in the way we ask, many other times the answer is no. When they're answered with a yes, we think we can ask for something else and it too will be a yes. Sometimes we get a string of prayers answered with a yes. Other times we may get a string of no. It's easy for us to fall into the idea of prayer being a token to operate some spiritual vending machine. It's a lot more than that. Prayer isn't us giving God a laundry list of items we want, rather it's supposed to be one on one time with him. God is after our hearts, so I do think that while he hears every prayer, I don't think prayers muttered out of habit carry as much weight as prayers said from the heart. When someone says "pray harder", if they actually mean "pray with more sincerity and the thought that God may have better things in mind", I agree. If they mean you have to work up a sweat, light candles, and have some out of body experience, then I think they've missed the point.

While overly simplistic, I think that God is happy that we took the time just to stop and say hi, if we're actually sincere about it.