Title: False Prayers Unanswered (Job 35:1-16)
Content This text is the third refutation of Elihu that continues. Here, Elihu takes the form of asking and answering two questions.
First, what is the benefit to good people? Second, what is the reason why prayers are not answered?
<Body>
1. Prayers that do not depend on God's covenant of salvation will not be answered (10-11).
If Elihu does not know and believe in the God who educates people with the good and righteous words of God who created them and gives them wisdom, it cannot be true prayer. Therefore, prayer must always begin with thanksgiving and praise for salvation.
The qualification for prayer is salvation through receiving Jesus, that is, the authority to become children of God. If so, then, what is the content of salvation, and we must come to God in a state of knowing, realizing, and understanding the process and nature of that salvation. If this is not done, right faith cannot come out before God, and there is no basis for keeping the lips of prayer open.
1) Thank you for the grace that set us free from original sin, our own sins, and our ancestors
2) I can no longer live a life of being abused and ridiculed by the world’s customs and those who hold the power of the air
Thank you for the grace you saved me from
3) Rescue me, who has been living in a cursed fate (program) from the moment I was born
thank god for great grace
4) Mercy and sacrifice for giving up and sacrificing my Son Jesus Christ for me.
excitement for love
5) God, who has given such great grace and gifts, will surely give me good things.
Having a heart of absolute gratitude based on trust--You can sing thanks and praise even in prison
Faith that is possible (Acts 16:25), (Phil 4:4) “Rejoice in the Lord always, I say again.
rejoice in you”
This is the belief When we move forward with all-weather gratitude and absolute faith, we can have a victory that the world cannot afford.
Such is the prayer that depends on the covenant of salvation. A prayer that relies on the covenant of salvation is inevitably a prayer of faith, a prayer overflowing with thanksgiving, and a prayer overflowing with emotion.
2. It is a prayer that is proud and does not long for the Lord's grace (verse 12).
(Job 35:12) “They cry there because of the pride of the wicked, but no one answers.”
Pride is the gateway to forgetting God's grace. It was said that if there is no thanksgiving, God will tear it apart.
(Psalm 50:22-23) “Now consider this, you who have forgotten God, or I will tear you to pieces, and no one will rescue you. I will show you salvation.”
In the end, gratitude is lost, and the arrogant and arrogant are rejected.
(Proverbs 16:18) “Pride precedes destruction, and a haughty heart precedes stumbling.”
It was because of pride that the angel fell and became Satan and fell into eternal punishment. It was because of the vain thoughts of wanting to be exalted above God (Isaiah 14:12-20). When you pray with such an arrogant disposition, you cannot expect an answer.
Also, praying for one's own situation and complaining about it is a kind of arrogant prayer. Because it is a prayer that complains about not believing in God's goodness.
And the prayer that raises one's own righteousness is also a proud prayer. This is like the prayer of a Pharisee who prays proudly in the temple (Luke 18:9-14).
3. It is a vain prayer without repentance (v. 13).
In the Old Testament, those who violated the law were able to restore their relationship with God through the peace offering only after they first offered a sin offering or a trespass offering to the Lord. This is the order of prayer, the secret to receiving answers.
Crime breaks the holy communion between us and God.
(Psalm 66:18) “If I harbor iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”
There should be no barriers between people and between God and us.
<Conclusion>
When we pray, we must hold on to the covenant of salvation thoroughly and go forward boldly in faith and at the same time go forward with thanksgiving and praise. And sins must be quickly repented and washed away.
So you should always enjoy the privilege of receiving answers.