Prayer and Biblical Interpretation

A couple of posts ago I shared some verses that were the result of dialog with pastors on the subject of prayer.  There are current positions which in part seem to hold that since we have been adopted into the family of God through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, then we essentially have current possession of a virtual carte blanche in terms of receiving positive answers to our prayers whether they be for healing or luxury personal jet aircraft.

Notice anything about the size of the stones?

Oh, there is one caveat, those who hold this position stipulate that one has to have enough faith to cover the request.  I will not comment on that in this post.

A mentioned in that same post I have received, it is now 3000, multiple friend requests on facebook to which I have responded to about 2000.  Some are immediately asking for money, even conveniently providing routing and account numbers to expedite my response.  It did; I immediately defended and blocked them on messenger.

However there have been many who have shared prayers that they say they are praying for me.  Several follow the pattern one of the earlier requests.  The pastor offering that prayer assured me that I would be healed based on that prayer.  At the time it was at the outset of the deluge so I responded to him.  I asked if he could give me Biblical support for his assertion that his prayer would be answered.

He immediately responded with John 14:14 (here @ Bible Gateway).  When he responded I did not have time to process that passage with him, so I set a time the next day when I could focus on him, at which time we agreed to meet.  I then posed a question for him to ponder prior to the next day’s meeting.  I asked, “What constraints on answer to prayer does Jesus present to us in John 14:14?”  I then signed off

The next day, we met at the prearranged time and he had come to the conclusion that what he had said was incorrect.  Which was good, but the problem was he had come to the right conclusion using faulty logic and flawed interpretation of Scripture based on incomplete observations.

For the next hour and a half we worked through the issue by text on messenger.  It was incredibly tedious.  But at the end he understood that yes his answer was right, he understood the shortcuts he took getting there, the long term implications of approaching scripture in that way, and was grateful for the time.

The intriguing thing is that I have seen the similar prayer based on a similar approach to Scripture more times than I can count in the messages I have gotten from the new facebook “friends”.  More striking, I have encountered the same thing everywhere I have traveled to lead workshops, including home.

2 Timothy 3:16 – 17 (here @ Bible Gateway) reminds us of the powerful ministry of the Word of God in our lives.  It is preceded in the same letter by 2 Timothy 2:15 (here @ Bible Gateway).

The combination of those passages begs the question “If we do not handle the Word accurately, will it be effective in our lives?”