"To my great distress, I sometimes hear people say, in their zeal for fervency and efficacy in prayer, that we should never qualify our prayer requests with the words ‘if it be Your will.’ Some will even say that to attach those words, those conditional terms, to our prayers is an act of unbelief. We are told today that in the boldness of faith we are to ‘name it and claim it.’ I suppose I should be more measured in my response to this trend, but I can’t think of anything more foreign to the teaching of Christ. We come to the presence of God in boldness, but never in arrogance. Yes, we can name and claim those things God has clearly promised in Scripture. For instance, we can claim the certainty of forgiveness if we confess our sins before Him, because He promises that. But when it comes to getting a raise, purchasing a home, or finding healing from a disease, God hasn’t made those kind of specific promises anywhere in Scripture, so we are not free to name and claim those things," R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord.
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4 comments:
Great quote, John. Sproul is always good, in my opinion. To me he stands out as one of the most brilliant minds in the Christian world today. I'm thankful that God continues to raise up men like him to offer sound teaching even where it isn't in vogue.
I want to run something past you. We've been working through 2 Timothy for our family devotions lately. Today the topic was Hymaneus, Philetus, and Alexander, and how Paul rebukes them sharply for their heretical teaching against bodily resurrection. It got me thinking - is it too much to suggest that the heresy that Paul addresses in 2 Timothy, the Word Faith/Health & Wealth gospel, and the emerging church are all weaved together by the common thread of an over-realized eschatology?
Hi Matt,
I agree with your thoughts on Dr. Sproul.
I can see a link between the passage you mentioned and the health and wealth and emergent movements: "But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene."
Seriously, I see what you are saying. These men were saying that the resurrection had already happened. The notes in my Reformation Study Bible (edited by Sproul, of course) say this "resulted in an overemphasis on present experience." I could sure see how that would be applied to the word of faith folks.
Thanks for the though provoking question.
This is a good reminder.
I think, though, that some people can fall into the opposite trap of never asking for anything specific. i.e. - "Lord, please bless someone, somewhere, somehow..." It's been encouraging to realise recently that it's perfectly ok to pray for specifics. Provided it's done in the spirit of "your will be done"!
Hi Anika,
It's good to hear from you. You make a good point; we certainly should not be afraid to pray for specifics.
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