Can I Ask God to Heal My Boo-Boos?

But what you might find is you might find that you keep on routinely bringing certain kinds of requests to God, and he keeps on not answering them.

So like the football game kind of thing, like if you're on that losing team. You're like 0 and 11, man.

You're 0 and 11. I prayed every week. So at some point it may dawn on you that…

The other team was praying harder. The following message may be offensive to some audiences.

These audiences may include, but are not limited to, professing Christians who never read their Bible, sissies, sodomites, men with man buns, those who approve of men with man buns, man bun enablers, white knights for men with man buns, homemakers who have finished

Netflix but don't know how to meal plan, and people who refer to their pets as fur babies. Viewer discretion is advised. People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio.

The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone. Or forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of almighty

God is hanging over our heads. They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish.

God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the

Father, where he sits now to make intercession for us. Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come, in that final day, their house will stand.

Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask.

We're your hosts, Harrison Kerrig and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll answer the age -old question, Can I ask

God to heal all my boo -boos? And I managed to make it all the way through that intro without laughing.

Tim, to pull the curtain back a little bit, when we came up with that question, Tim and I were wondering if I was going to just bust out laughing whenever I mentioned the question.

Believe it or not, I have had that happen a few different times as we've been recording episodes over the years, and I managed to just keep control of myself right until the end there.

And then I gave a quick little laugh, a quick little chuckle right at the end there. But I want to laugh at it because it's a funny way to word the question, you know, can

I ask God to heal all my boo -boos? So, Tim, with this question, it seems like...

So, you ran a poll on this, didn't you? Okay. What was...

Because I have a certain response to this question, but then I want to know, what were the options people could pick from with this question, with this poll that you ran?

And then what was sort of the consensus that people came to? Can I ask God to heal all my boo -boos?

What was the consensus they had? So, originally I did a poll on prayer requests for Colts, so we can talk about this too, but prayer requests for Colts.

And basically, I was asking, is it okay to ask for prayer on social media to get better for common illnesses, which objectively have very little chance of killing us?

So, I was asking about Colts. Like, is it okay to pray for Colts on social media? Or is there anything weird about that?

And so then the responses are, yes, why not? And then, no, probably not. And then, maybe, what's the motive?

And then my typical, I'm too afraid to answer kind of option. But then 68 % basically said, yes, it's fine to pray for Colts.

Ask for prayer for Colts on social media, right? So, I was kind of surprised that it was that high.

That it was that high that people thought, right? So, I thought, all right, well, I'm going to try to change it just to think about the most trivial thing

I could possibly. Like the thing that probably no one even prays for.

I was trying to come up with something that I could gain some kind of consensus on, like, this is obviously over the top, okay?

Like, that's what I was trying to do. So, then I worded it. Is it weird to pray for God to heal the three tiny scratches on your child's knee?

Which they got when they scraped it on the ground, okay? Do people actually pray that?

Do people actually pray in this? I think. So, I asked that. And it was even worse.

It was even worse, right? So, like, option number one was, yes, it's immature. That was only 10%. And then, no, nothing is too trivial.

That was 76 .6%. All right. So, 76 .6 % said that it's not weird.

Like, it's not weird. Nothing's too trivial. Like, it's not weird to ask God to heal the three tiny scratches on your child's knee.

And then most people, like, when they responded, I got like 31 comments on this. So, I got a lot of comments.

And, I mean, that poll, praying for boo -boos, it got 385 votes on it over against my other one.

So, but most people, like, they basically latched onto this nothing's too trivial idea and talking about the importance of teaching their kids to pray kind of thing.

And, you know, a lot of them, like, this – I do think that people do this kind of thing.

What do you mean? What do you mean? What thing? Well, you know, like the child's – Pray that way? Pray for the three scrapes?

So, routinely – Like, I think this is kind of like a feminine impulse, right?

Like, I think it's more like a feminine kind of impulse. Like, you know, like those tiny scrapes, those three tiny scrapes, they may not be significant to you, but they're significant to the child.

And so we should – like, then there's this idea that you should take anything, you know, no matter how trivial or insignificant, to God, right?

So, take your request, period, right? So, take your request, period, to God, no matter how trivial, no matter how insignificant.

And a lot of people, what they really heard then was – which is not what I intended at all with this line of question or this line of thinking.

But what they heard was, like, to not take it to God would somehow be communicating that God is like, you know,

He's trying to answer all these phone calls and He's just really busy and He can't quite get to them all. So, I don't want to bother

Him. The Bruce Almighty, like, I have over a million email prayer requests, just yes to all of them.

Yeah, I can't keep track of it all. I can't read all this, just yes, flat. So, if you wouldn't – so, like, the idea in their minds was, like, if you wouldn't bring it to God, it was like, because you're viewing

Him like that, right? But then, you know, in my mind, it's just like, that's – it has nothing to do with that, okay?

Okay. Like, why you would bring in a request to God or why you wouldn't bring in a request to God.

It has nothing to do with Him being too busy or Him being too occupied or it being too trivial or anything like that.

Like, the whole point is, like, in the Bible, there is actually a type of prayer that is off limits to God.

So, like, you have a theology of praying, and then you have, like, kinds of prayers that God in His Word tells you that He's not going to answer, okay?

So, like, James 4 talks about these kind of prayers that He's not going to answer. So, James 4, 1, what causes quarrels and fights among you?

Is it not this, your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

And then it says, you do not have because you do not ask, and you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

And so, in my mind, there's just this category of asking wrongly to spend it on your passions.

And I think what we often do is we're often training kids to ask wrongly.

So what you do is you train kids to ask for, like, very self -centered prayers that have nothing to do with, you know, my kingdom come, my will be done kind of prayer.

So they're just not prayers that are according to the will of God. And so you train your kids to do that from an early age.

And what happens is once they get to be teenagers, they basically get to a point where they've been praying these self -centered, me -focused, me -agenda kind of prayers their whole life.

And they realize that God just doesn't answer any of them. And then they just kind of throw their hands up in the air and say, hey, what's the point?

And so in my mind, like praying for those three tiny scratches on your kid's knee, it was just an obvious example of you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions kind of prayer.

But then the remarkable thing to me was that, like, you know, that wasn't obvious to most people. Like they doubled down on it.

They tripled down on it. Like that was perfectly fine. That was perfectly acceptable kind of prayer in their minds.

So what is the, I mean, what is the reasoning for the praying for the three boo -boos from the other side?

You know, like what is the, is there like some sort of biblical, you know, oh, well, here's why.

Here's the explanation for why. Because I think I can imagine some people saying, you know, hey, yeah, like praying for the three scratches or the three scrapes on my kid's knee.

Sure, maybe it's not like the most pressing thing, but then I'm still going to pray for it because nothing's too trivial for God or whatever.

So what is, I mean, was there some sort of like biblical reasoning given there? The biblical reasoning is the nothing's too trivial part.

That's kind of the thing that people kept on saying over and over again. So nothing's too trivial, right? Sure. So, you know, in all your ways, like this got brought up a few times, in all your ways, acknowledge

Him and He'll direct your path. So like what you need to be doing is like praying without ceasing.

You know, that would be another line of thinking that people are taking. So you pray without ceasing. And then, you know, like if you ask anything according to the will of God, you know, like you can ask.

So in their mind, like there's this idea of asking, like you can, I think in most people's minds, like you can basically ask for anything you want so long as you have the right motive, basically.

Sure, yeah. Okay. So like that's the idea. You can basically ask for anything you want so long as you have the right motive.

But then what I'm trying to, you know, what I've noticed with prayers in general with people, like whether you're talking about in churches or online is that the vast majority,

I mean, everyone knows this, like the vast majority of prayers that people make are prayers that are entirely kind of self -focused.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you're not really allowed to comment on it, but, you know, I made another post about this and, you know, this got some attention on it because people know what you're talking about.

They just – I think people just don't have really a good theology of prayer in general. They don't really know what they're supposed to be doing. So, like the post

I made was like, have you ever gone to a church prayer meeting where the majority of the prayer requests were the typical my neighbor's second cousin's dog's friend found out that they had strep throat kind of prayers, right?

The neighbor's second cousin's dog's friend. And, you know, and you had the impolite thought, right, basically.

You had the impolite thought that something feels off here, right? And, you know, and so this is, I mean, this is really a huge problem.

And I think it starts with praying for the boo -boos kind of thing, okay? So, like meaning, like I think if you teach your kid that basically they can pray whatever they want to pray, so long as they add if it's your will on the end of it, that what ends up happening is like they –

I mean routinely people, they just pray about the physical, right? So they pray about the physical. They pray about like health, safety, comfort, you know, that we're well rested, you know, all that.

Like the bulk of what they're doing is they're praying these prosperity prayers when they're little kids. And then when they get older, they're just, you know, basically they're just taking whatever desires they have, bringing them to God and say, hey, do it, right?

If it's your will, you know, if it's your will, do it. And then when they get older like that, like they've learned to pray for very superficial things.

Most of it's just entirely physical. But then like what people hear then, they hear that like there's some sort of like reaction that's being had to praying for the material, praying for the earthly, praying for the whatever.

And it's like none of that's really the point, okay? So here's the point. Like here's the point. Jesus in his – like when the disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he taught them to pray.

Like our Father who is art in heaven, hallowed be your name, right? Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And so when you think about the Lord's Prayer, there's an agenda that should drive all of Christian prayer, okay?

So there's an agenda that should drive it. And that agenda is God's kingdom coming and God's will being done.

And then when you're thinking about the nature of how you even pray or how do you even approach God in that way, what you're doing is you're trying to pray according to God's will.

And if you're praying according to God's will, then that changes even the things that you ask for.

Okay? So like if you think about the boo -boo thing for a second, what is God's will for boo -boos?

What do you think? That he would, I guess, sanctify you through that stuff. Sure. It sounds like a little three boo -boos, you know, like if you're 30,

I don't know how, I don't know. Hopefully getting three scrapes on your knee is not a sanctifying experience for you at this point.

It could be. But, you know, maybe you're like a… For the kid, right? Yeah. Maybe you're like a little kid and you put your faith and trust in Christ.

Then sure, perhaps that's a sanctifying experience for you. All right. But think about it, right? So like a kid, so God decided pain to be a part of the world.

So pain is part of the plan. So Jesus says, don't think I've come to bring peace. I haven't come to bring peace but a sword like you're destined for afflictions.

Like afflictions are a part of life. Pain is a part of life. Pain is part of the fallen human condition. And so like you think about your child, like your child scrapes their knee on the ground.

They don't like it, right? So what does an unsanctified child want in that moment?

The pain to stop. The pain to stop, right? They want relief. Give me relief. That's what they want. Like fix it, right?

Sure. And so but then if you're to sit there and say, okay, well, whatever you want to take to God, you take to God, right?

Without any checks, right? So there's no like check of asking wrongly. There's no check of trying to make sure this is according to God's will, right?

Because theoretically anything can be according to God's will. Like you don't know. So but then the issue is like you know that he's designed the body to be self -healing, right?

So you know that that scratch is going to – those three tiny little scratches, they're going to be healed in about two or three days, right?

Maybe even quicker, right? Yeah. All right. So now if you're asking a child – like if you're trying to inculcate faith in this child, right?

To help them to grow their faith. And the way you do that is asking like God to do a divine miracle and stop that pain right now, right?

Yeah. That's what you're doing. You're asking for it. Like God doesn't really – like if you know his will, you know his will is to – like he's already made your body.

It's going to heal itself, right? Sure. Like it's going to heal itself. Like you don't need a divine miracle right now to stop it.

What you actually need to do is learn to suffer well, right? So the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness, meekness, kindness, faithfulness, self -control.

So right now this is an opportunity for you to learn long -suffering, right? This is an opportunity for you to learn patience.

This is an opportunity for you to trust the Lord that he knows that you're going through pain. He has a purpose in it.

He doesn't want you to respond to everyone in anger and fear and irritability.

Like this is a moment for like a parent to really step in and say – to teach them about life. You know what I'm saying? To teach them about life, about God, about his plans for the world, about his plans for you.

What like 77 % of the people on my poll said was that this was an opportunity to basically teach this kid to like ignore everything they know about God's will and pray for a miracle, right?

Do you see what I'm saying? I hesitate to even call it a miracle because it's so insignificant.

But why I'm calling it a – Yeah, I understand because it's not like the normal. It's violating the laws of nature.

Right, yeah. So like I said, technically, it is the definition of a miracle. Like to instantaneously heal those three scratches.

It just feels like the most inconsequential miracle ever. So the reason why it feels –

Jesus wasn't going around in his public ministry healing scraped knees. All right.

But that gets at like this – and that's what gets at this.

Like I was trying to come up with the most like silly, absurd example that you can possibly think of.

Sure. But it didn't work, right? It didn't work. And so – but if you think about what's actually happening, you are asking

God to do a divine miracle to heal these three tiny scratches just for the sake of getting your kid to stop crying, right?

When this was like a parenting moment. Like this is a parenting moment to teach them about like theology. This is a –

I mean this is a moment to teach them about God, about his purposes in the world. Why does he have pain? This is like a profound moment that you can take advantage of to teach them how to pray for the right things, right?

Right. But then what happens is like what people come away with is like just ask

God for all the self -centered, selfish things you want to ask him for. So long as you add

Lord willing at the end, right? Mm -hmm. So then like they get older and it's like, hey, can you pray – like every time they're sick,

Lord, take it away. Help me get better. Help me get the girl

I want, right? So I want the prettiest looking girl in the school to go on a date with me. So can you arrange that if it's your will?

Yeah, yeah. So I mean but then people – they shamelessly say that kind of thing, right?

So like just – I want to get all A's on my test, right? So Lord, can you help me get A's on all my tests if it's your will, right?

Yeah. Help me win the high school football championship, right, if it's your will, right?

So now I mean like the reason why it's all absurd is because like if it's your will, it's not some magical phrase you add on to your selfish request in order to cover your bases, right?

Right. What you actually need to do is think, what is God's will? And his will for your life isn't just that you're the best at everything and that you get everything you want.

Like his will is actually to make you more like him and to advance his kingdom. And if you want to pray intelligently, the way that you pray actually intelligently is to learn like what is

God's will? And let me pray for the means to accomplish that in the world, right?

And so the more that you're doing that, the more you can pray confidently, right? I mean, you think about like an absurd example of what we're talking about.

Like, Lord, I pray that you give me a Lamborghini if it's your will. Yeah. Lord, help me lose 50 pounds on the cake and candy only diet.

So what people need is they need like a category for asking wrongly,

OK? Or even worse, you know, like, Lord, help me get a job as a stripper.

That would clearly. At that point, no one should be able to argue.

No, no, but no. All right. You say that you say that like as if it's a joke.

I did because it is a joke, not not because it might be a joke because it is a joke. You say you say that as if it's a joke.

But I've literally had like church members asking us to pray that their job at the bar would open up, you know, and that they would get a job like being a bartender.

And they didn't know if they were good looking enough to get that, you know. But that's what they're praying towards.

OK, so like this is not like people pray in that direction. So for sure. Yeah. You know, so from my perspective,

I well, let me ask you this, Tim. So you've you've been you've been talking about, you know, this.

I mean, we've been talking about the the scraped knee. Right. Well, let's move let's move to a slightly less ridiculous, ridiculous example, which would be like, you know, hey,

I've got, you know, strep throat or something like that. It's not dangerous to me.

It's not it's just inconvenient. You know, my throat hurts. Maybe my voice isn't really what it what it what what it normally is.

It's hard to talk right now. It's painful to talk. You know, are you saying is are you saying that the person who has strep throat would, you know, be praying a prayer, a selfish prayer by praying,

Lord, will you heal me of this if it's your will? It could be.

It could be. They could be. OK, so. Yeah. So what are the distinctions in your mind there? So, I mean, the original poll

I was asking would be, is it OK to, you know, ask social media to pray for your cold? Mm hmm.

Like, is it OK for social media to ask people on social media to pray for your cold? You know that you assume that the person's like healthy, like normal person.

There's just a normal part of life. Is that OK? And so I think, yeah, I mean, obviously, like part of this discussion, you know,

I don't know if you want to take it this direction right now, but part of this is just like, how do you handle sickness in general? Mm hmm.

And then part of it is just like, what does it mean to pray according to the will of God kind of thing?

So, like, I think, you know, obviously, like God wants us to pray for physical things as much as he wants us to pray for spiritual things.

Now, I would say that if you read like the New Testament and you read the prayers of the saints, you read the

Old Testament, you read the things that they're praying for, like the vast majority of their prayers are very one sided.

OK. What do you mean? Well, I mean, the vast majority of the prayers that New Testament saints are actually praying are for things that are very spiritual in nature.

OK? OK. So, I mean, for example, like Ephesians 3 is a good example of this.

So Paul says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.

And then he says, Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that is at work within him, to him be the glory of the church and Jesus Christ throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. So, I mean, when you think about the kind of things that they're actually praying for in the Bible, it's very rarely the physical.

OK? I just want to say I've never heard anyone ask for that on social media. All right.

Now, they don't ask for it on social media, but they don't ask for it in prayer groups, right? Right. Yeah. Like, if you're at a church prayer meeting, 99 .9

% of it is all going to be physical. And I think if you were to ask that at a prayer meeting, everyone would probably look at you and think like, oh, you know, like,

Jesus, Duke over here, you're asking everyone to pray for sanctification.

OK. You know, you're the super Christian, you know. Well, that's been my experience.

Like, I don't know how to participate in these stupid prayer meetings myself. And I'll call them. I don't really know how to participate because I don't like what most people think is like.

And the reason why there's like they're scrambling in their mind to come up with the most like the closest person they can think of that is sick.

Second cousins, dogs, friends, me or whatever. Yeah. I mean, that's what they're doing. And because they're just struggling to figure out, like, you know,

I'm not going to pray for anything like real, you know, I'm not going to pray for anything about me. I'm not going to pray for anything spiritual. So they're just trying to figure out the closest person they know who's sick or whatever.

So so but most like when I did that poll, like there's a lot of people who had the same kind of experience that you're talking about.

And what I've actually had in my life is to say that they feel profoundly unwelcome to bring up spiritual request in those kind of situations anyways.

Right. So now, I mean, you're asking for something like strep throat. Well, what I'm trying to say is I don't I don't see like an overabundance of examples in the

Bible of anything like that. Yeah. Now, regardless of whether or not Timothy has his whole stomach thing,

Paul doesn't Paul doesn't tell him, you know, hey, go, go write a letter asking all the churches to pray for it.

And then the more like signatures you can get on that letter, the more confidence you'll have.

They got a little answer. So like you look at I mean, if you really read the

Bible and you look at the kind of things that they're praying for, the bulk of them are spiritual and that reflects some sort of spiritual maturity.

But then what you have, like, you know, if you think about what's actually happening in the Bible, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of times that I really wish that the

Bible like we really wished it. You got to go to the Bible and figure out what to do. But I mean,

James five basically gives you a prescription of what to do when people are sick anyways. So it's not like as if there's not like a prescription given in the

Bible. Right. So James 513, is anyone among you suffering? What should you do?

Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any one among you sick? What do you do? Post on social media?

Surely, surely that's what what James said. No, but I mean, so I put mostly like if you think about like, man,

I wish the Bible were that direct with what to do if I'm sick. Bible does give a prescription there. It says, let him call for the elders of the church.

Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of the faith will save the one who is sick and the

Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven. Verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of righteous person has great power and it's working. And then it gives the example of, you know, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

He prayed fervently that it might not rain. And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit.

My brothers, if any of you wanders from the truth, let someone and someone brings him back. Let him know that whoever brings a sinner back from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

So I think what you have, like, I think you have a situation where the Bible kind of speaks to this issue to where, like, if you think about the bulk of the prayers, the bulk of the prayers are spiritual in nature.

But then if you have someone who's significantly sick, like God would want them to go talk to their elders and do like a spiritual inventory of your life and see, like, is this connected to the way

I'm living in certain ways? Am I giving God any reason to give me this sickness that I have?

Right. Like, is it connected? Like, is this like a consequence of me rejecting

God? Is this like something he's doing to try to get my attention? And so like what people are meant to do is they're meant to think that kind of that way.

Right. But then what we immediately think, like when someone is sick is we think, well, obviously it has nothing to do with their sin.

It's just a natural part of life. Just pray that God makes it go better. And really, I mean, like, sadly,

I just think that's the bulk of the things that we're praying for. So I have a category for praying for it, but I think it should be like.

The New Testament envisions a kind of scenario where you deal with the whole person and not just praying these like self -centered prayers that are just kind of like take away all the bad stuff.

Does that make sense at all? Yeah. Yeah. And I think I think that's probably most people, most

Christians could say that's their experience, especially as you look on social media, whether it's

Facebook or Twitter or whatever. I mean, I can't tell you how many times we're joking about it, but I can't

I can't tell you. I mean, probably every single prayer request I've read about.

Well, I guess not every single one. I have seen some that are like, hey, I just shared the gospel with, you know, some person

I just met pray that, you know, God was honored and that they repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in Christ or something like that, which is good.

You know, I'm glad people are, you know, like going out and sharing the gospel. But then most of most of the prayer requests that I've ever seen are like, hey, you know, my like my dad broke his leg or something, you know, so pray everyone pray, pray for healing, you know, and then and then you feel and then you're

I guess you're supposed to feel bad. Like, if you just read that and then scroll on and you don't like you don't like it, you know, or you don't you don't comment and saying, you know, sending prayers or whatever, you know, thoughts and prayers, whatever, you know, some some, you know, comment saying, hey,

I'm praying for you, basically. And I, I've always been like concerned with that, just because I think

I think that is I think what's being communicated there is this idea that we really are praying selfish prayers.

So, so my perspective on all of this is, is, is maybe slightly different from yours, but maybe not, you know,

I'm of the perspective that you were joking about the football game, for example, I'm of the perspective that you can pray and say, you know,

Lord, help us win the football game, you know, help us give a grant us, you know, favor victory or bless our preparation or, you know, help us play to the best of our ability, whatever.

Right. But then I do think there has to be some sort of like, you know, but not my will, but your will be done.

Sure. So what I'm not meaning there is like, hey, you know, if you say the phrase, if you say that phrase at the end of it, that magic talisman that immediately makes whatever you're praying for good, right?

Because you can, you can pray like, Lord, help me get the stripper job. Right. If it's your will, you know, and, and like, he's not, he's just not, that's not his will.

So he's not going to, he's not going to give that to you. You know, it's like, that's sort of like my, my oldest daughter right now, we're trying to teach her how to say, we're trying to teach her how to be polite, you know?

And so, so she'll demand things of us and we'll remind her, hey, you know, that's not how you ask politely.

How do you ask politely? And she'll add a please to the end of it. And what she thinks is going to happen is every time she says, please, then we'll do exactly what she's asking for.

Formality, essentially. But, but then there's times where she, she asks, we, we tell her, you know, hey, how do you ask politely?

And then she asks politely and then we say no anyway. Right. And so, and, you know,

I, I think like the Lord, adding the Lord willing thing to the end of it is, is sort of like that where most people, when they're doing that, they are probably thinking of it as a formality.

But then what I, what I'm saying is, as I read the Bible, it seems like the much better thing.

I mean, you have to, you have to be coming from a place of like, Lord, I understand that I'm a sinful person who is prone to selfishness.

Even when I don't think I'm being selfish, I understand that I can still be selfish without my own realizing it.

And I understand your ways are higher than my ways. You know, and, and so I'm presenting my prayer request to you.

You tell me to present them to you. But then I also understand that, you know, better than I do.

So, you know, here's my prayer request, but then I want you to do what, what you think is best.

And I want you to help me be okay with that. Right.

And desire that, you know, and so, so I, you know, can you pray for victory in the football game?

Sure. But then I would, I don't know that I would ever encourage someone to pray that thinking like, okay,

I've asked for it. You know, and I even said, Lord willing, at the end of it.

So he's gonna, he's gonna help us win guys. Don't worry. I put in a good word for us, you know, because, because I mean, you can think about it's like, well, hey, maybe the other team's doing the exact same thing.

Sure. So I think the difference, are y 'all going to tie now? Is that what's going to happen? You're praying against each other.

No, I think. All right. So I think what. All right. So what most people think is they can ask whatever they want.

And then if they were to say, Hey, Lord willing. Right. Right. Lord, then that's like, it seems like that's what most people understand prayer to be.

It's just like you ask, ask what you want, add Lord willing to it. Right. Yeah. It may not actually say that, but that's kind of like, there's no actual motive check on it at all.

But then what the, what you're trying to say is like, well, assuming that like a person has a genuine desire to please the

Lord and everything. Right. Sure. Yeah. Then you can pray basically whatever you want, give or take.

I mean, you can't pray the things that are explicitly against scripture because then it's like, well, obviously that's not as well.

Okay. Well, so I think the difference though, is that like, there's a broader cat, like there's a broader category than just praying.

So try to think about it this way. Right. Sure. So you have a category of saying like, I'm going to pray something exactly contrary to what

I know to be God's will. Right. Yeah. So that would be like praying for the stripper job or something like that.

That would be something that would be specifically prohibited in the Bible. Yeah. But I think like praying, what

I'm trying to communicate is like praying according to the will of God is just simply more specific than that.

Okay. Like meaning like, so if I'm going to pray according to God's will, then the more

I think a person actually knows God's will, the better their prayers will be. Right.

Yeah. And then inevitably their prayers are going to actually sound more like the New Testament ones. Right. Because they've actually learned what

God's will is. And then, you know, but then I think that there's this, there needs to be another check, you know.

Okay. So like the other check is not, it's not just like, if it's your will, I don't actually like, like,

I think, you know, as an immature Christian, a person can just come to the Lord and say, hey, I don't know what your will is.

So I'm just going to give you my request. Right. And you do whatever you want with them.

If it's not your will, then fix it. If it is, then do it. And I'm just going to trust you either way. I think that's a great posture to have.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think a person is wrong for just bringing it to God.

Right. Yeah. And not knowing what his specific will might be in any specific scenario.

But what you might find is you might find that you keep on routinely bringing certain kinds of requests to God.

And he keeps on not answering them. So like the football game kind of thing. Like if you, you're on that losing team.

You're like, oh, you're 0 and 11, man. You're 0 and 11. I pray every week. So at some point it may dawn on you that.

The other team was praying harder. It's either that that other team was more holy than you or like there's something about what you're asking that isn't in line with God's will.

Right. Like it made it may dawn on you that that that could possibly be the case. Right. And so I think like the issue is like, right.

It's actually like Jesus teaches us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done. And so as I'm thinking about like that football game,

I think there's just this category of asking wrongly to spend on your passions. And you have to figure out, well, what is ultimately underneath the request that I have?

OK, so what is it about? You know, so like just taking it out to absurd.

Right. So to the absurd praying for a Lamborghini. What's wrong with it? I mean, that's just like, like,

I mean, what is that going to do to sanctify you or, you know, to help you share the gospel?

I mean, it could give you opportunities to like meet with rich people and minister to them. To the rich person.

I became a rich person. Hey, I'm praying that you'll help me. I'm just imitating Paul as he imitates

Christ. He became all things to all people. Me too. So but in that like, you know, in that kind of thing, right?

Yeah. Like you're praying for a Lamborghini. You think about like that kind of prayer. And it's very difficult to conceive of a scenario where an individual could possibly have like a good motive for asking for that.

Yeah. So you're asking for like an extreme luxury item that like.

Cost $100 ,000, whatever, $200 ,000, $150 ,000. Like you're asking for like a car that costs as much as a house does.

Right. Yeah. All right. So like if you try to get to the bottom of that, like you try to get to the bottom of that kind of request.

Ultimately, like as you're like, you should be examining your motives and asking this. Right. So like what is this about?

And the only thing that you can probably come up with for asking for that Lamborghini is I want to impress people.

Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Like I want people to think I'm, you know, like special or just, you know, something.

Right. Hang on. Hang on, Tim. I already told you exactly. I already told you exactly why this is a biblical prayer.

I mean, he's I'm just trying to become, you know. All things to the rich. I became rich. All things to all people, man.

I mean, come on. Right. So but in that kind of scenario, here's the point. Like the point is like there are some kind of requests that are just like there tells to say, hey, yeah, your motives are off here, man.

You get what I'm saying? Sure. Yeah. And so I think with like praying for a boo -boo, that would just be another example of something that like you're praying for a miracle to heal those three scratches.

It's like I think that would necessarily demonstrate that you don't care about sanctification.

Right. Well, and not even that. I mean, you can just look at like, even if you're not convinced by the fact that even if you're not convinced by that,

I mean, just look at just like we're saying earlier, just go on social media and read what people are asking prayers for.

Sure. It's not like, hey, help me to be bold and sharing my faith more.

It's not like, hey, pray that God grants me repentance for the sin.

It's not any sort of sanctification thing. It's all or almost all heal me.

Heal me. Heal me. Heal me. Heal my family. Heal my friends. Heal my friends' friends. Heal my friends' dogs.

And I think you should be able to look at that and then say, hey, whatever we've been doing, whatever we've been doing has been encouraging this because this is where we're at now.

And people don't just get here randomly. So what have we been doing that's been encouraging this?

And surely it has to be the like, I mean, I gave you my perspective on things, but then

I'll also tell you that I've never prayed that God would heal my scraped knee.

My daughter just scraped her knee a few weeks ago. And my wife's response was never like, hey, let's go to God and pray for this.

So I think that there's nothing like I think there's plenty of times where Christians will ask wrongly to spend it on their passions.

And they may find that they do not have because they do not ask. Right. They ask and they ask and they don't receive because they ask wrongly.

So I think immature Christians will routinely ask a miss. OK. And I'm not trying to beat them up for asking a miss.

I'm just trying to ask them, like, you do have to think through, well, what are you asking for and why? And that is a very helpful kind of check to help you to pray in a more mature way is to ask, like, why am

I asking for this? I have that be a check every time you ask, like, why am

I asking for this? So if you were to ask, like, Lord, will you please help me to win the football game?

And then you were to have that check in your mind, like, why did I ask that? Right. Not just like I want you to be glorified so that you.

So will you please do this? Like, what really is this about? Right. Sure. Like, what is it doing for you that you win that?

Because there's all sorts of other things you could be praying for in that moment. Like related to the football game.

So help me to be a good sport. Help me to be a good testimony. Help me to be a good witness. Help me to talk some good trash.

Yeah. Help me to give as much, get better than I take.

No, but it's like if you have the mind of Christ in you, right? Like, I want to be a good testimony. I want to be a good witness.

This is an opportunity to minister to people. This is an opportunity to show people what it's like a Christian looks like when he competes.

Right. Like, help me to keep, like, not lose my temper. Right. Help me to be self -control.

Help me to be patient. Help me to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Right. So help me to rejoice if we lose with those who are rejoicing.

Right. So, I mean, I think that there's plenty of things. But then if you were to ask, like, what is it about? Like, what is the winning doing for me here?

It may be that you just have a list of, like, asking wrongly kind of stuff. Yeah, I want to win so that I can feel important.

I want to win the college football championship so that I can have a – so that I can say that I conquered my –

Sure. These people who are praying against me. I fulfilled my dream. I fulfilled my dream. Right. But whatever, like that – so that I can have my taste of glory in the hot sun.

Right. You know, so is it about God's glory or is it about your glory? And I think you could ask that.

You know, why do you want to date the most attractive girl in the school? Right. Why are you asking God to give you her as a date?

You know, is this about, like, you want a godly person? You know, is this about character? Is this about – you know, right?

Hey, man, you've asked me 99 times for a hot girlfriend, but you haven't asked me once for a

Christian girlfriend. So I think if people were to, like, just do that simple, like, what is this about?

Like, what am I asking for? Right. And then you do that to, you know, everything. Like, you do that to sickness. Why am

I asking to be healed of this cold? What is it about? Is it about I just don't want to deal with it?

Right? Is it about I'm tired of it? It's like I don't like feeling bad? Well, whatever that is, that's

James 5 stuff. Do you get what I'm saying? Like, now, if it's about, like, Lord, I have a conference

I need to speak at, right? Or my sister just got married and her husband, he was sick before the wedding.

And, you know, I can understand at that point saying, hey, you know, Lord, we spent thousands and thousands of dollars on this wedding.

And there's people who are flying in, you know, and please give me the strength necessary to stand up there and, you know, execute my vows, you know, and not ruin the entire thing and waste all this money for everything else.

Because, you know, in my mind, it would honor you. Marriage honors you. And, you know, we've committed to doing this.

And, you know, I want to, you know, honor everyone's time and commitment, resources and everything else. And so please give me the strength and means to fulfill this.

You know, I think that could be fine, if that makes sense. But then I do think if people were just to stop and, like, just put a pause on whatever they're praying for, particularly when they don't sound anything like biblical prayers, you know.

Yeah, yeah. Put a pause on it and say, why am I asking for this? Like, what is the thing?

Like, what is it about? Is it about – is this just about, like, comfort and safety and fame and, you know, my glory and me and my kingdom and my will?

You know, then I think that would put a check – that would put a stop to a lot of the things that we're praying for, just that simple kind of self -examination.

So speaking – last question I'll ask you. Speaking of prayers, you know, from the New Testament, when we look at Jesus's prayers, you know, when he teaches the disciples to pray, one of the things he teaches them to ask for is –

Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread, right? When Jesus is in the garden, you know, he asks

God to – if there's any other way to accomplish his will that doesn't require dying on the cross and, you know, and having to be separated from God, then he asks

God, please do that, you know. And then he adds on to the end of it, but not my will, but your will be done, you know.

So when we're looking at those prayers, someone might be tempted to read a prayer like that in the

Gospels and say Jesus is having a moment of, you know, quote -unquote weakness.

He's asking for a selfish prayer, right? He's asking, hey

God, if there's any other way, then let's do that because I don't want to do this.

That's one perspective someone could have on that kind of prayer. Now, I don't think we would ever say that because then, you know, you're in very dangerous territory at best right there.

But then when you're reading it, I mean, he's very obviously making a request to God, right?

So how do we view the fact that Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray that way, and then he was making requests like that that seemed to, you know, be contradictory to God the

Father's will, and then he adds on, but not my will, but your will be done. So how do we harmonize that with what you're saying about, you know, praying for the football game or praying for the sickness or, you know, whatever it might be?

All right. All right. Start with the Lord's prayer, right?

Sure. So, you know, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So lead us not into temptation.

Deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, power, and glory forever and ever. Amen. So that prayer is bracketed by the notion that your kingdom come, your will be done, right?

Right. So it starts with your kingdom come, your will be done, right? Sure. And then it ends with for yours is the kingdom, power, and glory forever and ever.

Amen. So God's kingdom coming, God's will being done is the agenda that sets the purpose of that prayer, right?

Yeah. It's the context of the prayer. It's the context. Now, when you say, hey, give us this day our daily bread, what agenda is the bread serving?

The kingdom of God. Right. So give me what, like, so a lot of people get fixated on, see, it's okay to pray for the physical, right?

So I can pray for my Lamborghini. Give us this day our daily Lamborghini. All right.

But that's not the point. Like, the point is not, like, just physical request, okay, period, right?

So look, he prayed for the physical. So you can pray for your three scratches on your daughter's leg. It's the boo -boos, right? Fix the boo -boos.

It's like, no, it's his kingdom come, his will be done, right? So give me what I need to accomplish your purposes, okay?

Okay. So if you get that in your mind, like, what biblical prayer is like is give me the things

I need, whether spiritual or physical, right? Physical or spiritual to accomplish your purposes.

Then, like, give us this day our daily bread. Why? So that I can be advancing your kingdom, okay?

So it's not like, hey, give me, you know, whatever food I want, right? Give me what

I need. Give me the bread that's needful for me so that I can accomplish your purpose, right? Give me health and strength.

Why? Right? So that I can accomplish your purpose. And that needs to be the actual thing that you're wanting.

Do you get what I'm saying? Right. Not just like the secret phrase you say, the secret password.

Yeah. So, I mean, like, if I have a cold, here's the point. Like, if I have a cold, right? Just take it away.

Period. The end. Why? Because I don't like it. I'm tired of it. Yeah. And you do that kind of thing.

You said I could pray for this kind of stuff. So just take it away. Right? Well, it's like, no, I mean, like, is this missing?

Like, you can honor God as, you know, sick for a couple of days. Can't you? You know what

I'm saying? Like, what is the input? Like, what is the need to? Like, wouldn't it be better to say, hey, help me to suffer well?

Like, wouldn't it be? You get what I'm saying? Like, now, I mean, if the prayer is, hey,

I want to. There's people who depend on me and they need me. Right? Restore me to usefulness.

Like, that's a very different kind of prayer than just, like, I don't like being sick. You know, I hate being sick. Take it away.

Right? So the issue is, like, praying, you know, give us this day our daily bread. That's put in the context of give me what

I need in order to accomplish your purposes. Okay? And then what people pray in the

New Testament, when you read the kind of things they pray for in the New Testament, overwhelmingly what they're praying for is the things that really matter.

Do you get what I'm saying? So what they've learned is, you know, God, He's clothed the grass of the field.

He's, you know, He feeds the birds of the air. You know, the bulk of their prayers are not like, please give me, you know, this list of all this physical stuff that I need.

The bulk of it is, I want to accomplish your purpose. So work on my character. Right? Give me boldness to speak the truth.

Help, you know, help open doors of opportunity for me to share the gospel with people. You know, work on my character.

Help me to be patient. Help me to be self -controlled. Help me to love my, you know, church better. You know, like, so people who grow in the

Christian life, they're asking, like, they've learned that God, like, this, the whole context of prayer is about God's kingdom come,

His will being done. And the bulk of their concerns are, like, to try to advance that, like, everything is put in that agenda of advancing

God's kingdom. So whatever they're asking for, whether physical or spiritual, it is being asked for the purpose of advancing

God's kingdom. And then the things that are just pure selfishness, right?

Pure my own kingdom, pure things I want so that I can be exalted, so that, you know,

I can look good, so that I can, you know, be comfortable in safety and ease and everything else. They don't pray that kind of prayer.

So now when Jesus is sitting there, you know, praying, like, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, right?

But yet not my will, but Thy will be done. The thing is, like, as you read through the gospels, you'll realize that, you know, particularly in the

Gospel of John, Jesus, overwhelmingly, He did everything according to the will of the Father. And it says that over and over again.

He did everything according to the will of the Father. And then when He gets into the garden, like,

He really is in this weird kind of spot that most people are not actually in, right? So He's in this spot where being faithful to the will of the

Father as He's done His whole life means that He's going to take on the wrath, take on the sin of the entire world and become an object of God's wrath, right?

So, like, He's in this position where the most honoring thing to the Father to do, what the thing to do

God's will, like, the thing that's going to bring the most glory is going to be the very thing that's going to cause, you know,

Him on the cross to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Right? So in that kind of context, what

He's not, He's not just praying some self -centered prayer. He's basically just expressing that, you know,

I'm in this kind of, you know, dilemma here. Right? Right. I'm in this dilemma.

I've done everything according to the counsel of your will. I want your pleasure above all else. Now I'm in this spot where in order to get it,

I have to become an object of your wrath. Is there any other way for me to keep on doing your will and keep on getting your pleasure that doesn't end up with me being an object of your wrath on the cross, right?

Having to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the answer is, well, no, there's not. Okay? This is the path, right?

This is the path. And so, you know, for Jesus, it's like accept the path, you know, going forward in that way.

So, you know, when we're thinking about a prayer, the point is like biblically minded prayer is always about God's kingdom come,

God's will being done. I mean, you can even see this with Hannah, you know, so like when you think about Hannah, you know, she wanted a,

I mean, it's just a great example of how this works. And the difference between like James four, like asking a miss kind of prayers and the kind of prayer that Hannah's praying.

Right? So Hannah is like, you know, weeping. She's weeping over the fact that she can't have a child.

And so she, you know, she goes to pray to the Lord is in first Samuel one, 10 says she was deeply distressed and she prayed to the

Lord and wet bitterly and she vowed a vow. And she said, Oh, Lord of host. Like you may think, well, it's just about she just wants a child for herself.

Right? Because she's selfish. But then here's the point. She vowed a vow. And she said, Oh, Lord of host. If you indeed look upon the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but you will give your servant a son.

And she says, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head. Now you think about that.

It wasn't just about give me what I want because I want it. It was about I want an opportunity to serve you in the way that women are designed to serve you.

Right? Women are designed to advance your purposes by bearing children and you preventing me from being able to do that.

But I don't want this just for me. I want this as an opportunity to give to you and to serve you.

So give me this child. I pray that you give me this shot. And if you do, I'll give them back to you. Right? Right.

And that's I mean, that's the total. Like if you want to know what the difference between like, like.

Asking a miss to spend it on your pleasures and praying your kingdom come, your will be done.

It's in that prayer. Right. So she could have just said, give me a child. Period. The end. Right. So I don't have to be embarrassed so that, you know, my sister, my rival wife will quit mocking me.

Right. So you could take away the shame of my barrenness, you know, because this is humiliating. So, you know, but what she's praying for is like,

I want an opportunity to honor you and you withhold this, you know, way that women honor you from me.

Yeah. But I ask you to do it so that I can honor you with it. And I think that that's that's just a check that we should take into all these prayers like that.

We pray is like, what is it about? Is it about my kingdom come? My will be done. Or is it about God's kingdom come?

His will be done. Okay. All right. Well, I think that's a good place for us to wrap up the conversation on. And, you know, clearly, according to the

Twitter poll, this is a you know, we're in the minority, apparently, at least in the circles that we're running in when it comes to how do you pray and and what do you pray for?

You know, and and is adding Lord willing to the end of it like a secret password that that, you know, gives you anything you want and essentially makes

God, you know, I mean, borderline like a prosperity gospel, you know,

God essentially. So so it's good that we're able to talk about this, and, you know, it's good that it's good that we're able to answer some of these questions and and hopefully give everyone out there something to really think about.

And, you know, I do genuinely I personally, I'm pretty concerned by the fact that, you know, most of the prayer requests

I ever see are healing type prayer requests. And definitely. And when you but then when you go and you read the

New Testament, it's just over and over again. Like, hey, pray for boldness, you know, pray for pray that, you know,

I'm steadfast and I endure to the end. I'm literally in prison right now. You know, don't pray that I get out.

Pray that, you know, I can tell you whether by life or death. I honor you. Right. Pray that. Pray that. I remain faithful.

Those kinds of prayers, you know, and and and what so whatever, you know, whatever we're doing, there's something there must be something wrong with the way that we're teaching people to pray.

If the majority of our prayers are all healing prayers, when you just don't really see that in the

New Testament or the Old Testament, really, for that matter, when you look at the people who are who are, you know, righteously praying to God and we're seeking to honor

God. And so so it's good to have this conversation and shed light on some of these things. And we really appreciate all you guys for listening to us week in and week out and choosing to support us.

And, you know, the hope is that this is something that genuinely does equip you for all the works of ministry and not only equips you, but then enables you to go out and talk to others about these things.

Talk to your Christian friends, share the gospel with others. Be bold. We want to encourage you as we're talking through these things to go out and do those things yourself and not just not just live, not just listen to podcasts and then say, hey, that's cool.

And then move on. But but, you know, take these things that we're talking about and then actually apply them to your life.

Encourage your brothers and sisters to apply them to their lives as well and sharing the gospel as well so that, you know, more people can repent of their sins and and join in the unity that we all share through Christ and what he's done for us.

So, again, we appreciate everything, interacting with you guys, all the support that you have.

And we look forward to having you on the next one. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed.

We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion. We thank you for all your support and ask you to continue to like and subscribe to Bible Bashed and share our podcast with your friends and on social media.

Please reach out to us with your questions, pushback and potential topics for us to discuss in future episodes at BibleBashedPodcast at gmail .com

and consider supporting us through Patreon. If you would like to be Bible Bashed personally, then please know that we also offer free biblical counseling, which you can take advantage of by emailing us.

Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.