Unanswered prayers?

Have you ever sat back and wondered why your prayers weren't being answered? Odds are you have, and if you have, odds are you've been told that they're being answered, it's just not the answer you want. Right? Sound familiar?
Well, something came to my attention today that I never thought about. So many times we sit back and wonder what the point is of prayer. If we pray, and God is going to do what He is going to do anyways, why pray? Sure we can influence him. But after all, He's God. He knows what we're going to pray for anyways. Well, why should we pray?
Simple: Because Jesus did.
Now, (here comes the part that caught me off guard). In the book of Hebews it says, "he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death". Did you catch that? It's talking about Jesus. He prayed to God to save him from death. Did God save him from death? No. Like the person who prays for a cure from a disease and does not get it, Jesus is no stranger to not having his prayer answered the way he would like it to be answered.
If Jesus did not always get the answer he wanted, what right do we have to get all bent out of shape when we don't get the answer that we want?
Philip Yancey's book "Prayer" is seriously reconstructing my mind and view of prayer. I highly suggest that if you don't have it, you check it out or buy it or borrow it or something.

If there is anything that you would like prayed about, please feel free to leave it in a comment here. It doesn't have to be just for this post, but any post. Feel free to leave prayer requests, praise reports, or just whatever when you want on here. I promise, it will be prayed for!

Love God... Love people... Serve the world...
Jpack