Revelation 8:4-5

4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

If we care only for ourselves as we pray – focused only on our needs rather than praying for others, the Lord will not answer our prayers. As much as we seek blessings for others in our prayers, the Lord blesses us, and He guides the faith of those who are considerate of others. Whatever we seek to receive from the Lord, we must first genuinely want for others. We must humble ourselves and seek to please the Lord first by loving others. Those who do not take this to heart will never be able to build their salvation, no matter how much they pray. 

And when we pray, we must pray with all our being, our hearts, and all that we have: a complete faith, not a comfortable, easy faith or faith as a hobby. We must obey only the Lord and place all our hope in Him. We must believe with absolute conviction. When we pray without a shred of doubt, then the Lord must answer us, and we must believe anything is possible. From Mark 11:

Have faith in God. 23″Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. 24″Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.

Jesus repeats “believe” in this passage to reiterate this message. We must be fully committed: we act only for God. We hope, seek, and ask with all we have to give. 

When our prayers are unanswered, it can cause resentment, turning many away from the Lord. However it is our lack of faith, our doubt, which results in unanswered prayers. Our beliefs in the world and the wisdom it teaches causes us to doubt. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Confidence over this doubt comes from our faith. Confidence is believing in the Lord’s purpose and obeying it though the whole world tells us we are being foolish. All creation, mountains, and the sea will do as we request. The Bible and how it guides enables us to realize all the Lord’s purpose. When we seek His direction, we will be answered and nothing can block us. Therefore, to have our prayers answered, we must also correctly know God’s purpose and obey that purpose.

We must also be on good terms with all others before we pray. We must have forgiven and been forgiven for any sin or wrongdoing against each other. In verse 25, it reads:

25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you for your offenses.

Do not pray with any unresolved conflicts or resentments in your hearts. We must be very careful about this when we pray. Do not pray with anger or desire to hurt others. Whatever the conflict, we must have the mindset of wanting others to resolve their sins and resolve our resentment with them. We cannot pray with sinful intention because that is what will come back to us. Whatever sin we believe others have committed, we have committed more. Unless we repent and resolve our evil intentions, we cannot seek from the Lord in prayer. How can we seek from the Lord when we have sin and anger in our hearts? If we do not forgive others or want them to be forgiven, how can the Lord forgive us or answer our prayers? The believer is one who truly loves their neighbor more than themselves. 

Finally, we must seek to receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our prayers. In Luke 11, the end of verses 9-13 refers to the Holy Spirit as follows:

9″So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10″For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11″Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12″Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13″If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

We must pray with persistence and with all our strength. Why? We must seek to receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in our prayer. The Holy Spirit inspires us to pray with the right purpose. The Holy Spirit provides correct understanding, righteousness, truthfulness, the power to face the difficult, and the selflessness in our thinking and objectives as we pray. In our prayers, we must meet the Holy Spirit and receive the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to be clean, selfless, full of forgiveness, and have the willingness to sacrifice for the salvation of others. 

We must pray without selfish motives with all our faith and without doubt because we seek and obey the Lord’s purpose. We must resolve any conflicts or resentments we have with others. We must pray with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Then we will become joyful in the face of hardships, blessings, difficulties, and challenges. Do not be held back by your selfishness and doubt. Devote all your efforts to build a faith that is full of happiness by praying selflessly with all your being.

Please click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1980-7-11a