Prayers That Don’t Work
Ask Pastor John
Desiring God
4.9 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2014
⏱️ 7 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | All week long, we have been joined by Pastor and author Tim Keller. |
| 0:08.6 | He has a wonderful new book coming out soon, prayer, experiencing awe and intimacy with |
| 0:12.8 | God as the title releases on November 4th, and he joins us once more from New York City |
| 0:17.6 | to finish out the week. |
| 0:18.6 | Okay, Dr. Keller, we near the finished line here with question number nine and in passages |
| 0:25.2 | like James, chapter four, verse three, we are told there's a type of prayer that doesn't |
| 0:29.9 | work. |
| 0:30.9 | It's an idle center prayer. |
| 0:32.6 | It's asking for something with wrong motives. |
| 0:34.7 | Can you explain this? |
| 0:36.0 | What type of prayer doesn't work? |
| 0:38.9 | Well, yes, when James talks about prayers that, well, you're asking for something selfishly |
| 0:45.7 | or just to spend on your own selfish desires. |
| 0:50.4 | I would say that there's, that's a sub put it this way, but that would be a subheading |
| 0:56.7 | under even a bigger heading. |
| 0:58.8 | That's not going to give you something that's bad for you. |
| 1:01.7 | See if he's your father, he's not going to give you something that's bad for you. |
| 1:05.9 | Just like I as a father wouldn't give my children something to ask for if they don't realize |
| 1:10.3 | it would not be safe, they probably hurt themselves. |
| 1:12.7 | So, you know, Jay Packer in his book on prayer actually says that ultimately there's no such |
| 1:20.1 | thing as unanswered prayer. |
| 1:22.6 | And even John Calvin says, God grants our prayer even if he does not always respond |
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