What happens when someone's prayer contradicts anothers?

Question

Matthew 21:22 says "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."


What if you are a farmer praying for rain for your crops and your field needs it to survive. Yet someone else is praying for the rain to stop because their house is flooding due to poor drainage?

Answer 1

It goes before a panel of judges, who rate each of the prayers on the basis of their merit in terms of;

- selflessness
- basic alignment with God's plan
- ability to fulfill the request while leaving open the possibility it was simply chance
- and a few other lesser criteria involving things like the race and national origin of the asker, etc.

Once the scores are added up, a report is prepared for submission to God, who has it reviewed by his secretary and placed on the Tuesday meeting agenda. Finally it's brought up in the general meeting and a decision is made.

...at which point, it goes unanswered.

Answer 2

Then the cloud is divided, raining upon the farmer, but sunny upon the townsman. Not too hard to figure out. ^_~

Seriously, though. For larger scale problems, then there are always times when a "no" answer is called for...

If I pray with the fullest amount of faith that I am to make that green light... God might very well say "no" just to ensure my safety, because He knows the guy on the other street is about to run his red light. So, He turns the light yellow. Dejected, and slowly becoming late, I slow down, and right about where and when I would have crossed, I see the guy race in front of me. In a panic, and frightened, I thank God for telling me "no".

"For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" - Matt 7:8-11

"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." - James 4:3

From this, it is safe to assume that a child asking for a bad gift is not going to get one, because they do not understand what it is they ask for, and instead, are just asking from their desires and not their needs.

If this were the case, perhaps God has greater need for one to happen and not the other... such as... the house might be flooding out, but without that rain, where will he get food? He might have a comfy house, but he, and everyone else in the area will starve. His desire to stop it raining would harm the people around him. His motives are in the right place, but he's thinking of himself. If he is patient, and continues in prayer, and focuses more on the will of God instead of his own will, the rain might create a new drainage ditch, and water now flows away from the house, instead of into it, sparing the guy more cleaning work.

Prayer need not be contradictory. All things are possible with God. It's merely man's imagination that seems to limit God.

Answer 3

I think that's a very good question, but unfortunately how many people have the faith to believe that what we ask for we shall receive, I try to pray for a lot of people and things, but I try to pray as Jesus would have prayed asking God for things I believe are in his will. If someone has the faith that strongly who says that everything holy they ask for will happen who says it can't. It says in john (somewhere between chapters 10 - 16 I believe) Jesus said we can do greater things than he did. It's all about faith and that is something we just have to have more of, all of us. To try and answer the question if both households are right next door I believe it could rain on one and not the other. It happens when driving one second nothing next second down poor. One day we'll know the answers until then we have to have Faith "Not seeing is believing" I hope I gave you some insight :)

Answer 4

True prayer is done within the spirit of God. It is a matter of bringing your will in line with his. So if this is the way you are praying, you will know what things you can ask and receive and which things go against his will.

Answer 5

If they happen to live in the same area they would pray the same prayer because the flooding would also ruin their crops. ; -)

Living is different areas God could grant both prayers with no problem.

Answer 6

You quoted the NT--------------------I do not believe in the NT.

G-d does not answer prayers as we sometimes want. Often the answer is ''NO''. And, I do not believe G-d takes sides in war. He has given us life, the earth, and brains. He expects us to take care of things.

My personal prayers ----------I do not ask for things. I only say a ''Thank you'' for all the good things that happen to me thruout the day.

Answer 7

Because they both are a conflict of interest,God refuses to answer them, hence the reason why so few prayers ever come true.

Answer 8

It all depends on what the will of God is.
Hel. 10: 5 (4-6) ".....even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."
The last 11 words are what is IMPORTANT!!

Answer 9

lol why would they pray for the rain to stop if its not raining? if its in seperate areas in the world then it can rain on the farmer and not on the other guy at the same time. unless your saying one is praying for rain and the other is praying for it not to rain. much like one prays for one team to win, and another to lose, while the other team is praying visa versa.

Answer 10

How do you know they are contradictions?

The farmer may need more rain.
The flooding may have eased.

Middle ground was established.