When to Pray and When Not To Pray

Excellent Article on when to pray and when not to pray! A small portion of the article.

From Remnant Report.com

The Symptoms Listed:

1. Stupidity:

Men can reach the point of sinning where God abandons them to His wrath. In the process they become "foolish" or stupid - they can no longer think or reason clearly.

Romans 1:21 says..."their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles" (HCSB).

2. Lesbianism & Homosexuality:

Another symptom of God's wrath of abandonment is that He gives unbelieving, foolish men over to homosexuality. Missler points out that this is a stunning revelation because God uses homosexuality as a "result" of sin - not a cause. Even women, who normally have strong instincts to raise and protect children, resort to lesbianism because they have been "given over" to their own dishonorable passions.

"For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural" (Romans 1:26).

"The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another" (Ro. 1:27).

3. Penalties for Immorality:

The second half of verse 27 plainly says, "Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion."

We don't need to go into great detail regarding AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases. It is self-evident.

4.Useless Minds:

God gives over atheistic men to have a useless, worthless mind. It is a sad, tragic state of affairs. Gone are the dreams to inspire men, to change a hopeless world and to perform worthwhile tasks while one is still alive. Instead, God says that

..."because they did not think it worthwhile to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong..." (Romans 1:28-32, HCSB).

5. Good Shunned and Evil Exalted:

Romans 1:32 says that "although they know full well God's just sentence - that those who practice such things deserve to die - they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them."

Many of us are aware, for example, that there are parents who applaud their drug-addicted or murderous kids but hate their Christian children. This is the environment where foot-washing basins for terrorists are provided in airports and yet a display of the Ten Commandments is removed from the courtroom. Everything is backward.

The prophet Isaiah appropriately gave an impassioned plea for this backward state:

"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who substitute darkness
for light
and light for darkness,
who substitute bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter."
(Isaiah 5:20, HCSB)

Pray Not?

Should we "pray for these people anymore" when God has clearly delivered them to destruction? Does God tell us not to pray for certain people anymore?

It's a good question. But, we don't find any instance in the New Testament where Christians are commanded to quit praying for believers or unbelievers no matter who they are or what they have done.

God Lives in Eternity

Furthermore, God is beyond our space-time continuum. There is no past, present or future with Him. He is beyond our limited dimensional thinking of height, depth, width and one-half dimension of time (we can't go backwards in time yet). Isaiah 57:15 notes,

"For thus says the One who is high and
lifted up,
who inhabits eternity..." (ESV)

Only God inhabits eternity. Therefore, because of God's complete sovereignty over our lives we are told to be anxious for nothing and to pray for everything! (Philippians 4:6). We must continue to do so - to pray - until He tells us to do otherwise.