- How do I pray?
- Prayers from the Bible
The best sluggers only get 450. That means more often than not, they get out.
With prayer, no one bats 1000. Not every prayer gets the answer you want. Sometimes the terminally ill patient dies. And because a prayer-warrior doesn’t bat 1000, the atheists don’t believe in God. (Do they believe in baseball?)
Well, I think that if you’re batting 350, you’re doing well. If only a small fraction of your requests get answered, you’re doing well. Let faith arise in your heart in your heart for just 1 0f 10 answered requests! Because as faith arises, so will your batting average.
And just because you strike out on a majority of your prayers requests, don’t get discouraged. Only God knows why He sometimes says no. We can trust that in His economy, we’re batting 1000.
You should always be encouraged to pray and never be discouraged from it. Ignore the faith-slayers who (wrongly) say that prayer doesn’t work unless you bat 1000.
Mustard Seed Budget 
You’re so right! I saw one of my prayer request list today and God had answered five out of twenty! I wasn’t happy with the unanswered requests, but then I thought, ‘there’s still time for Him to answer the rest.’ therein lies my faith! Thanks for a great post.
🙂
“there’s still time” is the key
people become atheists because they don’t think about that.
they think God has to answer when they want, not when He wants!
And He has the perfect timing!!
Thank you for this reminder today！
😀
You are so right. It only takes one answer to prayer to make this world a better place. We have so many more answers than that. Praise be to God!
😀
In baseball 1 out of 3 will all but guarantee you a spot in the hall of fame. That said, I’ve never kept tract of my answered prayers per attempt numbers. This is surprising since one reason I love sports is the stats.
I pray daily and often, mostly in thanks but also for help. I can’t say how often I get the answer I want but I am certain I always get what I need. Also, as for the big prayers God has always come through and given me gifts, that I can’t explain in words.
As for things like the sick dying, God always here’s our prayers, in some cases he might say, no, I’m not going to heal them, instead I will bring them home to my kingdom. I guess what I mean is He always answers, we may not get the answer we seek but should always thank Him for the answer we get.
Sorry, I wrote too much.. I love this post! Never EVER can we let a doubter discourage our faith.
Thanks to God and answered prayers alone, I am here today and able to write this extremely long comment.
alison
Start keeping stats! Let me know!
Will do = )
Thank you for the reminder to pray unceasingly!
Praise Him!
Well said and I “pray” will be helpful to many.
I became a baseball fan in my 50s, the same time I became a stepdad. (What was I thinking?) OK, a Red Sox fan (tells you where I’m living).
The lesson that hit home was was how many times a batter can miss the ball and still be successful.
Consider that a 250 average is still respectable. That means if you connect with the ball and keep it in bounds and away from a fly-catch once every four times at the plate, you’re doing all right. So that gives you up to 11 strikes plus some fowls for every time you get on base. Let’s not forget walks, either.
We can draw all kinds of lessons in patience and faithfulness from this, but I’m also reminded that we have a loving Father.
Oh, yes, and when it comes to prayer, sometimes it turns into a grand slam after all. (Just keep trying.)
God produces the grand slam!
I enjoy reading prayer as batting….
glad to hear it!
Spot on, and as a “tentmaking” independent missionary, certainly my experience.
What do you do to support your ministry?
you beat me to it
Go check this out. You are a recipient of these no-strings-attached awards
If it’s a no strings attached award, what’s the catch?
you catch the award and throw it to any blog you like as encouragement or who are faithful followers as a thank-you to them. excuse to connect and pass on a smile and blessing
but I like everybody’a blog (except bitter rants)
Blessings,
This is a job well done, can you say, “out of the park!” Many blessings to you and yours.
😀
Well said – that 350 average reflects just the answers we can see and faith knows the remaining 650 were answered in the mysteriousness of God and one day we will understand and our eyes opened to what we cannot see in the here and now.
😀
You are so encouraging. Have you read my Star Trek prayers yet? http://dianesdailythoughts.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/star-trek-prayers/ Think you might like it 🙂
words!!!
Great blog, I love how everything is short and sweet, uplifting and semi-humorous. My thoughts on the last blog “No one bats 1000” are that since our brains are the size of a mustard seed compared to God’s, we can’t possibly fathom how intricate his plans are, and thus see “no answer” as “no answer”. But God truly works in miraculous ways, and has a whole huge agenda that is not ours. Even when the sick die, it is part of a master plan, and faith in his decisions are the only thing that can possibly get us to be peaceful. Again, great blog.-Loretta
P.s. pretty pup!
Thanks Loretta! God bless you!
I have nominated you for a very special Award check it out on my blog.
THANKS!
thanks for visiting and liking my blog! It’s nice that someone else can appreciate it :)-Loretta
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Whoa! Kewl!
This is the law of averages. Check it out http://todaysmanager.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/the-law-of-averages/
Yeah!
I love the baseball analogy. It was a home run! 🙂
Wow! Thanks for the compliment!