Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1325 | 'God Answers All Prayers' & Other Myths Christians Believe

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

In this episode of "Relatable," Allie tackles three popular Christian myths that sound appealing but range from incomplete to outright misleading: “Relationship, not religion”; “God answers all prayers” (the answer is sometimes just “no”); and “Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words.” She explains how these trite sayings often stick in our minds like mantras, yet as Christians, we must evaluate them not by how they feel or seem, but by reason, logic, and, above all, the unchanging truth of Scripture. Drawing from the Bible and theologians like Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, and Martin Luther, Allie revives her classic Most Misused series to show why what God actually offers through His word is far deeper and better than these simplified phrases. Ultimately, she reminds listeners that what we believe and declare with our words truly matters, because Christianity calls us to a faith-fueled religion rooted in relationship with Christ, honest prayer aligned with God’s will, and bold proclamation of the gospel in both deeds and words. Share the Arrows 2026 is on October 10 in Dallas, Texas! Tickets are on sale now at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sharethearrows.com⁠⁠⁠ Buy Allie's book "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.toxicempathy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Timecodes: (00:00) Introduction (11:05) “Relationship, not religion.” (26:58) “God answers all prayers.” (37:37) “Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words.” — Pre-Born | To donate, dial #250 and say the keyword “BABY.” That’s #250, BABY. Or visit Preborn.com/ALLIE. Alliance Defending Freedom | Every dollar you give to ADF by March 31 will be doubled by a special matching grant, only while matching funds last.Go to JOINADF.com/ALLIE or text ALLIE to 83848 to have your gift matched to protect brave Americans. Seven Weeks Coffee | Go to sevenweekscoffee.com and save 15% forever when you subscribe, plus get a free gift with your order! And exclusively for my listeners, use code ALLIE for an extra 10% off your first order. That’s a 25% total savings on your first order, plus a free gift! Legacy Box | Visit Legacybox.com/ALLIE to take advantage of Legacybox’s Spring Cleaning sale and preserve your family’s story. Good Ranchers | To support a company that honors America’s past, present, and future, visit ⁠GoodRanchers.com⁠ today. When you start your plan, you’ll get to pick a free meat that will be included in every order for life, and you’ll get $25 off your first order using my exclusive code, ALLIE.

Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. God answers all of our prayers. Preach the gospel and when necessary use words. You've probably heard a lot of these phrases before. Maybe you even believe them. But none of them are exactly true. Today we are continuing our most misused series. This time we are talking about popular Christian sounding phrases that are almost true, but not quite in diving into the truth that the Bible actually shares for us. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Goodfranchers.com. Use code alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code alley.

Hey guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Monday. Hope everyone has had a wonderful day, a wonderful week so far. If you have not listened to the episode of the end of last week with Ashley Sheets, cheering her testimony that ended up going viral, the post for her husband, talking about her past, got so much backlash, even from Christian conservatives. You should go here, Ashley, in her own words, super, super powerful story of God's redemption. Just amazing. Also, just one more thing before we start, and I just don't want to forget to tell you this, that God's eternal

plan of redemption is going off without a hitch. It is. It still is. Isn't that incredible? No matter what you have going on in your life, your particular circumstance, no matter what unforeseen situation you are in. It was not unforeseen to God. God is never surprised. He's never taken it back. He's never thrown off. He is never looking down, wondering how in the world did you get yourself into this mess? I did not see this coming. Oh my goodness. I don't know what to do. Let me put some plans together. Let me come down there and clean up the mess. Oh my goodness. Let me get together with my angels, try to figure out what's going on. That is so not God. God is suspended in the eternal now. He's not limited by space and time like we are.

So he sees all of it. He knows all of it. And Romans 828 promises us that all things work together for the good of those who love God who are called according to his purpose. That does not mean that things are going to work out the way that we think that they should, the way that we want them to here in this life. It might mean that healing for you, that restoration for you, that fulfillment for you only comes in heaven, only comes fully at least in eternity. We don't know that we are. are going to get all of the things that we pray for in this life. But we can trust that God is taking care of us, that he is good, that he does things for our good to make us holier, to make us more dependent upon him, to make us more satisfied in him. And in that, we can rejoice. It's actually really freeing when we realize that we deserve no good thing, that if God only gave us his son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, then that would be enough to call God merciful and gracious and good and everything else is just icing on the cake. And the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we can just thank God for that. And sometimes that's easier

said than done. That is absolutely true. But we trust in God's character that Jesus Christ never changes. He's the same yesterday today today and forever, Hebrews 138, and that he is coming back and he will defeat evil once and for all. And one day there won't be any more cancer. There will be no more abortion. There will be no more disappointing news. There will be no more sin. You won't be tempted anymore. There will be no more failure. There will be no more disappointment. There will be no more bad news.

There will be no more disagreement. Jesus will rule in perfect peace. And we will be with him forever and ever. That's what we have to look forward to. So even when the burden feels really heavy, even when the social media feed feels toxic, even when the news seems really dire. Even when there are wars and rumors of wars,

there is a God who claims victory. And the day of victory has already been determined, just like the day of your death has already been determined. So we get to live not only in hope, but also completely boldly, knowing that we have a God who is sovereign over it all and promises to take care of us. So I always just want to comfort not only you, but myself with that. It's really important to preach the truth, not only to others in your life, to disciple your kids, yes, to encourage those around you if you're a pastor preaching to your congregation,

but also to instruct yourself using God's word, using the truth of his word. We never graduate from that. We never graduate from the gospel. We never graduate from the fundamentals of the faith. God has given us these tools to rest in and to give us comfort and to give us wisdom. And in light of that, I am bringing back a form of an old series that we have done on Relatable called most misused, most misused. And today it is about three Christian mythical mottoes. And I'm going to break them down and tell you what they mean in a popular culture

and why they are not true and what God's word actually says about them. So it's relationship, not religion. That's one. Number two, God answers all prayers. Number three, preach the gospel. and when necessary use words. So I came up with a long, long list of common misused Christian sounding mantras. And I thought, okay, if I only do one of these per episode, this series is going to last forever. So I'm going to try to knock out two or three per episode. It won't be every single week consecutively. We'll kind of do it here and there just like we have done in the past. Now, these particular phrases, you've probably all heard before. Maybe you've even said these before, because they sound really good and in some sense they sound correct. But each of these phrases

actually range from incompletely correct to completely incorrect. And I want to go through each of them today to dig into what the Bible actually says about these ideas and why what scripture actually offers us in exchange for these trite sayings is actually so much better. Words are really powerful, which is why mantras are powerful. They have a way of sticking in people's minds, especially if they rhyme or it's an alliteration. And it's why I have some mantras on my show that we've created over the years. Politics matter because policy matters because people matter. God's eternal plan of redemption is going off without a hitch, raise a respectful ruckus, all kinds of things that we have said over and over again over the years to try to remind us of

what is true. And progressives also are really good at this. Love is love. No human is illegal. there is something that sounds really beautiful and even instinctively true in these phrases. But as Christian thinkers, we don't judge whether something is true based on how something seems or how it sounds or how catchy it is or what our instincts does or how something makes us feel. That is true whether a politician is saying it or whether I'm saying it or any other advocate, activist, podcaster or someone in your life is saying it. we judge whether something is true based on reason, based on logic and most of all in the truth of God's word, because God is the inventor of logic. He is the source of all truth. And he has given us

this really clear guide to seeking wisdom through the Bible. Like I said earlier, the format of today's episode is going to be familiar to my OG relatable listeners, because you'll remember that back in the beginning years of the show, we did this series called Most Misused, where we went through some of the most widely known Bible verses that are often misconstrued and misapplied today. We discussed the misapplication and then we would go more deeply into the text to answer the question. What does this really mean? So for example, Psalm 374, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. That verse is used in popular parlance to mean that if you are a Christian and you want something, you will have it. The idea that the existence

of that desire is evidence of God's promise to give it to you. In reality, of course, if we delight in the Lord, he will give to our hearts desires that align with his desires. And in the context of that passage, which we've talked about Psalm 37 a lot on this show, we see that God promises that one day his people will have peace, the peace they desire, the victory they desire. And what we see over and over again is that the true interpretation of scripture in any passage, but especially these most misused passages. Psalm 374, Philippians 413, Jeremiah 29, 11. The true interpretation is always much deeper and much better than the popular prosperity gospel interpretation of it. So I loved those verses. I felt like I learned so much through them and was so

encouraged. And even though that was several years ago, I really, I haven't brought it back in so long because I felt like we'd gone through all the verses that are misused the most. But I want to now revive the series doing something a little bit different instead of using those verses using popular phrases that Christians so often hear and say that I believe are misstated or at least misunderstood and misapplied. And what we say and what we believe matters in Christianity a whole lot. We are saved by our beliefs, specifically the belief in Christ's sacrifice for us. So it's a really big deal. It goes on in our mind and our heart. And based on those beliefs, we are to say what is true, preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations. So let's do it. Let's get into some of these

popular phrases, how they're used, and what is actually true. Before we get into the first one, let me pause, tell you about our first sponsor for the day. It's Alliance defending freedom. So thankful for ADF and everything they do to fight for the sanctity of life. The rights of women and girls to our own private spaces, to our own sex exclusive sports teams, also fighting for religious liberty, for freedom of speech. These lawyers are taking it all the way to the Supreme Court to make sure these rights, this dignity of image bearers is protected in our law. And right now they are taking up a case of Rosalie. Rosalie was coerced, tricked by a guy into taking an abortion pill that he was able to get via the male to kill her unborn child. And the reason he was able to get this abortion pill

via the mail is because of a Biden error regulation that the FDA passed that said, that you can get these abortion pills, kill your baby without a doctor's visit by just ordering them online. And ADF is trying to do everything they can legally to make sure this regulation is reversed so women can't be coerced into killing their babies via the abortion pill delivered by male. So support them in the fight today. Go to join ADF.com slash alley. When you donate right now, your donation will be matched. Join ADF.com slash alley. Okay, the first one, Christianity is a relationship. It's not a religion. I hear this phrase a lot. I see it a lot in comments. And I think people meanwhile, especially when they are evangelizing to people who have maybe come out of legalism or they have no idea what Christianity is and they're confused about some of the rules and the standards. And you'll hear people kind of rush to say, well, you don't need to worry about those. It's not about a religion. It's about a relationship. And what these well-meaning people mean is that they want to push us away or push this person away from legalism and into daily conversation with and pursuit of Jesus.

And there is part of that that is really true and really good, as we'll get into. But let me just give you some examples of this kind of being used by some popular teachers. Joyce Meyer tries to make this distinction, Sot 3. I don't want us just to think about a God way off in the sky somewhere, but he wants to have a personal interest. intimate relationship with us. The difference in religion and relationship is what I just said. Religion always looks for God somewhere and tries to get to God through works and effort and some certain kind of behavior.

So she is correct there that Christianity is about relationship, but I would greatly contend with her definition of religion, which we'll get into in just a second. And then Johnny Chang, he's host of the Unlearned Wisdom podcast. He claims that there is a relationship to be had with Christ, but not a religion. Stop for. If you listen to me, you can figure out what I am. I am a follower of Jesus, and that's it. I'm not a Christian.

I'm not Catholic. I'm not Coptic. I'm not Church of Assyria, Council of Nicaea. I'm not none of that. I am a follower of Jesus Christ because under Christianity, it's repulsive to people. We're not all that. You know what we are? We are followers of.

Jesus who came to demolish and destroy all religions. Sheesh and unite everybody under grace, under righteousness, under love. Jesus is a relationship, not a religion. Okay, so abolish all religion. I've heard that before. People who say this say that that's what followers of Jesus do. It's the abolition of all religion. It's something totally radically different than religion.

So first let me talk about what is true in these statements. On the one hand, the underlying intent behind the first, phrase has truth to it. What distinguishes Christianity from every other religion is that it does not teach us how to get to God. Judaism says, follow this list of rules and regulations and you can be right with God. Islam has their list of rules. Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, they all have things that you must do to climb your way up the mountaintop to God or to the divine. Christianity. And Christianity alone stands apart because Christianity says you can't get to God. You actually cannot climb up the mountain. You cannot follow the rules. You are spiritually dead.

Dead people cannot clean themselves up. They can't take a single step in the right direction. You have to be given a gift of faith that revives you, that makes you spiritually alive and right with God. And this is given to you by grace, which by definition cannot be earned. All of that is explained perfectly in Ephesians 2 1 through 10. And through this salvation, We are not only followers of Jesus. We are his brothers and sisters. We have a relationship. We are his co-ares.

That's Romans 817. We are God's children. That's a relationship. First John 3-1. We can approach God's throne with confidence as his children and as co-hears with Christ. That's Hebrews 416. A lot of religions hope to have a relationship with God in the afterlife if they've checked all of the boxes here on earth.

But Christianity doesn't say that. Christianity says that you can have a relationship. relationship with God right now, no matter what you've done or who you are by grace through faith in Jesus. Okay. So yes, Christianity is a relationship, but Christianity is also a religion. If you look at the roots of the word religion, you can go all the way back to the ancient use of the Latin word, which is relegare. And I'm not up on my Latin pronunciation, so I apologize, but relegare means to go through again, especially in thought or in word. I love this connection because it implies a routine, a habit, a discipline of repetition that

turns an isolated belief into a pattern of thought that dictates a person's life. Then there is this other ancient Latin word, and that's religere, very similar, but a little bit different, spell differently, which means to bind again or to tie back. back. And I also love this. I love to bind again. So to tie yourself repetitively to the same stake in the ground. You'll notice the shared prefix in these words, which is re-R-E. It's the prefix that we see and repeat, rehearse, rebound, redo, re-means exactly what you probably already know it means. It means to do it again, to repeat. These roots paint a picture, for me at least, this is what comes to mind of fastening a boat to a dock. And this is not a perfect analogy, just this particular word.

But like the boat is on choppy waters. It's tied to a secure post. Every day the knot must be tightened. It must be rebound, tweaked, tied over and over again to the same post. Christianity is the practice. Christian religion is the practice of rebinding ourselves to the things of God. I would not say rebinding ourselves to God because God binds himself to us, because God holds us, not the other way around. Our salvation is entirely dependent upon him, and we do not have the power to rest ourselves out of his grasp once we are saved. But rebinding ourselves through grace-filled effort, Holy Spirit-inspired effort to his wisdom, his ways, the good things of the Christian life. James writes this, if anyone thinks he is religious and

does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this. To visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1.26 through 27. So James does not use religion as a pejorative term. And this makes it clear that Scripture does not preach that our Christian faith is not a religion. Rather, it's the one true religion. Religion and relationship in Christianity are not pitted against each other.

It is the one faith where our religion is actually fueled by our relationship. And I've got more on this in just a second. Let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. And that is Seven Weeks Coffee. If you've been listening for a while, you know that Seven Weeks Coffee is one of my favorite sponsors. I just love their product. I love their mission. It's great tasting, super clean, sustainably sourced coffee.

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worthy of life, made in God's image. So drink seven weeks coffee. We do in our home. It's so good, and it serves a higher purpose that echoes in eternity. Go to seven weekscoffee.com. Use code Ali, save 10% off your first order. That's 7weeks Coffee.com code alley. Other faiths will say that a relationship with the divine is dependent upon our religious success. But Christianity says that your religious success is dependent upon a relationship with Christ, which you can't take any credit for.

And there's another point that I think is missed with this whole it's a relationship, not religion mentality. And that is that everyone in the whole world, already has a relationship with God, the one true God. Through Jesus, we are not just being offered a relationship with God. We are being offered a friendly relationship with God, a loving one. Previously, our relationship with God was hostile. We were his enemies. Romans 510 says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more. Now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

How incredible is that? So the problem was not that we did not have a relationship with God, is that we had a hostile relationship with God. And Jesus came to change that. Reconcile, that word that we just read in that Romans passage, means to restore a union. There's that prefix, re again. And you notice that a lot in Christianity, reconcile, renew, reborn, resurrect, redeem. And you might ask if you want to notice that pattern, like, what is with that? And how does it make sense? How can we do these things again if spiritually we've never done them before or we've never had them. How can a person restore a reunion to God that they've never had? Well, at one point, mankind was united with God. One day, very long time ago, man walked with God in the garden and the cool of the day,

naked and unashamed under only one condition, that they would not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then deceit from the snake, temptation, sin, compromise, mistrust of the creator and the desire for power and glory. Then shame. And covering the curse, pain, death. So God sent Jesus to restore that relationship. So we could once again walk in fellowship with him. So we could once again no longer be shackled by the burden of sin, that we could once again be free, that we could once again enjoy relationship, reconciliation, confidence in our friendship with God. And so that's the reason that you see that language of renew and redeem, because at one point all things were right between God and man and God loves us so much that he wants to

bring us back there, that we get a taste of that in this life, but one day we're going to experience it fully. Yes, when we die and go to heaven, but also when Jesus comes back, there's going to be a new heaven and there's going to be a new earth and nothing will be touched or harmed by sin ever again. So we are renewed. We are reborn and Christ. And that is the good news. That is not only what the relationship with Christ offers, that is the religion of Christianity, and that is what the religion of Christianity is tied to. Not a desire to earn our way to God or to reach up to God or climb up to the mountaintop, but a repetition of devotion to God, rebinding to the things of God because of that relationship

that was given to us through Christ with God that we have now been reconciled to. You know, theologians throughout history have been talking about this. This is not a new discussion. There was a Scottish theologian. He lived in the 17th century and his name was Andrew Gray. And I loved this quote by him. A true believer looks on religion not as a burden which he must be forced to endure, but a privilege which is his happiness to enjoy. Jonathan Edwards, he was an 18th century key figure in the Great Awakening, the reformed tradition. You've probably heard, sinner in the hands of an angry guy. that was a famous, very famous sermon that he preached at the time. But he also talked about this. He said, the religion of heaven. The religion of heaven consists very much in affection. There is doubtless true religion in heaven and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection. True religion lies very much in the affections. Without holy affection, there is no true religion.

So religion, he's saying, is not really just about what you do. It is about whom you love. True faith involves both the relational knowledge of God and also obedient religious devoted practice that flows from that relationship. The New Testament describes religion or obedience to God positively when describing what God-pleasing expressions of faith and love look like if you look at 1st John 2, 3 through 6. And by this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments as a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Which, gosh, we can only do that with the power of the Holy Spirit because Jesus is perfect. And none of us is perfect. All of us are going to fall and fail in sin. And that is why we need the grace of God to keep us going. But that love of God and relationship that we have with him is what motivates us to do that. Knowing God relationally, we read in scripture is actually evidenced by our religion, by keeping commandments, by binding ourselves to him through grace-filled effort, claiming a relationship with God without obedience actually makes one a liar. That's not my word. That's God's word. I also just want to note here as we close out this first one that obedience does not equal legalism. Okay.

holiness does not equal legalism. So often Christians who emphasize the importance of repentance or routine devotions to God or church attendants are accused of legalism, that's not legalism. Legalism is being a stickler about following the letter of the law, but not understanding or following the spirit of the law. And that's what the Pharisees did. They were legal scholars. They obeyed the law and then some. That's what Saul before he became Paul did. added all kinds of stipulations to the law that the average Hebrew couldn't follow so that they could elevate themselves as especially righteous seeming and they ignored the spirit of the law which was to love God, honor him and care for his people. Matthew 12, 9 through 11 is a good example of this. Jesus went on from there and entered their synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they asked him, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him.

He said to them, which one of you who has sheep, if it falls into a pit on the south, will not take hold of it and lift it out. And then in Mark 2, Jesus explains, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Sabbath to the Pharisees had just become about following another rule, not about rest and devotion to God and compassion for other people. So religion and Christianity and conclusion is good. It's about love-fueled obedience to God. It is necessary. And importantly, and distinctly it is built upon the relationship that we have in Christ. All right, let's go to number two, which is God answers all of our prayers. The answer might just be no.

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Go to Legacybox.com slash Alley. Right now they're doing a spring cleaning sale. You can digitize your family's entire memory collection for only $9 per tape. Legacybox.com slash alley. God answers all of our prayers. The answer just might be, no, we're told this a lot, that, you know, I actually posted something the other day about God not answering a particular prayer. And I got a lot of well-meaning messages from people saying God answers every prayer.

It's just that he might not always be saying yes. He might be saying no or wait, but there is always an answer from God. Rick Warren is or was, I can't remember if he retired, but a pastor of Saddleback Church, he wrote purpose-driven life, so very prominent person. and he said this, not five. God never leaves a prayer unanswered. Every prayer is answered. It's not every prayer God says yes to.

And there are many, many reasons for that. There are a lot of examples in the Bible where God says no to great men and women of faith. Prayers that were prayed by Abraham. God says no. Moses, no. Daniel, no. Job, Jonah, no.

Elijah, no. Peter, Paul, God said no to Jesus. Yes, even God's son. There are prayers that were, quote, unanswered, meaning they weren't answered the way Jesus asked. It is true that God says no. It is not true that God answers every prayer. The late pastor, John McArthur, talked about this a lot. He addressed this at length in a sermon.

This is from grace to you. This has all of his past sermons and a lot of resources in connection with John McArthur. but he noted that there are many biblical reasons why God may not answer a prayer. The Bible says that God does not answer the prayers of a few kinds of people. One, those who have personal and selfish motives. We read this in James 4.3, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Number two, he says, those who remain in sin and will not heed God's law. This is John 931.

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, God listens to Him. Also, Proverbs 289, if one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. There's also those who suffer or sorry, those who offer unworthy service to God. This is Malachi 1 8 through 9. Very interesting. when you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are

lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts? And now entreat the favor of God that he may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you? Says the Lord of Hose. And so obviously, we're not ancient Israel. We're not offering animal sacrifices to try to please God. This is just another example of God saying, no, I don't even hear the prayers of certain kinds of people. Another category, those who reject God's call or have no faith. This is James 1 6 through 7, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind, for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything

from the Lord. Those who are violent, Isaiah 1.15. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Those who are self-righteous, the Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus. This is, according to Luke 1811 through 14, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breath saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who

humbles himself will be exalted. So John McArthur says this is an example of an acceptable prayer to God versus an unacceptable one. And then the last category he says is those who mistreat God's people, Micah, two, and four. You who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones. They will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time because they have made their deeds evil. There are several other passages that we could go through that indicate that God sometimes does not hear or does not respond at all to certain prayers due to a person's heart condition,

motives, or relationship with him. There's Isaiah 59 1 through 2, Isaiah 1 15, Psalm 66. 18. Psalm 66.18 says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. So it's not only that the Lord doesn't always answer. It's that sometimes he does not listen to prayers. Now, the believer has been sanctified. The believer has been justified. The believer has been made perfect. We are coming to the Lord in total confidence because of our relationship with Christ. are there prayers that are not heard by God by the Christian? I think that's a really good theological question.

I simply don't know for sure that the answer is always that God is responding to every single prayer that a Christian has. I'm not sure about that. But we do know for sure that for the non-believer, it is not true that God hears and answers every prayer. God can hear and answer the prayers of non-believers, but he doesn't have to, and there are various categories in scripture where God clearly is not going to hear a certain kind of prayer. John Calvin talks about this. He's a 16th century reformed theologian. He says this. One of the requisites of legitimate prayer is repentance, hence the common declaration of

scripture, that God does not listen to the wicked, that their prayers as well as their sacrifices are an abomination to him. And Isaiah, he thus threatens. When ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. And so he is saying, you got to repent. You got to be right with the Lord before the Lord hears you. Charles Spurgeon, 19th century theologian in his sermon, true and not true.

He's talking about John 931. He says, it is true that God heareth not sinners. That is to say he will hear none of us. No sinner among us and who among us is not a sin. sinner if we come to him in a wrong way or with a wrong spirit. God does not hear the prayers of those who love their sins that are unwilling to give them up. Okay. So you could argue here that he's actually talking about Christians. Christians who are not in a state of perpetual unrepentantant sin, but in that moment are storing up sins and idolatry in their heart and have not repented of those

sins that are holding on to them. He is saying that it is possible that God is not even listening to those prayers of those who call themselves believers. I think we can generally just say, though, that it is obvious from scripture that God is not answering every single prayer. And so it's just not true. I think the better answer for people is that God is sovereign. God chooses to answer how and when he wants to and God is good, whatever he chooses. It's not that he cannot hear all prayers, but he decides which prayers to listen to and which prayers to answer to through very clear principles that we see in the Bible. All right, let's get to number three. Share the gospel when necessary use words. Let me pause, tell you about our next sponsor first, and that is pre-born. All right,

they have a goal, and we're almost through the end of the month, and so I'll have to get an update on how close we got to our goal to save 6,800 babies in the United States just this month At pre-born network clinics, a woman receives what the abortion industry will not offer her. Material resources, love, care, follow-up, support, information about parenting and adoption. And most importantly, I think just the truth. The truth about who she is as an image bearer of God, someone who Jesus died to save as well. And then also just the truth of the reality of the baby inside her womb. Because you know Planned Parenthood lies to her and tells her, oh, it's just a

clump of cells. It's just pregnancy tissue. Oh, you're only eight weeks. That's nothing. You're not even really pregnant. And they try to make it as easy as possible to obscure the truth and abort her baby for money. But we believe in the truth. We believe in the sanctity of life. And that's why Preborn Network clinics exist. So partner with them. Save these thousands of babies. Every donation helps. $28 covers the cost of a lifesaving ultrasound. Go to preborn.com slash alley. Make your donation today. That's preborn. com slash alley share the gospel when necessary use words i've heard this i've heard this on my very show of people saying you know we preach the gospel by just how we treat people and really preaching

at people trying to push religion down their throats is not something that's going to be convincing and here's an example of a podcast host it's life coach martha back on the podcast called Bewildered, SOTS six. The way you continue to live may turn out to inspire other people. Inspiration is something we do by living, not by talking. There's a quote. I'll have to look up who said it. I feel like it was like St. Francis or someone like that.

Who said, everywhere you go, preach the gospel, only if absolutely necessary use words. Okay. bewildered indeed it is true that your life serves it as an inspiration it is true that what we do absolutely matters and how we live our life as a testimony to what we believe 100% and having a misalignment a lack of integration that means a lack of integrity between what we say and what we do how we are in private and how we are in public that can absolutely ruin your testimony me. By the way, this woman is correct. It is, well, it's attributed. I shouldn't say that she's

correct. It's misattributed to St. Francis of Assisi. She's correct that this is what people say or this is how they got this quote. But it's actually not from Francis. The closest thing that he said to this was from his rule of 1,221, Chapter 12 on how the Franciscans should practice their preaching. No brother should preach contrary to the form and regulations of the Holy Church, nor unless he has been permitted by his minister, all the friars should preach by their deeds. Okay, well, that is not really similar to what people say that he said. So we don't really know where this quote comes from,

but I really understand why people like it, because it lets us off the hook. Because talking about the gospel and sharing things verbally is awkward in an in-person conversation with someone who disagrees with you. smiling at the grocery store clerk is not awkward asking about someone's day helping someone out is hard like don't get me wrong the sacrifice of your time and your energy your convenience to help someone in need like it is difficult however anyone can do that we are called to preach the gospel with our words if anyone could have preached the gospel only using deeds it would have been jesus because

because Jesus perfectly lived out the gospel in his actions. And yet he didn't just do the deeds. He did, but he constantly preached the gospel using his words. Scripture repeatedly stresses the importance of speaking the gospel. It is a word-based faith. Christ tells his disciples, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation, Mark 1615. In his letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes the need for speaking the gospel, asking, how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? That's Romans 10. And he explains, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, Romans 1017. Paul also writes to Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,

who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready, in season, and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. All things you do, with your words, with complete patience and teaching, 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 2. The Bible obviously strongly affirms that our actions, our love, our holy living must back up our message and that hypocrisy undermines it. And it also repeatedly emphasizes the gospel itself must be verbally proclaimed. It must be preached. It must be taught.

It must be declared with words. Saving faith comes through hearing the message about Christ, not through silent example alone. And this is actually what distinguishes Christianity. as distinguishes Christianity from other faiths. I mean, Buddhism puts a high premium on silence. There is transcendental meditation that urges you to empty your mind. But Christians aren't called to that kind of meditation. We are called to the meditation that fills your mind with God's word. We are to meditate on God's law. We meditate on Christ's character, on who God is. We fill our mind with good things. actually knowing that idleness and emptying of our mind makes us vulnerable to temptation.

It makes us vulnerable to lies. And so that's one problem, one of the few problems that I have with practices like yoga and New Age meditation. Like in the West, we have this sense of Western guilt that everything Western is bad. All Western medicine is bad. Oh, Western ways of doing things. Oh, Western ways of reading the Bible. And we, for some reason, have this like sacred view.

of the East as if all Eastern things are good and right and better. And I think that has also melded with the self-help industry in the United States to create this self-help new age, weird therapy culture thing. I mean, that's what my first book was about. You're not enough and that's okay because of how this message I think targets Christian women. And part of that is this idea that if we live this pacifist friendly life, this humanitarian life, then that is good enough to show people who Jesus is. But Jesus, right before he ascends to heaven, it says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And how are we to do that? We are to do that preaching the gospel, teaching them,

teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. I always love this aspect of Jesus. And I love to remind people of the logos, the logos, the Greek word for logic, rationale, word. That is how Jesus is referred to in John 1. And that logos, that word that indicates reason and the, ability to have a reasoning capacity was almost sacred in the ancient pagan world. And then Christianity

came and turned it completely on its head, offering something deeper and better. Let me pause. I'll tell you more about that in just a second as we end the episode. But let me tell you about our last sponsor for the day first. And that is good ranchers. For over 250 years, ranchers have worked tirelessly to feed America through every kind of storm through droughts, wars, recessions, pandemics, changing markets, changing politics. I just saw this incredible news report on acts of a farm owner in Kentucky who has owned this farm for generations. She is being offered $26 million for this farm.

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you can save $20. That's blazestv.com slash Allie. You'll probably heard me talk about this before. But if you read the book, when children became people by Owen Bakke, he talks about the ancient Greeks and Romans having this idea of the logos really signifying a person's full worth and only the adult free male had the logos, had the ability to rationalize and everyone else was seen on a lower level because they didn't have the fullness of the logos. And so all kinds of exploitation of different kinds of people. people was justified, including the sexualization, the objectification of children, including abortion infanticide, all because children were not seen as having the fullness of the logos. Obviously, that changed over time. Western civilization was forged, and within Western civilization was this idea that every single person had rights. Every single person had rights just because they were human beings. And actually, women and children and elderly, these categories that had been denigrated

previously were seen as even more special and worthy of our protection. And so you had orphanages, you had homeless shelters, you had entities that were dedicated to caring for those groups of people that previously were seen as less than because they didn't have the logos. All of this is because of Christians, because Christians came on the scene 2,000 years ago following this man that they called God called Jesus of Nazareth, who called himself the way, the truth in the life, and bizarrely so unlike the Greek and Roman gods. At the time, he came to earth, not as a warrior, but as a baby,

actually as an embryo. And was heralded by the kicks of a newborn John the Baptist, was worshipped by the angels as a newborn, against the protestation of his disciples, said, let the little children come to me, for such as these belong the kingdom of heaven. This Jesus, who came to earth, just as a fertilized egg,

who grew into a newborn baby that was birthed by the Virgin Mary, this Jesus changed how the world saw children, changed how the world saw people, and his followers everywhere they went. They preached the gospel with their words. And they also said, the child sacrifice will end here. The exploitation of people, the oppression of the poor will end here. And we are going to step up and do something about it. They were killed for it. And they were persecuted for it. They were tortured for it. They were fed to lions for it. But over time, with the power of the Holy Spirit, because the gates of how will never prevail against the church Christians who followed this Jesus

changed how the world saw children. And the beautiful thing about this that just turned the scholarly justification for oppression and objectification on its head. This justification of, well, they don't have the logos, who came to earth to dispel that myth? The logos. The capital L logos, John 1 in the beginning, was the word. Christianity is basically. on the word. It is not based on our silence and hoping that people pick up on the fact that we're polite and so we must know Jesus. Guess what? There are a lot of people who do not know Jesus who are polite, who smile at the grocery store clerk. There are not people who will preach this crazy sounding message to the world that this guy who is fully God lived a perfect life and died a crucifixion,

a death on our behalf and rose again three days later and is one day coming back, not as a baby, but as a warrior, and he's going to make all things right. I mean, that's a crazy message to the world to tell the world who believes that they are good inside, that they are perfect the way they are, that they are enough that you are actually dead in your sin and you need a savior. If you don't preach that without shame, then there is a question about what we really believe. Yes, actions matter, but actions are not. the same thing as preaching the gospel.

Martin Luther, he is the central figure of the Protestant Reformation. Of course, most of you know that. He stressed that the gospel must be actively proclaimed with the mouth as the means God uses to create faith and save sinners. He said, where Christ is not preached, there is no Holy Spirit to create call and gather the Christian Church. That's from his large catechism 1529. And we read that again in scripture that in order to be believed, it must be heard.

that's Romans 10 and in order to be heard it must be preached so we use our words all right that covers it the most misused phrases we will have lots more to come and we'll be back here on Wednesday