Every child of God knows of the precious privilege given us to pray to our heavenly Father. We can petition Him to help us in any area of life and He promises to always be available to listen to our requests. But does this mean that God receives every prayer offered up as acceptable and responds accordingly? Does God always answer every prayer or do some people pray in vain? Are some prayers useless?

For example this is the time for NCAA Basketball tournaments and several of the best teams in college basketball strive to make it to that position as one of the Final Four. Thousands of enthusiastic fanatics better known as “fans” will cheer their teams on as the March Madness moves to that final destination. Along the way, many of those “fans” will plead with God to help their team win and for some it is the only type of praying that they know. They appeal to almighty God to help their team to find a way to perform miracles and come away with the prized goal. Does God answer such selfish prayers?

Why not enroll in one of the fine courses on Prayer in the BBN BI and see what God’s Word says about praying. To some it is very surprising to know that God pays little or no attention to their pleading because the condition of their hearts and purpose of their requests are not suitable. I recommend course # 20500 The Value of Prayer taught by Ray Stedman and course # 21800 The School of Prayer taught by Warren Wiersbe. Both give some excellent insight into why some prayers are useless!