OK, let’s say you are the local prayer team coordinator at your church. You find out about a community-wide prayer service for the youth in your area. Local religious leaders are asking you and your church to join with other churches and other faiths to have an open prayer service, meaning all faiths are being invited to attend. In your enthusiasm, you take the request to your pastor and ask if he thinks it is a good idea to participate in this community prayer event. What do you think the pastor will say? More to the point, what do you think the pastor ought to say and why? Should you join with Muslims and Hindus and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jews in order to pray for local youth?
After answering the blog, remember to pray today for Wang Weiliang, a brother in Christ who is in prison in China because of faithfulness to Jesus. (see story here).
Gregory C. Cochran 
Are there any scriptures or Biblical accounts which suggest that God does not listen to the prayers of all people? If so, what are the reasons for it?
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Kim,
Thanks for your question. I would say, yes, there are Scriptures which indicate that God is not obligated to listen to the prayers of all people. In fact, there are a number of instances in which God refuses to listen even to His own people as a result of their sin.
You can find these examples in Deuteronomy 3:26; Joshua 7:10; and Jeremiah 7:16. There are other examples, but these should suffice. God is not obligated to listen sympathetically to those who are in rebellion against him.
Indeed, faith is necessary to pray to God. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6). James 5:16 instructs us that it is the prayers of the righteous which avail much. So, I would have to say yes to your question.
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