Once I prayed with great anguish:  “Lord, I’ve prayed and prayed for You to use me, and nothing is happening.”  The answer I received in my spirit was awesome.  I sensed the Lord saying to me:  “Child, are you willing to let me use you, even if I don’t reveal to you what I am doing?  If I use you mightily, in the dark so to speak, and you become aware of it, might you not become puffed up?  If you begin to think too highly of yourself, you may take over the work yourself and cease to be my servant.”

Sincere Christians who earnestly bring their needs before the throne of God with expectant faith do not always experience a direct answer to their prayers. So, one might ask, “What is the use of praying?” I hope the thoughts I share here will make a meaningful difference in your prayer life!  Thanks for reading!   With love, Lois

Our Prayers Have All Been Answered

Recently, our Pastor preached on the topic of prayer. He did an outstanding job, in spite of the fact that he was facing a tough audience. The faithful in our pews already knew the sobering truth: God does not always answer our prayers exactly the way we ask Him to!

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Pastor was preaching to a whole congregation of believers whose prayers—big ones—seem to have gone unanswered . . .

In the row behind me sits a middle-aged man who lost his wife to brain cancer only a few months ago. Beside him are dear friends who recently lost the business they worked a lifetime to build. Right in front of me sits an elderly couple whose sixteen-year-old grandson was killed in a car accident on a church youth outing. Beside them is a gentleman whose wife passed away from colon cancer the day before their youngest son’s wedding. Two young couples on my left are dealing with unemployment. Near the back of the church sits a pair whose granddaughter was born with profound birth defects. Seated on the other side is a couple whose son was killed during in Iraq, leaving behind a wife and several-month-old child. And in the very back row sits a dear, white-haired man who has visited the nursing home nearly every day for three years to feed his wife who suffers from cancer.

My husband and I have our own list of unanswered prayers, too. For years, we asked God to allow us to conceive a child. Then, after making peace with infertility and adopting four older children, I became pregnant. When the ultrasound revealed an abnormal heartbeat, we begged God to preserve our baby’s life and health. He chose not to answer our prayers, and I miscarried the child. It took nearly two years before I could attend a worship service again without being overcome by tears of defeat and doubt about the goodness of God.

What Good is Prayer?

In light of the fact that sincere Christians who earnestly bring their needs before the throne of God with expectant faith do not always experience answered prayer, one might ask, “What is the use of praying?” If we are completely honest about our relationship with God, this question crosses the minds of all believers at one time or another. If we have the courage to be transparent with each other, the question may even be voiced aloud. And, if we have authentic faith like Pastor Roger, we have the wisdom to humbly face God with these questions and allow Him to lead us into the deeper truths of life in Jesus Christ.

I can’t speak for others, but I can tell you how I believe God has allowed the unanswered prayers in my life to draw me into a deeper and stronger relationship with Him.

At the beginning, my idea about prayer was very much like a small child asking for candy in the checkout line of the grocery store. It took years for me to realize that God, just like a wise parent, doesn’t always fulfill prayers just because we want something. Like a loving parent, our Father’s primary interest is in allowing only what’s best for us in the long run. He sees the big picture of our lives and desires to lead us along a path that will lead us to the “future and hope” He has planned for us. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Further along the way, I began to discover that God never intended prayer to be the “plan B” in our lives. He doesn’t want to be the one we run to when everything else fails, rather He desires to be the One who “daily bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68:19) Difficulties and trials are special opportunities for us to experience God’s fulfillment of His promise in Psalm 52:15: “I want you to trust me in your times of trouble, so I can rescue you, and you can give me glory.”

But our prayer lives don’t always consist of simply asking God to provide good weather for an outing or to help us pass an exam. Sometimes we need employment to provide for our family. Sometimes we beg God to heal someone who is suffering. Those are not the prayers of a self-seeking or immature believer. But they are prayers that sometimes go unanswered. Unanswered prayers force us to run to God and throw ourselves into His arms, recognizing the promise, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (II Corinthians 12:9) Unanswered prayer also keeps us in a position of dependence on Him: “ . . . but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God.” (II Corinthians 1:9)

When God Demands More

I think it would be truthful to say that my friends at church are mature pray-ers. Their prayer life goes beyond that of a selfish child demanding his own way or an impulsive teen-ager looking for an emergency bailout. These are men and women who regularly rely on God and seek to embrace His will for their lives. They’ve trusted God through disappointment, grief and heartache, and found Him to be faithful and true. They are people who long to become more like Him in every way. In spite of all these good things, they still experience infertility, lose loved ones to cancer, endure business failure, and lose unborn children in miscarriages.

It may seem cruel for a loving Father to allow the prayers of faithful people to sometimes seem to go unanswered. However, the exact opposite is true. I would like to suggest—and this is a hard thing to embrace—that God has, in fact, answered prayer in all of these situations. I say this because I believe that the love and power of God reaches into the deepest part of our hearts when unbearable pain or loss causes us to re-evaluate our faith in Him.  We do not truly trust in our Anchor until He’s proven to be our source of security when the storms of life batter us and tear us apart and destroy our hopes and dreams. In His deep love for us, the Father asks us to be willing to trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is doing, so “…that [our] faith…may be proved genuine.” (I Peter 5:7) Peter’s words seem to indicate that not only faith itself is precious, but the trial of our faith is also valuable in God’s eyes.

When it seems that Heaven is closed to our prayers and God is demanding the impossible from us, Paul admonishes, “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix your eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:16-18) And in Isaiah 55:8-9, we are reminded, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,” says the Lord, “neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

His Highest Goal for My Life

It is God’s ultimate desire for each of us to “cling to and live only for that which is the highest, the best, the eternal” (Cynthia Heald) and it is “during the dark night of the soul [that] God develops a capacity in us to receive more of who He is. We begin to identify with Christ in a new way.” (Lori Salerno) To quote Max Lucado, “A season of suffering is a small price to pay for a clear view of God.”

God could have opened my womb years ago and provided us with a house full of children. Furthermore, He could have spared the life of our unborn baby. However, in His infinite wisdom, He knew that I needed to experience the infinite depth of His love more than I needed to hold a child in my arms. He saw beyond my wants and granted what I really needed instead.

Do I still grieve over our loss? Of course. Do I want others to experience similar grief? Definitely not! But would I trade the relationship with God I enjoy today in exchange for a million answers to my prayers? Never! Moreover, do I believe, as Pastor Roger does, that God’s answer to our prayers is always right? I know from personal experience that He has done “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. ” (Ephesians 3:20)

Romans 8:22-27

I pleaded with the Lord three times . . . . And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

The Lord in His wisdom does not grant every prayer. Even Paul did not receive everything he sought at the throne of grace. His “thorn” was not removed; he was just given grace to bear it. Of one thing we can be certain: If our goal is to glorify God, He will give us what we ask, or what we would have asked if we could see as He sees.

Oftentimes I have come to thank the Lord for not granting some request of mine, for in the light of future developments I could see God’s wisdom in denying me the thing for which I had so ferently pleaded.

There are other times we may request things that God will not give us because they are completely contrary to His plan for us. Yet we ask anyway, like the little boy who was overheard saying  his nightly prayers: “Please God, make Boulder the capital of Colorado.” When he had said, “Amen,” his mother asked, “Why did you ask for that?” “Because,” he explained, “that’s what I put down on my exam paper today.”

We must always remember that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). When He says no to us, He has a very good reason for not granting our request. —hgb

Not ours to know the reason why unanswered is our prayer, but ours to wait for God’s own grace to lift the cross we bear. —anon

Your request denied? God’s grace supplied!

Maybe you read about the University of Chicago freshmen who are taking literary classics and rewriting them in 20 or fewer 140-character tweets. They describe their writing style this way: “Imagine if Achilles had a Twitter account and an iPhone, and he was telling his story in real time.”

I’m thinking about doing that for our prayers. Maybe we would pray more if we saw prayer as something connected to our lives, like the tweets people send out. Except we would constantly be sending them out to God.

That’s what Jesus wants—persistent prayer. Luke 18:1 says “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Problem is we give up on prayer and we lose heart.

It’s easy to lose heart, isn’t it? This phrase can be translated “to faint, to be utterly spiritless, to be weary, exhausted.” Hurricanes. Economic collapse. Health issues. Relational break downs. Jesus understood that life can take its toll on people, even on those who follow him. His prescription is “always to pray and not lose heart.”

It’s easy to lose heart. And when we do, it’s easy to quit praying. We think we need to read another book or attend another seminar on prayer. We think we are doing something wrong, like we tweeted when we should have picked up the phone and called. But those who have been persistent in prayer understand that God’s silence is a common experience for all those who practice prayer.

The story Jesus tells is about a woman who gets what she needs from an unjust judge because she constantly pesters him with her requests. The point is clear: if an unjust judge will grant justice, won’t God give you what you need even more?

The counsel of Evagrius the Solitary (4th century Christian monk) is good to keep in mind:

Do not be distressed if you do not at once receive from God what you ask. He wishes to give you something better—to make you persevere in your prayer. For what is better than to enjoy the love of God and to be in communion with Him?

Those who have faith are the ones who pray through the silence. They are the ones who pray persistently. In their praying, they may not find the answers they think they need. But they will find the One they need.

And that is something to tweet about.

The other week I witnessed a good friend of mine go to be with the Lord as he wrestled with lung problems.  We had prayed this last year for his healing.  I just returned from a 90 mile drive to the hospital in Jackson to be with another friend and his family as he had his second surgery in one week for complications with a brain tumor.  The doctors told him that the tumor he has is very aggressive and the average survival rate is 12-18 months.  We’ve been praying for his healing the last 17 months.  There are broken relationships in our congregation and families that I have been praying for over the last 12 months that do not appear to be any closer to reconciliation.  Obviously, I’m not giving a promotional clip for a book on answered prayer – or am I?

I believe in the power of prayer and the God who answers those prayers in power.  I hunger to see God at work in a supernatural way.  Last week I talked about the need to get up off our needs and come up for air to see what God is doing, and I have to wonder if there is any part of me that longs to participate in a movement of God that is in direct response to the prayers of His people. Or have I just pulled up anchor and decided to drift through this life and accept what comes my way?  Page after page of Scripture reports God at work in areas where people invite Him to enter. 1 Peter 3:12 says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.” Do you have faith to believe, that if you would only ask, God would show up and do His work in your home, neighborhood, and church? Or do you feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling?  We’ve all been there—but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can stir God to action with our prayers.

However, you have to realize that just because you bowed your head and ended a sentence with the phrase “In Jesus’ name, Amen” it’s not a guarantee. Too often our prayers don’t touch God’s heart.  The result?  He doesn’t act on our behalf.  What we often fail to realize is, that we are the ones preventing God from being moved to answer our prayers.  We put up barriers in our relationship with Him, and unfortunately this takes place all too often.  Or it could be that God really knows the true desire of your heart based on an “all-knowing”, eternal perspective.  That being said, most of us have gone through discouraging and even puzzling periods of unanswered prayer.  A relationship that didn’t work out, a job prospect that fizzled out.  In these trying financial times it could even have been a financial investment bathed in prayer that turned sour.  And yes, a request for healing that wasn’t granted.

I know plenty who have begun their Christian life optimistic about the possibilities of prayer only to have skepticism set in after some disappointing experience with prayer.  This problem wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the numerous promises in the Bible concerning prayer.  John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” If you’ve been a Christian for long you probably have experienced some serious bubble popping in this area.  Hence the question: “How come I’m not getting what I asked for?”

We desperately seek an explanation – was it a lack of faith?  Did we not believe strong enough?  Perhaps it was the wrong motives?  The Bible does warn and instruct us concerning these areas – our desire should always be for God’s will to be done.  I believe there is an explanation that is hard for us to accept. Matthew 18:19 says, “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” Two things come to mind here; one, do we really want God to do what we are asking and two; we don’t know our future, only God does.  Today you say you really want it, but ten years from now will you be able to say the same thing? God knows and He is so gracious, by giving us what we desire in terms of a lifetime.

I believe that “most” of the prayers that seem to be unanswered in our lives are simply God understanding better than we do the desires that we have.  If we can grasp this, it will keep us praying and continuing in prayer as God clarifies our true desires.  And as our foolish desires fade away we will be ever thankful to God for His “no’s” and “not yet’s”.

I came across this the other day in an e-mail devotion from “Get Up With God.”:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do better things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for,
but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself,
my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.   –Anonymous Confederate Soldier

Let me just share with you that I have continued in my prayer life and walk with Christ long enough to have had so many affirming experiences with prayer that this whole article is almost unnecessary.  I am confident that God answers prayer based not only on His Word, but also my own experiences.  Don’t allow any disappointments in the short term keep you from praying and believing.

Trusting in Prayer:

I hope you are at least able to see the beautiful way God listens to us and allows us the privilege of conversing with Him. He could have been a God that didn’t want us to communicate with Him, and instead He says, “Jer. 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Here is the link to the full story, if you would like to read it. http://natalielowe.blogspot.com/2008/11/call-and-he-will-answer.html God is so amazing!! One of the biggest struggles I believe we all have with prayer is, why? Why isn’t someone healed? Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t know all the answers to this, but one thing I do know, “…… I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” 2 Tim 1:12. I know that as humans we are going to go through good times and bad times. But when you put them on the scales of life and you weigh “going through it with God” or “going through it without God” there is no comparison. Better is One Day in His Courts than thousands elsewhere! You can go to your knees in confidence that 100% of your prayers will be answered if you can accept the fact that sometimes the answer will be “no.” Name me one person in the Bible who did great things for God who didn’t have heartache, illness, or persecution of some sort? If anyone deserved an answered prayer and a miracle it was John the Baptist, yet he was beheaded. Stephen was martyred, the apostles were persecuted. Our very own Savior cried out in the garden, ”Father if it is possible, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours.” God’s answer was no. He told Jesus no. Not because He didn’t love him, but because He knew the ending. He knew that if He answered Jesus’ prayer, the rest of the world would be lost. Another example of bad, horrible thing that happened to the perfect person. How can we expect Him to answer our prayers any differently than He answered his one and only Son? He knows the ending. He knows why things need to happen the way they do, and we have to trust that one day, one day, we will have the an understanding of the why’s. Until that day, as Job said, “Yet will I trust Him.” I pray you will keep calling on Him and trusting Him. For the answered prayers, and the unanswered ones. For the yes’s and the no’s. If Jesus wanted and needed to pray, how much more should we want and need it? Our alters should be full every Sunday, we should all (myself included) be at that alter every week when Pastor Randy gives us the opportunity. Why do we waste it? As believers, we should lead the way for those who might not step out unless we do. Even if we ourselves don’t have anything urgent to pray about, we then should have thanksgiving and praise to give. And prayers for others to offer. My dream and vision for our church, is to every week see our alters so full of people on their knees and on our faces, that we have to use the front pews as alters also. That we won’t care who sees us, we won’t care what others think, but our knees will be worn out for our people, our community, and world. OK, if you have really made it to the end of this rant……thanks for letting me spew!! I guess I have some of that preacher stuff still in me!! Haha! I love you all and I count it a privilege to serve alongside you and minister at our church. God bless you!

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than being alive without breathing.” Martin Luther

I Will Yet Trust You

The night is falling;
the tempest blows
My mind is swirling,
no one knows.
I can’t deny it,
I just don’t understand-
Why does it have to be this way?
I’m in such a strange land
I’m so lost and afraid
My hope is failing fast
But my trust in you Lord
Is one that will last!

I will yet trust You
I will yet trust you
I’m relying on your love
I’m taking a firm stand in your integrity
There’s no one like you Lord
I believe in your ability!
I will yet trust You.

Please don’t be silent.
Send me your wisdom
I desire to speak with you
About this earthly kingdom
I cry “it’s just not fair’
The bad guys are winning
We’re in such despair
My head won’t quit spinning.
Why all the pain?
Why the suffering and doubt?
There’s no one to turn to
I just want out. I just want out!

I will yet trust You
I will yet trust you
I’m relying on your love
I’m taking a firm stand in your integrity
There’s no one like you Lord
I believe in your ability
I will yet trust You.

JP: A good article on prayer by Jean Williams.

The blessing of unanswered prayer

Excerpt:

In his mercy, God doesn’t say “yes” to my petulant, childish demands. Like a loving parent, he says “no”. When I respond with whining self-pity, like a spoiled child declaring, “It’s not fair!”, my wise Father doesn’t give in. He gives me what is truly good—what makes me more like Jesus, what furthers his kingdom, and what brings glory to his Son—rather than what looks and feels good to me at the time.

God sees things from a very different perspective to me. He sees things from the perspective of inconceivable wisdom, infinite goodness and immeasurable love. He sees things from the perspective of his glory. And perhaps, just perhaps, as he leaves my petty prayers unanswered, he nudges me towards bigger prayers—prayers not just for my comfort and my family’s happiness, but for our persecuted brothers and sisters, the millions who haven’t heard the gospel, and the coming of his kingdom.

Praise God for the blessing of unanswered prayer.

Comment: Image from Psychology Today

I encountered an amazing experience a few minutes ago which made a huge impact on my perspectives, and possibly, my life.

I picked up the Fethullah Gulen’s book, The Essentials of the Islamic Faith that brother Kerim bought me for my birthday. I flipped through it and finally settled on one particular page. And my eyes just landed on a particular paragraph:

“Prayer is a form of worship rewarded primarily in the Hereafter. For this reason, we must not say that our prayers are not answered when we do not receive that for which we have prayed. Just because a prayer is “answered” does not mean that it is “accepted in all circumstances. There is an answer for every prayer, but its acceptance and answer depend on God’s Wisdom.
Suppose a sick child asks a doctor for a certain kind of medicine. The doctor either will give that medicine or something better, or will give no medicine at all, especially if there is some reason to think that it will harm the child.

Similarly, God Almighty, the All-Hearing and All-Seeing, answers His servants’ prayers and changes the depression of loneliness into the pleasure of His company. But His Divine answer does not depend on our fancies; rather, it depends on His Divine Wisdom, according to which He either gives what is requested or what is better, or He gives nothing at all. However He answers, we must pray.”

I cried after reading that particular passage. I just couldn’t help but feel something so strong pulling at my heartstrings, I just cried.

And I am more aware of myself, and the nature of My Creator. I feel blessed. And I feel happier, lightened by the burdens I impose on myself due to my own fancies and desires.

I am also thankful to have known my brothers and sisters from Islam online forums and chat sessions, back in my reversion days. Without all the help, support and encouragement they’ve given me, I wouldn’t have had the motivation to overcome this inertia to learn more about my deen and started practising Islam.

And the amazing thing about the whole coincidence of flipping the book and getting in touch with my emotional well-being, made me realise that Allah wanted to tell me what I needed to know so badly. To trust His Divine Wisdom and be strong with any obstructions that come in my way to be truly happy.

Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen…

Does…unanswered prayer shake my faith in God’s willingness and power to answer prayer?  No, no!  My own child might just as reasonably decide to never again come to me with a request because I have, in my superior wisdom, denied a petition.

  – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 40.

We found that these people – the whole village – were Mohammedans, and had taken no part in the attack.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 56.

I came to seek very definitely for the fullness of the Holy Spirit…I learned then what “paying the price” meant.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 134.

I quietly but definitely accepted Christ as my Saviour from the power of sin as I had so long before accepted him as my Saviour fom the penalty of sin.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 136.

Florence Rosalind Bellsmith Goforth was born this date (5/6/1864) at  Kensington Gardens, London.  When she was three she moved with her parents to Canada. She was converted to Christ at twelve.  On Oct. 27, 1887 she became Mrs. Jonathan Goforth.  The two served China for many years.

“Give ear, O God, and hear;
open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name.
We do not make requests of you because we are righteous,
but because of your great mercy.”
Daniel 9:18, NIV*

Sometimes the very magnitude of  prayer needs can reach a point where prayer feels more like a barrier to fellowship with the Lord than a doorway into His presence. We ask and don’t receive. We knock and hear no answer. The mountain’s not going anywhere but up.

Still God invites us to bring our cares and needs to Him. (1 Peter 5:7)

As we pray, may God grant us to yearn for Him, to see Him, to be still long enough to sense His presence. We may come because of external need, but let’s stay until we’re reminded that our souls’ real need is Him.

Father, thank You we can find our rest in You, that we can bring all things to You, our Rock and our Salvation. Turn our eyes and hearts to Yourself, and by Your presence give us hope. Help us rejoice  no matter what our circumstances, because You are mighty to save, and You are with us.

Let the song “Hosanna,” by Paul Baloche, be our prayer today.

*New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Journal of a Departed Friend, Part 2

Aurora Borealis

Sister Alma Rose recently received part of a journal from the year 1985 that was bequeathed to her by an old friend. Here is an excerpt:

Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. — Matthew 7:7

Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland

I wonder how many souls Christianity has lost because Jimmy asked God for a pony or a trip to Disneyland. There are surely many disillusioned Jimmies walking around, convinced that those biblical promises are all a crock. Maybe it wasn’t a pony that was asked for, but a healing or a job, which, when they don’t materialize, make cynics of would-be believers. 

The conventional wisdom is that God answers prayers but not always at the expected time or in the desired way, and that Jimmy eventually gets something better than a pony.

I don’t know, frankly, why some prayers seem to “succeed” where others “fail.” There is the skeptic’s view: that whatever happened would have happened anyway. And there is the pious view: that the “successful” prayer was offered in humility and faith.

The Raising of Lazarus (15th-century painting)

And there is my view: that if I knew how to push God’s buttons, I’d have a good shot at divinity myself, and I don’t want that much responsibility. It’s as much as I can handle to keep up with the phone bill.

‘Shining Like the Sun’

Trappist monk Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

When a prayer is answered in a dramatic way, as in a spectacular healing or an impossible rescue, some believe that God has intervened in the natural order of things, and this is called a Miracle.

Well, I have seen miracles that are supremely “natural.” I won’t go into the  stunning (if somewhat gory) spectacle of childbirth, or snowflakes, or aurora borealis, except to say that the commonplace and the miraculous are not always mutually exclusive. Prayer and meditation offer visions of what is truly “natural,” not in the sense of being normal but in the sense of being true to nature. 

Meditation is a journey from the periphery to the center of life, and no one can say what all is to be found there. The late Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and the author of Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1956), writes, “There is no way of telling people that they are walking around shining like the sun.”

One’s view of what is real is limited to what one perceives, but allow that those perceptions are incomplete and distorted, and there is room in the “natural world” for unimagined possibilities.

Spirit, carry my meditation beyond all things seen and all things imagined into all things possible.

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• Now you can own Daddy Pete, featuring Sister Alma Rose and Fanny — Part 1 of The Ancients

I remember when my brother was about 10 years old. He asked me, “Why do they call it ‘Good Friday’ if that’s the day Jesus died?” Before I even got to answer, my wise little brother said “Wait, never mind. If Jesus hadn’t died, he never could have risen again to forgive us of our sins.” It blew me away, maybe because it was spot on. Out of the mouth of babes, right? Jesus’ death, what we’d seemingly have seen at the time as bad, was a very, very good thing indeed. Maybe that’s true about a lot of our prayers.

In the last three years, I’ve wrestled a lot with unanswered prayer. So we don’t debate semantics, I suppose God always answers prayer, because even “no” or no answer is an answer.  But I’m talking about praying diligently for something and just not getting a “yes” answer. I’ve asked God for so many things that seemed surely in his will. Things that were usually for the benefit of others, salvation, freedom from a strong hold, healing. I mean, if we pray in his name, according to his will, he has to say yes, right? Not if we’re not seeing the whole picture. He may delay or decline our request because he has a far bigger or better plan for us or for others. If God is greater than we can ask or imagine, let’s not limit his answers to our prayers by our imaginations.

While I was in New Zealand, I read a fantastic book called God on Mute by Pete Greig. Several years ago, Greig’s wife was diagnosed with benign (non cancerous) brain tumors that caused her to develop a very serious seizure disorder. This all happened about the same time he was launching an international prayer ministry. During what should have been an amazing time in ministry, they experienced some of the greatest pains of their lives, as God seemingly chose not to heal his wife.  The book is a very real account of their struggle and heartache with unanswered prayer. But he takes it through interesting eyes, the eyes of Jesus in the last four days of his life.

^“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14: 32-26

The night before Jesus’ crucifixion, he went into a garden and prayed diligently. He knew what he would have to suffer. He also knew why. But in his humanity, he asked God if there was another way. He asked God to take this suffering, the horrific thing he knew was about to happen, away from him. Many scholars say it wasn’t only the physical pain that he knew he’d endure, but also the spiritual separation from his Father, that was overwhelmingly devastating to him. Yet he ends this prayer with full submission. “Not my will, but your’s”. There was clearly no sin in asking, but he had to be willing to not get his way.

The heartache Jesus must have felt. The loneliness he must have experienced as his friends all abandoned him. The pain of a world that just didn’t understand. God didn’t answer as Jesus asked and he went to the cross.

We all know the ending of the story though. Jesus was resurrected, having conquered the grave. His death and resurrection paved a way for us to have a personal relationship with God if we choose it. That is a very good unanswered prayer.

Many of us look at things we’ve asked of God and been terribly hurt and disappointed when God either answered “wait” or “no”. But how much better could be our prayer lives, if we had enough trust in the love of God to, without a second of doubt, say “but not as I will, but as you do.” What if we could see the plan, all the benefits from the start. Wouldn’t that change everything?

^“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

So many of us know this passage cold, but seem to overlook the “with thanksgiving”. This implies that we are, even as part of our request, thanking him for what he’s already done and what he is yet to do, even if its not exactly as we hope, because we know he is always good.

Obviously all of my blogs this week are at least in part related to my friends health situation, of which many of us are struggling. It is hard, and often feels like unanswered prayer. But in the last few days, God is overwhelmingly showing me all the benefits that have come out of this situation. They almost number like the stars. Its been amazing to see her family’s faith grow. Its been amazing to watch our community come together and learn to love and support each other better. Its been so good to witness how God is molding each of our characters, our hearts, our gifts, to make us better people than we were a year ago.

Hmmmm. God is good. It may even be, that more often than not, we don’t get the answer we hope for. Neither did Jesus. But in the end, the plan is always better. Jesus always raises from the dead. Will you be willing to trust God for something far better than just how you wanted your prayer answered?

All of us have had experiences when it didn’t look like our prayers were answered. But is that really what happened? The Bible says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Is that true? Well, many people say it couldn’t mean what it appears to say, because they can cite experiences where they asked for something and didn’t receive. But you’ve got to make the decision stated in Romans 3:4, to “Let God be true, but every man [or in this case, every circumstance] a liar.” God’s Word is true, not our experiences.

This is one of the reasons so much doctrinal division has come about. The Word is clear in its doctrine, but when someone tries the Word and doesn’t see the promised results, rather than admit that they could have failed, they say something like, “That must have passed away with the apostles” or “It must not have been God’s will,” etc. God is not the one who failed to answer, but rather we are the ones who have failed to receive.

What actually happens when we ask in prayer is that God moves immediately and gives us the answer in our spirits. We are responsible for believing that, and acting accordingly to bring the answer into the physical world. God is a spirit (John 4:24), and He always supplies our answer to our spirit man. Through faith, we then give physical substance (Heb. 11:1) to what God has done.

We are like a spiritual transformer. Spiritual power has to be converted to physical power just as radio signals have to be converted into frequencies audible to our physical ear. You don’t hear the actual signal broadcast by the radio station, but rather a signal that has been picked up by a receiver and translated into an audible sound. For a person to say that there aren’t any radio signals where they are, just because they cannot hear them, is not true. They are there, but they are on a higher frequency than the human ear can hear. They have to be “demodulated” into a lower frequency which we can hear.

This is the way our answers to prayer come. God moves in the spirit world and gives us our answer by faith, and we convert it into a physical reality through our actions. That is not to say that we are the one who produced the answer by our own power. It is God who works the miracles, but they do come through us. Without Him, we can do nothing, but He has made us joint heirs together with Christ so that He does nothing without us. Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US” (emphasis mine). We have a part to play in receiving from God. Ignorance of this has been our greatest problem.

Now you can understand much more clearly what Mark 11:24 means, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” You receive in your spirit by faith immediately, and it shall come to pass in the physical later. It may be one minute, one day, or one year, but you cannot waiver in your belief that God has already answered your prayer. The time that it takes for God’s answer to be manifest in the physical is dependent upon many things, but it is not God who determines that. God answers immediately. Remember, it says you must believe that you receive WHEN YOU PRAY. God isn’t asking you to believe something that isn’t true. You do receive instantly in your spirit, then it is manifest in the physical later.

An example of this is in Daniel 9 and 10. In chapter 9, Daniel prayed a prayer, and while he was still praying, his answer to prayer came in the form of Gabriel giving him “skill and understanding” in the thing he desired. That’s a quick answer to prayer, but in verse 23, Gabriel says that God had sent him forth at the beginning of his prayer. God moved instantly, but it took about 3 minutes for the answer to appear in the physical realm. In Daniel chapter 10, he prayed another prayer, and his answer took three full weeks to manifest. What a difference!

Most people would say, “I wonder why God answered that first prayer in three minutes, and the second prayer took three weeks. But in Daniel 10:12, we find that God answered the second prayer instantly too. Praise God! The Lord was not the variable. In this case, it was a demonic force, “the prince of the kingdom of Persia,” that had hindered the answer to Daniel’s prayer.

Whether it be Satan or people’s wills or unbelief or any of a number of other possible hindrances, it’s important that you know that it’s not God who seems so unpredictable (Ps. 102:27, Mal. 3:6). In fact, this is a fundamental truth that you must be established in before you can even begin to do anything about speeding up the answer to your prayer. If you have prayed a prayer in line with God’s Word, God answers it immediately (1 John 5:14-15; Dan. 9, 10). If you understand that, then you are ready to begin releasing your faith over bringing that answer into complete manifestation.

Two weeks ago, I wrote in this post about the many unanswered petitionary prayers and about embarrasing testimonies of people claiming that God intervened supernaturally in their lives when their case is more than doubtful.

So, how are we supposed to deal with unanswered prayers and embarrassing testimonies?

I propose that our theology is wrong. God is both blamed and given credit for more than He ought to, because human freedom cuts both ways. If a man makes the wrong choice by deciding to murder my daughter, I can’t blame God; it was not His decision. The only blame we can put on Him is that He has given us so much freedom.

If we blame Him, we cut off the proverbial branch on which we are sitting. It’s only due to our freedom that we can blame Him at all. If we blame Him for our freedom, we blame Him for our very ability to blame Him. Conversely, we don’t have to thank God that we have discovered our wallet on the roof of the car; God probably didn’t intervene supernaturally at all.

What I can thank God for is His being the Source of everything existent: the One who upholds every atom of the universe I live in. I can also thank Him for the order in which He created everything and for the power of choice He has given me.

This power of choice, however, this freedom, necessarily creates a world in which there are real consequences to my actions. If I’m not careful enough to keep watch over my wallet, I might lose it and not find it again. I might pray to God, and sometimes He might perchance intervene supernaturally to help me undo the consequences. But in most cases, I think, His answer is:

“Play by the rules. If you don’t learn to be watchful, you lose things. If you cross a street while reading a book, you will be run over by a car. If you jump out of a helicopter without a parachute, you will die; I won’t change the gravitation of the earth for you, even if you fervently pray in your last minute on earth for me to do so. I can’t change the rules of the game all the time; that would create an extremely confusing world in which no one, once he starts to think about it, wants to live.”

A movie that illustrates this pretty well is Bruce Almighty. Field reporter Bruce Nolan thinks that God isn’t doing a good job and should let someone else take His place, to which God says in essence, “Okay, Bruce. It’s your turn.”

He allows Bruce to play God for a while. And what does Bruce do? He thinks that his almighty powers now give him the right to change the rules of creation as he chooses. For example, thousands of people pray to win the lottery, and Bruce answers every one of them, as a consequence of which everyone wins only a few dollars. From the weather to traffic, nothing is safe from Bruce’s interference. The end result is utter chaos—a completely unpredictable world.

Do we want that? What do people stuck in a traffic jam expect God to do when they pray that He should help them be on time? Move all the other cars out of the way? Magically create a bigger road?

No. He will say, “If you don’t want to get stuck in a traffic jam, talk to your minister of transportation. You know the rules of this world. If your roads don’t have sufficient space for the amount of cars you manufacture, you have to change something. If you can’t find a parking space in a city, don’t ask Me to help you find one; either build more parking spaces or allow fewer cars in the city. Should I create more parking spaces for you or make cars disappear? Which cars should those be? Not yours, that is for sure. Or if you pollute the air, don’t ask Me to clean it for you; you will have to find ways to stop the pollution. You know the rules.”

God honors His creation too much to continually mess with it. Christianity says that He is present in His creation; yes. He does talk to people and guides them; yes. But it is a guidance from within, not from without. He is speaking to the hearts of men in order to help them make the right decisions, not by writing letters in the sky or continually changing the laws of creation. Any change of order must by necessity be an exception. Otherwise chaos will result.

If God answered most prayers in the way we expect Him to, there would no longer be merely one God; there would be millions of gods—millions of Bruce Almightys—all trying to direct the universe according to their will.

Ok, so I have really been struggeling a lot as a wife.  this is me being open an honest about the crazy thoughts and doubts that I have.  I got married in May… so I have been married for almost 6 months now.  And since we have been married I have neither “gotten off” from my husband nor have we “come” at the same time.  It hurts.  I want that so bad.  We hav tried different positions and nothing works.  I get close, but I just can’t come.  There have been times before when we have gotten off at the same time or even with in a minute apart, but I just can’t now.  And he resorts to getting me off with a vibrator.

I write this with much sadness,  I know the feelings of intimacy that it brings and I miss it.  I miss the intimacy.  The last time that we had sex I found my self praying and begging God to let me come by my husband and to let us come at the same time.  And I prayed and prayed and prayed the whole time…. and I had doubts come over me and I would fight against them and trusting in God to answer my prayer……

And He didn’t.  And my husband got off and I just lay there crying and asking God, “why?”

I don’t know why… and I don’t understand.  I am still waiting for an answer.

***I’m sorry if this was too grafic, but I had to share my feelings *****

I had spent many years preparing for and anticipating the opportunity to “take up my cross and die” somewhere out on the frontier mission field. But the Lord has consistently barred the way. Forced, you might say, to live in the land of luxury. A new and enlightening inner struggle has thus been birthed. How can I related to and connect with the human race, as Jesus once did? A cross to die on is not easy to come by here in America. And yet I am becoming more aware of the Lord’s work in my life and the path he is laying out before me. He is slowly changing the heart of stone I was born with into a heart of flesh. I find, like many, I am clinging to the hope that there is good news out there somewhere. The problem of pain is a big and nasty one. In the midst of it, with the weight of unanswered prayers and encounters with the giant-Death, I am discovering afresh the need for a Savior.

And then I remember Jesus. Here lies the crossroads of humanity…

“In the garden of Eden, our ancestors first prayed the tragic prayer that we have been praying ever since: ‘Not your will…’ they said to God, greedily eyeing the fruit…’Not your will but our will be done.’ In that one cataclysmic moment of decision, lust and craving corrupted the human psyche, passing from heart to heart through the placenta from one generation to the next.

And so, in another garden, another Adam must make another choice that will reverse the one made at the dawn of human history. Every human instinct of survival cries out against what Jesus knows he must do…No wonder Jesus cries, ‘Father take this cup from me.’ Surely, on hearing the cry, there are tears in the Father’s eyes, and his hand moves immediately to do just that.

‘Yet…’ and on that single word from Jesus, I imagine traffic screaming to a halt and birds falling from the sky. The Father’s hand pauses by the cup, heaven falls silent in suspense, hell jeers…’Yet not my will…but your will be done.’

A little later, during His arrest, Jesus would tell the guards, ‘This is your hour, when darkness reigns.’ (Luke 22:53) In surrendering to the will of God and the satanic onslaught to come, Jesus showed us that the way to overcome the world–the way to subvert the reign of darkness–is sometimes not to stand and fight but rather to submit like a lamb being led to the slaughter. In the words of the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, when our lives are enveloped by darkness, our duty may not always be to ‘rage, rage against the dying of the light’ but rather to ‘go gentle into that good night.’ ” Pete Greig

I too, as every human must, have been in the garden. Who’s will?

Though the Lord is carving out a different path than I had expected, I still meet face to face the giant-Death, and his club of doubt. He has bruised me twice, but this side of sunshine I say, “Let it not be your will! Yet not my will but yours be done.” Prayers remain unanswered, but comfort is not a distant companion. And I hope to make better acquaintance with Contemplation, the daughter of Mr. Wisdom, and hope she will teach me something of the submission to a painful slaughter.

The christian road often goes right through Kubler-Ross’ stages of grief.

1. Denial

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

Perhaps it is healthy and human to pass through them on our way to accepting God’s will. Did not Jesus? I can say two things the Lord has done:

1. I have been able to say as Jesus did, the Father’s will be done, despite my prayers against it.

2. I have lost some ounce of selfishness. Though the Lord has not acted favorably to some of my most urgent prayers, I can honetly rejoice with those for whom he has.

Sometimes He overcomes the world with saving miracles, other times He overcomes it through miraculous acceptance. Nonetheless, it is overcome, and I take heart somehow…someway. Good news.

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” John 17:20, 21

As a pastor I can not count the number of times that I have had people ask me why some prayers go unanswered. Falling back on my biblical and theological  training provided me with the standard responses, either the prayer was not in accord with the will of God or the timing was not right, the answer would come later, or the answer would come in a way that we do not expect but that in God’s wisdom will be far better than we could have hoped or asked for. I still am convinced that those answers are in line with what the Bible teaches. But those answers don’t suffice in all situations. The text from John 17 is the most glaring of examples.

Unless I am completely oblivious to something that is obvious to the rest of the world, this 2,000 year old prayer from Jesus the Son to God the Father is so far unanswered. For the life of me I struggle with why. Clearly Jesus knew the will of the Father when He prayed this prayer so and can’t be that unity among Christians is out of God’s will. It also seems that God would want that unity to be manifest sooner rather than later. Afterall that unity is supposed to be evidence of our relationship to God, a way for Him to be glorified, and a means for lost people to give their lives to Jesus. So God would seem to want to answer that prayer. If so then why do the followers of Jesus still stab one another in the back, mistrust one another, gossip about other beleivers in the name of prayer concerns, attack one anothers motives and integrity, and generally not love one another very well? The only answer that I have come up with so far is that we are not cooperating with the Lord. That’s a nice way of saying that in our sinfulness we are refusing to love one another as He has loved us. We are refusing to give one another the grace that he has given us. We are refusing to serve one another as He has served us. Bottom line, it’s us.

What really grips me is the realization that we must be breaking God’s heart. Jesus cries out to the Father for us to be unified. He does so in the shadow of the crucifixion ready to face it’s agony in submission to the Father. His prayer for unity comes from the core of His being and we ignore it and even actively strive against its fulfillment. “Love God”. “Love your neighbor”. “Do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith”. “Show forbearenace to one another out of love for Christ”. “As far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men”. Those are only a few of the places in God’s Word that come to mind. How many more exortations do we need to realize that Jesus is serious about our unity in Him?

Unity does not mean uniformity. We are not called to all be exactly like one another. Having different ideas and practices is not only acceptable, it is essential. The ealry church often wrestled with the issue of uniformity. It especially came out when they debated the implications of Gentiles coming to Jesus and bringing a whole new culture. The bottom line repsonse in Acts 15 was that the leaders of the church acknowledged that God was doing something that lead some of them in different directions. But that no matter those God given differences, they needed to honor and love one another in Christ.

I think about the implications of this for house churches and mega churches working together, for followers of Jesus who support Obama and those who support McCain, for sprinkling baptizers and immersion baptizers, for Calvinists and Arminians, and on and on it could go. I am not saying that we all need to believe and do the same things all the time. What I am saying is that we need to respect the other parts of the Body of Christ. We need to be willing to learn from one another and disagree with one another, yet love and honor one another in Jesus.

Someday, when heaven and earth become one, I know that this prayer of Jesus will finally be answered. I just wish that when that day comes, we will have been so united in the love of Christ in this life, that we will have a hard time noticing the change in the life to come. Now that really would be an answer to a prayer, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven”.

Right now I’m reading this book by Henry and Richard Blackaby called “Hearing God’s Voice.”  It’s about one’s personal relationship with God, it’s about prayer, it’s about learning to listen to God’s voice (the title might have given that away).

In one of the chapters on prayer, the authors talk about “how” and “why” God answers prayers.  We all know that sometimes God says “yes,” sometimes God says “no,” sometimes God says, “yes, but wait,” but sometimes God doesn’t seem to be listening.

The authors offered some very insightful biblical answers to help us understand what might be going on when it appears that God just isn’t listening.  Please read the following from Blackaby (pp 129-130):

“Why are we sometimes met with silence when we pray?  According to the Bible, if we allow sin to remain in our lives, God will not respond to our prayers.  The psalmist said, “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Ps 66:18).  The prophet Isaiah concurred: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.  But your iniquities [sins] have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isa 59:1-2).

“Clearly God maintains the right to withhold answers to our prayers.  It is an offront for us to sin against him, then brazenly expect him to respond unreservedly to our prayers.  He gives us fair warning: “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you, yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.  Your hands are covered with blood” (Isa 1:15).  God’s silence sends a strong message: we should examine our lives to ensure no sin is provoking him to remain silent.

“The Bible singles out a particular sin that impedes our prayer life.  That is the sin of broken relationships.  God obviously places relationships at a high priority, for Jesus said, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (Matt 5:23-24).  Likewise Peter stressed the importance of harmony within the sacred marriage relationship: “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (1 Pet 3:7 NASB).

“Jesus talked often about relationships.  He also spoke at length about forgiveness.  He taught his disciples to pray: “And forgive our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt 6:12).  Jesus said our standard of forgiveness will be the standard by which God measures us.  At the close of the Lord’s prayer, Jesus explained: “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well.  But if you don’t forgive people, then your heavenly Father will not forgive your wrongdoing” (Matt 6:14-15).  Where there is silence from heaven when we pray, we should carefully examine our relationships.

(Hearing God’s Voice, Henry and Richard Blackaby, Nashville TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002, pp. 129-130)

Answered prayer vs. random chance or human intervention

July 1, 2008 From d-C