What a tough question. We pray. God answers. I’d stake my life on it. Maybe you agree. But does that mean God gives us carte blanche when we pray?
Believers love to say, “Prayer is powerful” and “Prayer works.” I beg to differ. This may sound like semantics, but I’d rather proclaim this:
“God is powerful” and “God works.”
The Bible clearly states, again and again, that God answers prayer. Here are a few favorite examples:
“I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1, NIV)
“The Lord is close to all who call on Him, yes, to all who call on him in truth." (Psalm 145:18. NLT)
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8, ESV)
“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:22, NKJV)
“And whatever you ask in My Name, this I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13, NASB)
“If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7, KJV)
“This is what I want you to do: Ask the Father for whatever is in keeping with the things I’ve revealed to you. Ask in My Name, according to My will, and He’ll most certainly give it to you. Your joy will be like a river overflowing its banks!” (John 16:23-24, MSG)
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20, NLT)
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14, NIV)
These are wonderful promises from our faithful God, and we take great comfort in them. We find assurance for our faith, and we persist in praying. Even so, can’t we all point to instances in our own lives (and those of our loved ones), when God’s answer was entirely different that what we thought we’d asked Him for?
Consider these biblical examples of God’s seemingly surprising answers to faithful prayers.
The Apostle Paul prayed several times for relief, but God let his suffering last.
What was the thorn in the flesh that pestered Paul (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.)? Bible scholars differ on this. Some have suggested it was a physical ailment, such as vision loss (See Galatians 4:14) or even optic neuritis (perhaps from multiple sclerosis). Additional experts have alleged he might have had epilepsy.
Others have proposed Paul suffered in another manner. Whatever the cause of the Apostle’s woes, God let his struggle persist for reasons of His own.
Lazarus’ sisters begged for his healing, but he actually died.
When Jesus received a message that his special friend had fallen gravely ill (See John 11.), the Lord did not rush to heal him. Lazarus died. Sisters Mary and Martha questioned Jesus’ devotion for their brother. Then He worked a wondrous miracle, calling Lazarus out of his grave.
God did not grant Mary’s heart-wrenching prayers at the foot of her son’s cross.
Mary stood at Golgotha with Mary Magdalene and John (See John 19:24-26.), watching her son endure a torturous death. Surely she begged the Father to rescue Jesus from this agonizing fate. But God allowed the Savior to complete the work He had taken on flesh to do.
Had He not, none of us would be here to ponder the complexities of answered prayer at all.
The previous evening, God did not sway over His holy Son’s blood-sweating prayer in Gethsemane.
Jesus wrestled so hard in prayer on the night He was to be arrested and sentenced to die that His sweat fell as drops of blood in the famous garden near Jerusalem (See Matthew 26:36-46 and Luke 22:40-46.). “Not My will, but Yours,” he called to His Father, submitting to the original plan, which led through His suffering to our ultimate redemption.
Sometimes a “No” answer from God actually leads to a bigger “Yes.”
Why do we try to fence God in, prescribing how He ought to respond to our pleas? And why do we try to explain away His answers, when they don’t come in the flavor we’d like? We even try to blame those who struggle and suffer, as if God might treat their prayers differently if they weren’t somehow at fault. It’s heartless and unscriptural to critique others’ faith, based on how God answers their prayers.
“Name it and claim it” doesn’t exactly hold water, if God is truly sovereign. And He is.
Maybe … just maybe … when we place our prayers before the throne of the Lord of Lords, we’d do well to leave them there.
Bear with me: I’m preaching to the mirror here, as I often must do.
Do I earnestly believe He is willing and able to answer in the best way of all?
Am I trusting Him for all that is to come?
When I say, “Thy will be done,” do we really mean, “My will be done”?
Amen means “So be it.” May I learn to let it be so.
Related items:
- Feeling
a little scarred, spilled, and scratched this week
- God’s best always flies past counterfeits that are merely good
- Maybe
worry isn’t all bad
- Ouch! Why do we grieve grievers with tacky questions?
Image/s: From Devotions, Ernst Nowak (1851-1919), public domain photo
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