Pastor's Message

November 2003

Unanswered prayer has always been a stumbling block for Christians. The Psalmist tells us that God always hears the prayer of the faithful (Psalm 66:20 - Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.) and Jesus simply tells us "Ask and you shall receive (Mt 21:22, John 16:24.)." And so, when we pray fervently for something and we do not receive it, we are troubled. We start to question ourselves with questions like, "Am I so bad that God refuses to answer my prayer?" or maybe thoughts like "Maybe God doesn't love me, so he doesn't hear my prayer." But then Scripture also tells us that God is always more ready to forgive than we are ready to repent and that God loves all people - the whole WORLD - so that leaves us with some questions as well.

An article I read recently suggested that we might deal more usefully with this problem if we could think about how a loving father would respond to our requests, and then knowing that God loves us even more than a loving father or mother, we might begin to understand how God answers our prayers. I had a good father, a very good father, and so I thought that was a good starting point for some reflection.

First of all, my father, and my God, often answer with a simple yes. I can hardly remember all the times my father said yes to my "reasonable" requests - and I can hardly count the number of times God has said yes to my prayers. This is the mark of a loving relationship between a parent and child.

But sometimes Dad would say no. Some requests were just not "reasonable." Each of us, as a child, asked for things that our parents couldn’t give us—sometimes for our own good. As adults we sometimes make unreasonable requests of God as well, things that just won’t fit in with God’s plan, and the only possible answer is “no.”

Sometimes the answer is "not yet." "Can I have a puppy?" The answer was yes, but we had to find the right one. Any old dog wouldn't fit on our farm, and any old dog wouldn't be just right for me. Can you remember sometimes praying for something, only to receive it at a later time?

And sometimes the answer was “No, we have something better for you.” As a child we might ask to visit a friend and our parents would say no because we have someplace better to go. I think that God sometimes answers our prayer for healing that way. We may not receive healing from an illness because God has something better for us.

Sometimes the answer had to be, "What do you really want?" My parents must have had that thought when I began playing musical instruments. First I wanted a trombone. Four years later it was a string bass. A year later it was a tuba. I can just imagine my parents beginning to think, "I wish this kid would make up his mind." Jesus confronted some people with this very question. In Matthew 20:32, two blind men called out to Jesus and he answered them saying, "What do you want?" Are you clear when you pray to God? Do you really know what you want? Or do you just want God to solve your problems? When we pray, we have to be clear, first of all, by knowing what it is that we really want.

And then there is another consideration – we need to cooperate with God. It is a little like asking our parents for something, and then getting the answer, "Yes, just as soon as..." Maybe the simplest illustration would be, "Can I have some ice cream?" "Sure, just as soon as you clean your plate." Sometimes it was more complicated: "Can I stay after school and join the soccer team?" "Yes, just remember you still have to feed the chickens when you get home." I am convinced that God expects our cooperation, our commitment, our willingness "to work with Him" so that he can answer our prayers. This is not to say that we "earn" God's response. God freely gives. But we need to do our part, we need to honor our commitment. If we don't clean our plate, how can God give us our dessert? If we cannot honor our commitment to God, how can we even be ready to receive God's blessings?

I believe that God answers our prayers, all our prayers. God may not give the answer we want, or as quickly as we would like, but we can trust God to answer our prayers. And we can trust that God’s answer will really be the best answer for each one of us.