In December on our Facebook page, we asked you to share about unanswered prayers. I was amazed at the diversity of your comments. Thus is born this series I hope will shed some light for all of us so we can keep persevering in prayer…and believing. Also, if you haven't had a chance to read the weekend devotional, you might want to read "Did Abraham Forget?" as a precursor to this post. Not required, just suggested. 🙂
Unanswered prayers…what do we do about them? I’m sure you have at least one. And you most likely wonder why God doesn’t seem to hear or answer it. That may be how we feel, but I’m discovering that it’s not the truth.
First, about the hearing part. Look at Psalm 17:6. God showed me this verse twice in one day as I prayed over how to approach this series, so this is where we need to start. We need to believe God hears us. We need to trust that God hears us.
"I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as pray." (NLT)
I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. (NIV)
As a writer, words have a tendency to capture my attention-their meaning and order. The first part of this verse affirms the truth. The Psalmist doesn’t start with the request to be heard but first states the truth, that he will not only be heard by God but answered as well.
Throughout Exodus, God heard the grumblings of the Israelites over and over again. In fact, throughout the Bible, we see God telling his people over and over again, “I have heard you.”
So lets establish that though it may seem God doesn’t hear us, He does. Some may argue that unforgiven or habitual sins block communication. That may be true of us hearing God, but I don’t believe it incapacitates God’s ability to hear us. We’re the ones clogging the communication pipe.
Now, with that established, let’s explore our faith in terms of prayer. The act of prayer is also an act of faith. Just like the Psalmist starts his prayer with affirming the truth that God will hear him. This is an act of faith.
We believe God is a good God (again, the Bible affirms this over and over again, contrary to what some might say. Find out for yourself by reading it!). First John 4 particularly speaks of God’s love, namely that he loved us first. Soak that in a minute, because I believe it is critical to a Christian’s ongoing faith walk. We must believe God loves us and always has our best interest at heart.
Not only that, He has the big picture. He knows our past, our present, and our future. He knows what we will face down the road, and he knows what we will need to do it. And not just for us, but for others as well. And if you haven’t discovered now intertwined we are as the body of Christ, you will at some point. Of that I have no doubt.
Let me give you an example. Years ago I wanted to start a women’s ministry at my church with another person, who I thought would be perfect for it. Yet when I prayed about it, God remained mysteriously silent. He’d been pretty clear about starting it, so why was he not saying anything now?
The answer came a few weeks later when this person I thought was perfect to partner with me turned away from her faith and walked away from the church. How could I have missed that coming? Based on past and present interaction with this person, I thought it was a done deal.
But God knew the future. He knew what potentially could happen. And until this person made her decision of the path she would choose (sadly), He could not tell me to move forward.
In other words, this situation wasn’t just about me. Another person’s decisions and choices played into the picture. And to move sooner might have had tragic results. Instead of a ministry that’s still thriving today, it could have been tarnished and failed.
So I present this question to you as the first part of this series about unanswered prayers. Ask yourself this and pray about it:
“Is it possible that God hasn’t answered my prayer for or about ___________, because He is accomplishing something else in this person or situation that is critical to how my prayer is to be answered?”
Come back next week for part two of this series. I hope you’ll share what God reveals to you in answer to your question.
Praying and believing,
Dineen
Leave a Reply