When God fails to answer!

Second last time, we looked at the kind of prayer that "works". I shared that if we are to receive positive answers, then our asking, seeking, and knocking, must be true prayer! 

This time, I wish to add to that! One of the old hymns with which I was raised, has the lines : "Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer". If that hymn were to be sung today, I would stop singing for that part!

I confess to being just a little bit irritated when I read, or hear, that "God answered my/our prayer". You see, there is, I would contend, a corollary to that statement. If I have to state that God answered my prayer on this particular occasion, I must be implying that, on other occasions, He failed to do so!

Is this true? Are there occasions on which He ignores my prayers, even as they are made, sincerely, and with no thought of personal benefit, in the name of the Lord Jesus?!

Permit me to suggest an analogy. Imagine that one of my children, still attending Primary School, had come to me with a request: "Dad, please may I have the keys to your car so that some friends and I can go out for a drive?" Well, as a loving father, I would obviously reply: "Yes, darling, of course. They're hanging up at the back door." Would I? I might respond with: "No. You are much too young; you have no driving experience; you haven't got a licence; you are not insured. Perhaps when you are a lot older, I'll allow you to borrow the family car." 

This would not be the response that she wanted - but I would have answered her request! I would not simply have walked away and ignored her.

Or, imagine that she came to me, at 18 years of age, now old enough, and qualified, to drive a car, and asked: "Dad, may I have £50 so that my friends and I can buy some non-medical drugs, and enjoy ourselves?" In such a scenario, my response would have been: "No! Not now, not ever. I have seen what substance abuse does to a person, and I will never be party to you behaving in such a way." Once again, the answer would not have been what she wanted - but I would have answered!

The Almighty God to Whom I pray, is also my loving heavenly Father. Indeed, the love that I have for my own biological children is but a faint shadow of the love that He has for me. And, just as I looked beyond the (imaginary!) requests of my child and, from my greater knowledge and life experience denied her - temporarily, or permanently - her request, so my Father, from His infinite knowledge, denies me many of the things for which I ask. 

Someone has described His answers to prayer to a set of traffic-lights. Sometimes the light is red - STOP! This is a total "n0-no"! On other occasions the light is amber. Be ready to go, but don't move just yet. Praise His name, there are times when the light is at green - and we may move forward with confidence that we are in His will.

So, next time you pray a prayer of intercession (and don't forget that real prayer includes praise and thanksgiving) and don't receive the answer that you wanted, and expected, look more deeply and realise that your prayer has not been unanswered, but answered by One Who loves you with an everlasting love, and Who always has your best interests at heart. Seek, always, to walk more closely to Him. Then you will discover that there are more and more "green lights", as you are in His will, and doing that which He has planned for you to do.

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (I Thess. 5:16-18).

Please pray for me.

It's been too long since I last published a post on my blog! In fact, I haven't done so since last year!! So, safely back home, and having caught up on a lot of other essentials, it's time to do some serious work. The subject of this post is the very important one of prayer.

The apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, asked his Christian friends in the great Roman metropolis to pray for him: "I appeal to you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company." (Rom 15:30-32).

Paul asked these fellow-believers in the capital city of the Roman Empire to join with him in prayer as he anticipated his visit to Jerusalem with the contributions he had gathered from Gentile (non-Jewish) believers. He not only needed deliverance from hostile opponents, but desired also that his service among the saints of God (i.e. every one who has come to Father God in repentance, and faith, accepting the salvation so graciously offered through the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus at Calvary) would be acceptable. He fully believed that the Lord works when His people spend time in earnest intercession for others. He then expected that he would be able to joyfully travel to Rome and find further refreshment in the company of the disciples of Jesus who dwelt there.

The whole story is recorded in Acts 21:17 - 28:16, but you must look that up, and read it in a Bible, as it is too much for me to put into a post! Things didn't work out quite as Paul had expected! However, what we must emphasise is that he submits himself, with his whole being, to the sovereign will of Almighty God for life, and death, and eternity. That is why he writes "... by God's will ..."!

One day, a humble labourer was on his knees smashing stones on an anvil, when his pastor came by. Impressed by the man's untiring effort, the pastor exclaimed, "John, how I wish that that I could break hard hearts the way you break those stones!" John immediately responded: "You can, pastor - but you must do it on your knees."! Every disciple of Jesus who longs to be truly effective in touching lives for the Master, must learn this lesson - a lesson that is not easy to learn!

Intercessory prayer is a wonderful source of strength and encouragement to those who are brought to the Throne of Grace. One minister of the Gospel records that one of the greatest blessings he ever received came at the bedside of an elderly, and infirm, woman whom he had visited. After he had prayed with her, she placed her hand on his and said: "Now, pastor, let me pray for you." She did so and, then informed him that she had been faithfully praying for him for the past ten years! He left that home greatly renewed in his own spirit.

A Scandinavian pastor preached before a congregation to which my wife and I belonged, many many years ago. I regret to have to confess that I remember little of his message. However, what I do recall is of great importance, as he encouraged us to specifically inform brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus when we were praying for them! What we might term "the other side of that coin" is that, like Paul, we should not be hesitant in asking fellow-believers to pray for us!

A final thought for this post. In his commentary on the great Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus, Raymond Brown makes this heart-searching statement: "To be prayerless is to be guilty of the worst form of practical atheism." Someone else has written, conversely, that the best way of influencing others for God, is to uphold them, in prayer, before God!

Please pray for me!

The most wonderful places to be!

Facebook, and my former pupils, are definitely providing a lot of thought-provoking material, this week.  The latest one, on a background of a sweet little girl sitting on a wooden fence - and with a cat (with its back to us!) sitting beside her, says:

"The most wonderful places to be in the world are: In someone's thoughts. Someone's prayers. And in Someone's heart." (sic)

As I read those words, I thought of how they apply to the God Who loves us with an everlasting love.

I am in  God's thoughts.  The Psalmist writes: "As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord takes thought for me.  Thou art my help and my deliverer; do not tarry, O my God!" (Ps 40:17).   Every child of God is always before the mind of the eternal God. With all the attention and focus of His divine mind He contemplates each one of His children. There is no forgetting and then remembering. There is no calling to mind. What a wonderful truth! Our thoughts of God are often too small. The eternal God never ceases to think about us.  I am not only in "someone's" thoughts.  As a disciple of Jesus, I am constantly in the thoughts of Almighty God.

I am in God's prayers.  That may sound strange to some.  However, the writer of the Letter to Jewish believers, referring to the Lord Jesus, writes: "The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but He holds His priesthood permanently, because He continues for ever. Consequently He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." (Heb 7:23-25; emphasis added).

The Lord Jesus is constantly interceding, praying, on my behalf and, since He is God, then I am assured that I am in God's prayers.

I am in God's heart.  The heart is usually used as a picture of the seat of one's emotions.  The greatest, and strongest, emotion is love.  When we illustrate love, graphically, we use a drawing of a heart - witness countless shop windows in this run-up to the Feast day of St Valentine!  John 3:16 tells me that "... God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  I am the object of God's eternal, unconditional, unparalleled, love - therefore, I know that I am in His heart (anthropomorphically speaking!).

Now, I am blessed to be in the thoughts, prayers, and hearts, of a number of people; and I appreciate each and every one of them.  However, my greatest joy, my hope, and my confidence is that I am in the thoughts, prayers, and heart of Almighty God - my Creator and Saviour.

Are you?