How can you promise “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). And then not follow through with me?
How could Jesus say "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."(Matthew 21:21-22) And then not answer my prayer?
Why is it that I pray and pray and pray and get others to pray and pray and pray and yet I'm still be here, in this dark place. Have I not asked enough? Have I not repented enough? Do I not believe enough? Am I not your child too?
Why do prayers for healing go unanswered? Here are some of the reason which have been suggested to me. Some helpful, some extremely unhelpful.
1. Unconfessed sin
Isaiah 59: 1-2 “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
2. Lack of fellowship with Jesus
John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
3. Wrong motives
James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
4. Prayers not in accordance with God’s will
1 John 5:14-15 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."
5. Lack of Faith
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
James 1:6-8 “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
6. Lack of Perseverance
Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Luke 18 The Parable of the Persistent Widow “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
7. To show God’s mercy
Once when Jesus was asked whose sins caused a man’s blindness, He said "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life”. John 9:3
8. Refinement
John 15:1-2 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
Isaiah 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything
9. I have absolutely no idea!
What about reasons that are completely beyond our understanding. (This is the one I tend to favour). Who am I to even begin to demand an explanation from the creator of the universe?
Job 38: 1-2 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.”
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1 comment:
Firstly, Hi Jill! Welcome to the blogosphere.
Secondly, the inevitable link that will get attached to my nick goes to my old blog, so heres a link to my current one.
Thirdly, prayer is a struggle for all. I have my own reasons for that. One thing I have learnt is that prayer is about faith. I believe that the only things promised to us are:
1) God listens, because he cares
2) God will answer, some way or another.
Of those passages you mention, Jesus doesn't give us God's timeframe in which he answers prayer. While it's reasonable for someone to ask me when a project I'm doing will get done, God doesn't normally operate that way. I have cried many days and nights on many things, and not received. Or perhaps, as I'm trying to say, maybe I will not receive yet? I know not when my mind will be released from this earthly curse, but I'm going to keep asking about it. Perhaps years on I will see and realise that at last my prayers have been answered? Who knows? I know that I cannot give the answers God only can give, I can only repeat what he keeps telling me - trust him and do his will. Do I trust him enough to wait 5 years? Do I trust him enough to wait 20 years? Do I trust him enough to wait for the rest of my life and more? Do I have that kind of patience? Or maybe he wants me to. In the end, all we know is what we have now, and what there will be when our Lord returns. In between, you just have to do the best you can.
Jason
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