Unanswered prayers are not just Christian voodoo gone wrong . . .

Dear friends and faithful prayer partners,

Just in case you have not seen it yet, there is almost without exception an elephant in the room every time the subject of prayer comes up.

I am not talking about the doubt, either. Most anyone I know that prays believes that God hears them; but the big question is does He really care enough to do something about it?

Why should he, the silent argument goes, He already knows my requests before I even say the words: “Lord, help me, I’ve got some real problems.”

So, the reasoning goes, if He already knows and He loves me, why make me beg?
Well, first of all in reply, asking and begging are two different things. Asking is reasonable; whereas, begging is usually an unwillingness to accept 'no' as an answer or just plain selfishness clothed in the language of prayer.

James addresses this aspect quite well, he writes:

“And when you do ask he doesn’t give it to you, for you ask in quite the wrong spirit—you only want to satisfy your own desires.” [James 4:3 Phillips trans.]

The Christian philosopher and apologists William Craig illustrates this quite well when he writes,

"If we are ruthlessly honest with ourselves, every one of us knows that sometimes God does not answer our prayers." [Indeed, he continues, sometimes God] "cannot answer our prayers because Christians are praying for contradictory things."

He then asks us to imagine:

 "two Christian athletes playing on opposite sides in the Super Bowl . . . . Each would naturally be disposed to pray that his team would win, and yet both prayers could not be answered, for the two athletes would be praying for contradictory results."

The better prayer would be to ask for clarity of thought so that they could play their best games.

Ah, Jim, that’s too technical, you say, I need a better answer than that. Well, I’m not saying that this is the only reason, just a very common reason that our prayers are not answered.

Another good reason is that our prayers are often in conflict with the order of things. Let’s face it, there are some things just too big for God to change. For Him to do so would be a violation of His will and purposes. God can, but He won’t wipe out any and everything that opposes His purposes. No, in His wisdom He has decreed freedom which includes a choice to do evil—as in Satan’s case and Adam’s as well as ours.

So, brace yourself. As long as Satan and his cohorts (including, of course, evil men) are free to roam this planet we will face the formidable force of the powers of evil. That also means, disappointingly, at times that God may choose for us to weather the storm. The storms of war, of disease, injustice, all the storms of life. At other times He may step in and right the wrong. In each and ever event, however, He know what is best for us. So, in the midst of each storm there is hope. Hope of a better day. Hope for a bright tomorrow. And, there is the assurance of His undying love for us.

There is also confidence. The confidence of knowing that whatever comes our way is with the clear understanding that:

“[We] know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. God, in his foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of his Son, that he might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose them long ago; when the time came he called them, he made them righteous in his sight, and then lifted them to the splendor of life as his own sons.” [Romans 28-30 Phillips trans.]

Sometimes, as Garth Brooks sang, we should thank God for unanswered prayers! How many times do we all remember that we desperately prayed for something—perhaps, that some young man or girl would take a shine to us, only to find out years later that what looked so good on the outside was rotten on the inside?

So, take heart and wise up. We need to pray, because we are commanded to do so and then take it for granted that God always knows what is best for us.

Let us therefore pray, knowing that He hears us and since,

“We have such confidence in him that we are certain that he hears every request that is made in accord with his own plan. And since we know that he invariably gives his attention to our prayers, whatever they are about, we can be quite sure that our prayers will be answered.” [1 John 5: 14-15 Phillips trans.]

And, that's Bible!

Yours For A Greater End Time Harvest,

P.S. Please continue to pray for and support our ministry in the former Soviet Union and in Southern Asia.