THE BLESSING OF UNANSWERED PRAYER
Answered prayer is the stuff of soul-winning testimonies, monthly prayer letters, and shout-outs to God. Happy Christians tell of God?s miraculous answers to desperate prayers for cancer to be beaten back, cold-hearted parents to warm to Christ, and financial troubles to disappear. These all are witnesses of God?s goodness to His children, witnesses for those who do not yet know Him to consider following Him.
And yet I wonder if we are neglecting the importance and blessing of unanswered prayer. The subject is called to mind by a book I am reading about the amazing life stories of twelve indigenous missionaries in Third World countries. Chapter after chapter is full of awesome experiences of God?s deliverance, provision, and victory amidst hardship, poverty, and opposition. Certainly, when God?s people take steps of faith to be sold out for Him and for the work of spreading His gospel, He hooks them up.
But amidst these victories are also stories of defeat. Missionary couples lose their infant children. Some are falsely accused of fraud. Others are banned from the villages they had enjoyed ministry success by defensive religious groups. I am sure that these people prayed ? for their child not to die of malaria, for their names to be cleared of wrongdoing, for the opportunity to share the gospel in the village they feel they have been called to. And yet God chose not to answer those prayers. Still, His work continued through their lives.
It is a witness of God?s goodness for Him to answer our prayers. But it is also a witness of God?s goodness for His people to follow Him even when He doesn?t answer our prayers. It speaks highly of God to nonbelievers when He heals and provides and blesses. But it also speaks highly of God to nonbelievers when His people continue to raise their hands in worship when He doesn?t heal or provide or bless, indeed when He takes away and decimates and withholds.
I think of the ?hall of faith? in Hebrews 11. Here was a group who merited God?s every favor. These were men and women who lived by faith, whose lives of faith honored God. And yet in the things that mattered most to these people, the things I imagine they prayed for the most frequently and fervently, God did not answer any of those prayers. He chose not to answer their prayers.
Like for the folks in Hebrews 11, I imagine God still is in the business of not answering our prayers. It is not out of ignorance, or malice, or apathy. Like in Hebrews 11, He has greater plans for our lives, plans that are greater than our lives themselves. May we pray passionately and consistently for the things on our hearts. And may we praise God when He answers those prayers. And may we praise Him when He doesn?t.
Answered prayer is the stuff of soul-winning testimonies, monthly prayer letters, and shout-outs to God. Happy Christians tell of God?s miraculous answers to desperate prayers for cancer to be beaten back, cold-hearted parents to warm to Christ, and financial troubles to disappear. These all are witnesses of God?s goodness to His children, witnesses for those who do not yet know Him to consider following Him.
And yet I wonder if we are neglecting the importance and blessing of unanswered prayer. The subject is called to mind by a book I am reading about the amazing life stories of twelve indigenous missionaries in Third World countries. Chapter after chapter is full of awesome experiences of God?s deliverance, provision, and victory amidst hardship, poverty, and opposition. Certainly, when God?s people take steps of faith to be sold out for Him and for the work of spreading His gospel, He hooks them up.
But amidst these victories are also stories of defeat. Missionary couples lose their infant children. Some are falsely accused of fraud. Others are banned from the villages they had enjoyed ministry success by defensive religious groups. I am sure that these people prayed ? for their child not to die of malaria, for their names to be cleared of wrongdoing, for the opportunity to share the gospel in the village they feel they have been called to. And yet God chose not to answer those prayers. Still, His work continued through their lives.
It is a witness of God?s goodness for Him to answer our prayers. But it is also a witness of God?s goodness for His people to follow Him even when He doesn?t answer our prayers. It speaks highly of God to nonbelievers when He heals and provides and blesses. But it also speaks highly of God to nonbelievers when His people continue to raise their hands in worship when He doesn?t heal or provide or bless, indeed when He takes away and decimates and withholds.
I think of the ?hall of faith? in Hebrews 11. Here was a group who merited God?s every favor. These were men and women who lived by faith, whose lives of faith honored God. And yet in the things that mattered most to these people, the things I imagine they prayed for the most frequently and fervently, God did not answer any of those prayers. He chose not to answer their prayers.
Like for the folks in Hebrews 11, I imagine God still is in the business of not answering our prayers. It is not out of ignorance, or malice, or apathy. Like in Hebrews 11, He has greater plans for our lives, plans that are greater than our lives themselves. May we pray passionately and consistently for the things on our hearts. And may we praise God when He answers those prayers. And may we praise Him when He doesn?t.
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