Dear God, Thank You For Not Answering My Prayer
Does God ignore certain prayer requests? We know that He hears the prayers of His people, but how many times have you brought certain petitions before the Lord and then, when the results you hoped for-even expected-did not occur, you became angry and assumed that God was disregarding you? How can you know whether your prayers align with God's will? What role does unconfessed sin play in communicating with God and His responses? These are some of the many thought-provoking questions we will explore throughout this book.Prayer is one of the most important aspects of our Christian life, yet many of us become discouraged, disappointed and disheartened regarding the quality of our prayer lives. We may become angry when a prayer is not answered according to what we think we need. We have no difficulty in proclaiming God's sovereignty to others, while personally finding it tough to accept that God knows what is best. Often we may even find ourselves desperate and depressed, crying out to the Lord for deliverance...yet He seems to send none. What must we do? Rather than become upset or angry, we should evaluate the circumstances regarding our communion with God and meditate on His Word. First Corinthians 10:13 promises that God will not give us more than we can bear: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it! ." Unfortunately, when we feel like we are coming apart at the seams, and it appears that there is no way out, we find it much easier to focus on our surroundings than to saturate our minds with the many expressions of love and concern such as this that God reveals in His Word.As we view this subject of unanswered prayer, we must look at two issues: first, whether our request is Bible-based, aligning with God's perfect plan for us; and second, whether we have prayed diligently enough. Too often we pray only once regarding certain situations and give up after a short time because we regard the lack of an immediate response as a signal that God is ignoring our request. Our prayers must graduate to a level of urgency! Prayer should illustrate an "I-can-do-nothing-without-You" attitude to the Lord. We show our complete reliance on Him when we pray. In essence, our prayers demonstrate that we believe without a shadow of a doubt that He is "...able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20). If we give up after bringing our request before the Lord only a handful of times, then we must ask ourselves how important this request was in the first place.While we should pray without ceasing (1st Thessalonians 5:17) and pray diligently and fervently, we must never forget that God is not a vending machine, nor is He a genie. He is Almighty God! For example, contrary to the teaching from certain pulpits, we cannot demand that God take away our debt in the name of Jesus; however, we can pray that the Lord would help us become better stewards of all that He has given to us. We cannot command the Lord to change our financial status; however, we can ask the Lord to "give us this day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3). See the difference? Which prayer do you think brings God the most glory?You are about to enter into the lives of many great men of God who made requests of the Lord, requests that He chose to deny for His reason, His purpose, and ultimately, His glory. You may identify with some of these circumstances, but what is more important, we pray that these character studies will help you better understand why some prayers are answered and others are not. You will also learn that it is more important to look at the big picture and see that the way things turn out is usually better than we expect! The content of Dear God, Thank You For Not Answering My Prayer will remind you that God's plans are perfect, while our idea of what we feel we need is imperfect. The Lord knows what is best for us, we need only trust Him.It is our prayer that you will be encouraged, edified and exhorted as you continue to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call!