I enjoy reading
the mail
that comes to us about
articles in this journal. It is interesting to see how people react to
what we write. In the November/December 2009 issue we had an article
titled “God’s Role in Relationships” in which we talked about how God
works in the lives of His children to bring people together. We have
had more mail on that article than any article in recent history. What
is interesting to me is how many people reacted to the discussion on
page six about the history of my prayer life. I have always tried to be
transparent in the articles I have written in this journal, and here is
what I said:The notion that praying for a new person to love would solve my problem rang pretty hollow with me. Call it lack of faith, call it lack of trust, call it hypocrisy — whatever accusation you might want to throw at me — I did not believe that God would bring me someone else or in any way impact my relationships. In the past when we had been faced with major problems in life praying never seemed to help. When our baby Tim was born with congenital problems we prayed and our friends prayed that he would not be blind, but he is blind. We accepted that and prayed that he would not be mentally challenged, but he is severely mentally challenged. We then prayed to help us accept the blindness and the retardation but that there be no other problems. We then found he had a form of muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and schizophrenia. I battled my way through all of that, maintaining my faith in God, but becoming rather cynical about God answering specific prayers for specific needs. In my wife’s many struggles with the complications of juvenile diabetes we prayed fervently that the problems would go away, but they never did. In all of these cases what I prayed for never happened directly, but in all of these cases I found an answer that allowed me to cope with the problem and move on. The meaning of 1 Corinthians 10:13 became a part of my thinking — that God gives a way of escape that can prevent breaking if we choose to accept it, but that He does not always take away or provide direct solutions to the problem we are facing (2 Corinthians 12:8 – 9; 2 Corinthians 1:3 – 6, 9).The mail that came in on that paragraph was massive. Many believers expressed their own experiences which were similar. A number of atheists and skeptics stated the view that this was a clear proof that there is no God and I was too biased to see it. The bottom line here is that there is a need to understand why God does not answer prayers. Why should there ever be a “no” from God on a sincere request? After all did not Jesus say, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13 – 14, NIV). He also said, “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; and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7 – 8, NIV). Why would God not say “yes” and allow me to have a child who was not blind, who was not mentally challenged, and who was not impaired by muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy?
In James
4:3 we
are told that sometimes when we pray we do not receive because we “ask
amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures” (ASV). I do not think
any of us struggle with this one. We know that praying for a solid gold
BMW is not a prayer that is likely or logically to be answered in a
positive way. Sometimes what we construe as an essential is a luxury,
and that also falls into this category. Rational human beings can
accept that God would not and should not pass out positive responses to
every human whim.
This is
another obvious point. Galatians
6:7 makes a promise “Do not be
deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (NIV). People
cannot abuse their bodies with drugs and alcohol year after year and
then expect to be able to pray to God and not suffer the long term
consequences of that abuse. Hebrews
9:27 tells us
that we are each
promised that we will die. To expect God to void that promise is
inconsistent, and yet death can be incredibly difficult for those left
behind. If we understand that death is a transition and not an end, the
whole picture of death changes because God makes positive promises
about death to those who serve Him. God is not voiding His promise to
answer prayer when He denies a request that would void another promise
He has made.
In 2
Corinthians
12:7 Paul talks about a “thorn in the flesh” which he had prayed
three
times that God would remove , but the answer was “No.” Paul says that
the reason was “lest I should be exalted above measure” (KJV). The TCNT
translation says “to prevent me from thinking too highly of myself.”
The message is that sometimes we ask for things that are not good for
us, or ask to be free of things that will help us be better and more
useful to God.
friends. I see nothing
in logic or
scripture that
says that God caused Tim’s problems. In fact, I know his difficulties
came from the actions of irresponsible adults. (Tim is an adopted child
whose biological mother had measles and did not seek medical care.) The
fact is that I prayed fervently and with other Christians that Tim
would not be victimized by all of this, but he was born blind, mentally
challenged, with muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and schizophrenia.
I have been molded by all of this. I am a different person. I did not
ask to be a different person, and I would rather not have been changed.
However, the few strengths I have came mainly from the molding that Tim
brought to me.
In Matthew
26:39 we
see an obvious case of God not answering prayer. Jesus Christ is facing
crucifixion, and He knows what is about to happen. In anguish He cries
out to God, “O my Father, … let this cup pass from me”(KJV). Jesus
clearly states He wants to avoid dying on the cross, and the
surrounding verses tell us He prayed this over and over (see verses 42
and 44). We are also told in each of these petitions Jesus adds
“Yet I
pray, not what I want but you want” (Williams). Jesus knew God had a
higher purpose for what He was about to endure.
You go to the dentist and you get a
novocaine shot.
Why? Because thirty seconds of the needle is better than what seems
like three hours of the drill. How much will anything that happens in
this life mean in the context of eternity? You have a purpose for
existing — a reason to be. God does not create junk, and He has a
purpose for every life. God has also promised to take even the evil,
bad things that come from Satan and make good things come from them
(Romans
8:28). He has
given us the option of rejecting that purpose and
living selfishly, but He will not assist us in doing so. Life is not
always easy, and prayers can be made for anything. When we become angry
with God because He does not grant our requests, we are forgetting why
we are here. When we accuse God of ignoring our prayers, we are turning
to selfish desires that revolve around ourselves. We look instead at
the eternal purpose we have in Christ Jesus as described in Ephesians
3:11.Back to Contents Does God Exist?, JulAug10.