We pray expecting God to fulfill our requests. But often it just does not work that way. This may come as a shock if you believe in the prosperity gospel of health, wealth and material blessings.
Faith is trusting God in spite of whatever the outcome.
No healing.
No escape from pain, suffering and death.
No respite from the chaos of life.
How does prayer work if God is not our “cosmic errand boy”?
Maybe the function of prayer is not to get what you think you need but to change the way you see.
I don’t doubt that God can preform miracles or heal but I question the one sided view of prayer as a way to get what we want.
Prayer as a way of finding strength in weakness
Read the story of the Apostle Paul’s prayer for healing for his “thorn in the flesh” and the answer he received in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV below. For context start reading from 2 Corinthians 10 onwards where Paul is defending himself against false apostles.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
My own journey and experience grappling with “unanswered prayer” has led me to question God, my faith and my assumptions about prayer.
Here’s what I have discovered:
- God works in His own time and so things will take longer to come to pass.
- Our human mind is only able to grasp a limited perspective of time and what happens to us. We can’t see the big picture.
- Living with a materialistic worldview, our emphasis is on the here and now and we try to gain as much stuff as we can.
- The prosperity gospel teaching on prayer fits perfectly with this fairytale narrative that says that our sole purpose of being is to live happily ever after.
- So when God does not answer your prayer the way you think He should, you begin to doubt His goodness and question your faith.
We need to grow up in our faith journey and learn that God’s love and presence is there with us even when He is silent. He is with us when we walk though the valley of the shadow of death. Read Psalm 23.
We need to challenge our ideas, assumptions and expectations about God, faith and how we should negotiate the challenges life throws at us. Are these ideas based on scripture, thousands of years of Jewish and Christian tradition and do they align with your personal experience?
The Blessing of Unanswered Prayer by Anonymous
I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I had asked for,
but eveything that I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
I am enough
Whatever is in your path, remember, God’s grace is sufficient and you are enough, no matter what the outcome.
Exodus 