We love stories about answered prayer. We get a thrill hearing accounts of God’s miraculous interventions in people’s lives, right? It motivates us to be more diligent about prayer, so we pray. We’re specific, confident, and bold. We’re absolutely convinced God will answer. We feel a level of faith and enthusiasm that we've never experienced before. We ask, seek and knock…but God is silent. The thing that we wanted does not materialize. Our zeal is crushed and we wonder, "What happened?"
We ask ourselves and God: “Is it worth it?” “Did I do something wrong?” “Does God even hear me?” “Does He care?” Cable television mogul Ted Turner, who is now one of the loudest voices criticizing Christianity, said he had a strict Christian upbringing. He even considered becoming a missionary at one point in his life. The Atlanta Journal Constitution quoted him as saying that he was saved seven or eight times in his life. But he said he became disenchanted with Christianity when despite his prayers that she would get well, his sister still died.
God’s “No” is not just limited to those who are living sinful lives. No matter how spiritual you may be, there are going to be times that God says “No” to your prayers. It doesn't matter how much you have sacrificed or endured for the cause of Christ. Ask Paul. He had endured a lot.
It doesn't matter either how much you have accomplished for the cause of Christ. There will be times that it feels like God has turned a deaf ear to your requests. Paul is an example of one who had accomplished a great deal for God. He had started many new churches, written down portions of the Bible, and trained young pastors and missionaries.
But even for him, there were times that heaven was silent. If it happened to Paul, it will certainly happen to you. How are you going to respond when it happens in your life? How are you going to make it through? I'd like to share some Christ-honoring responses, that you can make a part of your life, when you face one of those times when God says “No” to your heart-felt desire.
-Treat trials as a gift from God. In other words, think: they have been “given to me.” You can treat them as a nuisance to be ignored; hoping they “just go away”; you tell yourself that “problems solve themselves” like that noise in the car, or the numbness in your left arm, or the bills that you receive and immediately throw into the wastebasket. You don’t pray about them because you refuse to even acknowledge their existence.
-Remember what God has already said. When God doesn't seem to be saying anything, rest your confidence on what God has already said. Think about some of the surpassing great revelations that God has given to you. Go back to the book of Psalms. Listen as the writers struggle with their own questions about unanswered prayer and a God that seems far away.
Listen to them complain over the fact that at the time when they most needed to see God’s face, that His face seemed to be hidden. And then listen to them find confidence in the promises of God that will never change no matter how our world may be changing all around us.
Continue praying to God. The first response that many people give when God doesn't come through for them is that they give up on God or they give up on prayer. And that’s before they ever get to the pleading level. They may have hinted, suggested, or even asked, but they haven’t pleaded. It may very well be that God is just waiting until you are flat on your face before Him laying it all on the line, humiliating yourself in His eyes before He will give you the answer to your prayer. “God resists the proud but gives grace unto the humble.”
-Listen for God’s voice. We allow so many things to compete for our attention in our lives. We are so busy. There’s no time and no motivation to just sit down and listen. Sometimes, the only time that we’re willing to listen to what God has to say – the only way that He can get us still long enough to get our attention – is by knocking the breath out of us. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It may be that we have to be on our faces in sorrow and suffering before we are willing to listen. God can speak through our tears. Listen for His voice.
-Trust in God’s power. Trust in God’s power, not your own. Trust in God’s power when you have none. For example, there are physical conditions that people face that cause them to ask, “How am I ever going to make it through this? How am I ever going to be of use to God, to my family or to anyone else in the condition that I am in now?” And God answers, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
-Serve God right where you are. You want God to change your situation, but did you ever think that God has put you in that situation to use you right in the middle of it? Don’t ask God to change things until you've looked for and found how you can minister in or be changed by the circumstance that you face. God doesn't do anything without a reason.
In closing, God will not grant our every request. He will not take away every pain. But He will always be there to gently wrap us in His arms of love, wipe our tears and give us the strength and motivation to live another day.
How are you going to respond to God when He says “No?" Are you going to push Him away, or are you going to pull Him tighter than you ever have before and let Him wrap His loving arms around you?
Scripture: James 4:3; Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 1:15-16; James 4:3-10; 1 Peter 3:12; Jude 1:20
Prayer: God our Savior, bring us back to you and fill our minds with your wisdom.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Have a blessed day!
Raylene
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