When God Doesn’t Answer Prayers
Posted: June 29, 2017
We don’t like to talk about unanswered prayer, we prefer miraculous stories of where the blind can see and the lame can walk. Don’t get me wrong, I love prayer. I have been a prayer advocate and warrior for over thirty years but often God has not answered my prayers. He’s not answered the ones where, years later, I saw evidence of how God protected me from harm or pain because He had something better in store for me. I get that.
But sometimes, unanswered prayers change our lives dramatically in ways we didn’t choose or ask for. And it’s hard to live with the fallout. The Bible says we are to pray and believe, and that’s what I did. In fact, when Jack had his heart attack and they brought back a pulse, thousands of people were praying for his healing. Friends and family all over America and even Europe were praying and believing for a complete recovery. We believed for nothing less. As most of you know, he died five days later.
Now I had to move forward to accept and live in my new reality.
I had a choice. I could hit the eject button, saying: “I’m out of here, I don’t trust God anymore. Prayer doesn’t work. God doesn’t care,” and live through the pain in my own strength. Or, I could believe the verses in James 1:2-4 that say: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow,
for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
I would never tell you to consider your troubles as pure joy, because I know struggles are painful and life changing. But I chose to listen to James, the brother of Jesus who didn’t believe that He was the Son of God until after resurrection, when he tells us that every trial is a test to help us become complete…perfect…mature. I want my life to be perfect and complete lacking nothing. Because of Jesus’ resurrection I know there is more to life than meets the eye. There is a bigger picture. A better plan. A higher understanding.
So I cling to my unanswered prayer as an opportunity for greater joy. Through this unwanted, painful journey God has been at my side helping me endure my new reality. I experience His presence as He heals me through His beautiful nature, loving family, faithful friends and His promises of hope toward a place where I will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Joy is coming.
www.heartconneciton.ca
