Unanswered Prayer

I’ve been in Kansas City now for three and a half months.  My first semester ends in eighteen days.  It’s surreal that so much time has gone by already!  Since coming here I’ve been praying for my jaw to be healed.  I have TMJ, so when I chew my jaw usually pops out of place.  This is marked by a very audible popping sound.  This has been going on for a little over a year now, but it’s interesting to note that I had NO pain until I came to IHOP.  Suddenly the pain began to explode in the prayer room… in class… anywhere!  I also began to suddenly clench my teeth again (something I had only done previously when I was really stressed out).  But I’m not stressed here and I’m not anxious about much of anything (because I can’t stop reading Matthew 6:25-34)!  While we were in Detroit for TheCall there was a two-day period where I had to blend everything I ate into smoothies because the muscles around my jaw were so tight and sore that I could hardly open my mouth.  It was miserable.  My frustration only increased when no healing came, as I had expected it to.  Sitting in Ford Field I only became more irritated with God and began to cry out, “God, why aren’t you healing me?!  I’m sick of this pain and just want to feel better!  This is a crummy way to begin TheCall and I’m sick of this!  You promised healing, and you’re giving it to other people, so why not me?  Why am I feeling nothing?  God, what are you doing?...”

In that moment He answered me, but I’ll get to that in a bit.  The point is that I was offended with God and incredibly frustrated, even though my issue is remarkably small!  There are even things I’ve been praying for since high school, but that is only a few years.  Imagine people who spend decades of their lives praying for healing from cancer or those who pray against their barrenness simply because they yearn for a child.  That is persistent prayer!

So what do we do when our prayers aren’t answered when we want them to be?  This seems like a common question that many people in the church have.  What do we do when God doesn’t answer?  Why doesn’t He answer?  I’ve heard of a great many people who have left the faith simply because God doesn’t answer a certain prayer.  In these past months, I’ve learned five major things about unanswered prayer.

1. Seek God’s face, not His hand.
This was God’s answer when I was discouraged and complaining at TheCall.  Someone on stage began to declare how everyone in Ford Field was going to pursue the face of God together, and then I suddenly remembered something I had heard or read weeks earlier, “Seek God’s face, not His hand.” 

Basically what that means is to seek intimacy and increased love for God, not only what He can do for you.  Look God straight in the face and declare your love for Him!  Dwell in His love for you and reciprocate that love.  Obey the first and greatest commandment: LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL!  Don’t stare at His hands and wait in expectation to see what He’s going to give you.  I had gotten so caught up with seeking healing that I had forgotten that intimacy was supposed to be my first priority. 

When you can grasp this realization, you will not be discouraged over the months or years of praying for that specific thing.  When the answer doesn’t come, you won’t be upset because the answer wasn’t your first priority!  You will be sustained by the knowledge of who God is, who we are in Him (children and heirs with Jesus—see Romans 8:17), how He loves us, and how we love Him…  You will be so enraptured with God that you won’t be offended when the answer tarries, because the answer was on the back burner, so to speak.

Only in the times of barren, weary unanswered prayer does God transition us from finding our reward in answers to finding our reward in Him.

Read that again.  Wes Hall told us this just yesterday in class, and it has acted as the springboard for this blog.  Where is your reward?

2. Unanswered prayer does not mean God is punishing you.

The second thing I’ve learned is remarkably evident in scripture—look at Luke chapter one.  A priest by the name of Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were old and childless.  Imagine a cute, elderly couple around your grandparents’ age.  But these old folks are childless because Elizabeth was barren and unable to conceive!  No doubt they had spent much of their marriage praying and crying out to God for a child, but they never got one.  That certainly looks like an unanswered prayer!  If they got married at 20, and now they’re around 70 (I’m making these numbers up), then that’s 50 years of waiting for a child.  50 years.  I recently heard a testimony of a man who has been paralyzed for 53 years. The doctors said he would live a maximum of 17 years after the time of the accident and that he would spend much of his remaining life in the hospital, but it’s been 53 years now and he hasn’t spent a single day in the hospital!  Here’s the crazy point—God promised this man shortly after the accident that He would heal him, and that man is still clinging to that promise with full faith and expectation!  I’ll be sure to post a blog when he’s healed!

Anyway, Zechariah and Elizabeth.  50 years without an answer.  I’m certain they were discouraged—we don’t even know if they were given the promise of a child.  They probably weren’t.  Besides that they were barren and by the standards of science and logic, they would have no children! 

So Zechariah, a priest, gets selected to do some priestly prayers in the temple.  He goes in and suddenly an angel appears to him!  Surprise!!!  Zechariah instantly is filled with fear (probably thinking, “Crap, what did I do wrong that God is sending an angel to chastise me?”) but the angel says, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John!”  But Zechariah responded, “How shall I know this?  For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”  Basically he was saying, “Sorry, Mr. Angel, you must be wrong because, you see, scientifically that’s not possible!”  The angel scolded him for his doubt and made him mute until his son, John (the Baptist and forerunner of Jesus) was born!

I’m going to read into the text a little bit, but bear with me.  When Zechariah was in the temple offering up his priestly prayer, I doubt he was praying for a son.  He was so old that he had probably given up!  So when the angel came and told him his prayer was answered, he probably thought that the angel meant the prayer he had just prayed!  But no!  The prayer for a son that Zechariah prayed for decades (but had likely stopped praying) was suddenly going to be answered! 

Why the delay for this elderly couple?  God’s timing simply is not our own.  There was a divine delay.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were doing nothing wrong—Luke 1:6 says they were both righteous and blameless before the Lord!  Their unanswered prayer was not a punishment; the answer was simply delayed because God’s timing is perfect.   

3. God wants you to cling to Him alone. 
I really believe God tarries in answering out prayer to show us where our dedication and commitment is.  If we pray for something, and that prayer goes unanswered, do we just give up?  If we give up, what are we saying we believe about God?  We’re saying we don’t believe He cares, or we don’t believe He wants to act.  But God wants to teach us to rely fully on Him.  Look at the promise in Luke 18:7, “And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?” (NKJV)

We need to stop whining and telling everyone our issues (not that it’s bad to tell other people, but we need to go to God before we go to men)!  Cry out day and night to GOD!  He will bring about justice for us (in whatever our situations are, whether it is financial, physical or spiritual).  He will answer, but He might “bear long with us” and be a little slow to answer!  In Jeremiah 33:3 God says, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”  THAT IS A PROMISE!

Corey Russell has a powerful section in his book, Pursuit of the Holy.  The following is an excerpt from chapter seven.

“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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10). 

The Father loves to give good things to His children (Matthew 7:9-11), but He wants us to ask and seek.  He’s not being stingy or manipulative.  He wants us to ask and seek, because when we do so, we are communicating with Him.  Communicating with Him causes us to intimately know Him, which is what God desires.  Through the story of the friend and the bread [Luke 11:5-8], Jesus was showing us that sometimes God uses seemingly impossible situations to teach us how to consistently and persistently cry out… 

We live in a passive society, even in the Church.  We tend to wait until “God’s perfect timing” is revealed for the release of prophecies, healings or other promises.  Our wrong ideas of sovereignty keep us sitting around doing nothing.  Isaiah said, “There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You” (Isaiah 64:7).  We can have as much of God as we want.  Those who cannot live without God, do not live without God; those who [think they] can live without Him, do.  It’s that simple.  God is not complacent, apathetic, detached or unemotional.  He longs for us to come after Him—because we want to, because we long to (Pursuit of the Holy, 97).

4. Don’t dwell on your feelings, but on God’s constancy.

In my last blog I touched on this, but this is such a pivotal revelation for me that I have to share it again.  There are so many instances when I become discouraged because I feel bad or I feel distanced from Him.  But the truth is that regardless of what I am feeling, God is still the same.  I might feel sick and therefore not pray as intimately as I ought to.  I might feel frustrated at a lack of answers and because of that I might watch a movie instead of praying.  But these feelings change NOTHING.  God still sent Jesus to die on the cross.  God still delights over me and loves me.  I still have the Holy Spirit burning within me.  Our circumstances in the moment cannot change the truth of who God is.  He is good and faithful; He loves us!

Whenever I realize this truth I snap back into perspective.  If God is not swayed by my temporary situations, why should I be so shaken when I have a sore jaw?  My sore jaw does not make God any less awesome and it doesn’t mean I’m suddenly not a believer anymore.  So I commit to be UNSHAKEN by my circumstances.  I will constantly walk in the full authority of what He has given me, even when I don’t feel that great all the time!

5. Unanswered prayers increase our faith in God.

Faith has always been a huge thing on my heart…  Now as I face so many currently unanswered prayers, I can see a shift in what I am putting my faith in.  What are we holding onto?  What are we putting our faith in?  Are we clinging to our expectations of revival or healing or finances or stuff like that, or are we clinging to the God who promised?  When we put our faith in the natural, our expectations will fail us.  I can expect certain results and when those results don’t come, I will be discouraged and fall away from my faith in God.  BUT IF I PUT MY ENTIRE FAITH IN GOD, I WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!  When I don’t see certain circumstances coming to pass, I won’t lose heart because I know that I serve a good God who fulfills His promises in His timing!  Faith is increased in the furnace of unanswered prayer!

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These five truths have really helped me to remain persistent in my prayers.  There are still moments when I’m discouraged (really it’s a daily struggle), but I continually remind myself to set my mind on these truths!  So what are your unanswered prayers?  Everyone has them.  Have you given up on them, or are you committed to continue in prayer until you see them fulfilled?  KEEP PRAYING!  Never give up!  1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “NEVER STOP PRAYING.”  It’s as simple as that.

Anyone interested in learning more about persistent prayer, let me know.  We had to read a book called “Unrelenting Prayer” by Bob Sorge, a man from IHOP who has been praying for years for a specific issue that is still currently unanswered.  I would definitely recommend this book to everyone! 

Be blessed, guys! 

Rachel