It
really seemed that filling the concert hall would
be a cinch. The Sons of Thunder had rented a
4,000-seat civic center in Salisbury, Maryland,
and scheduled a concert, which we hoped would
attract hordes of Christians from around
Maryland's Eastern Shore. To be sure, we had
never staged a concert outside the Washington,
D.C. area, and Salisbury was several hours away.
But we understood the effect of
good publicity. We got an attractive poster
printed, mailed it to all the churches in the
region and tacked it up in every conceivable
public spot.
More importantly, we understood
the effect of fervent prayer. Another member of
the band and I agreed to claim the promise of
Matthew 18:19, that if two believers are united
in praying for anything it will be accomplished
for them. We committed ourselves to pray
frequently and earnestly that God would fill the
auditorium to capacity. And we prayed with
considerable confidence that our request would be
granted.
But on the evening of the
concert, you could have shot a cannon through the
auditorium and not hit anyone. The 350 people who
did show up were enthusiastic and a respectable
audience by many standards. But to me the vast
number of empty seats meant not only financial
disaster but spiritual defeat. I had poured my
heart into prayers which didn't reap even a
ten-percent response!
My experience wasn't unique. Most
of us have gone through discouraging and perhaps
puzzling episodes of unanswered prayer. A
relationship that we begged God for didn't work
out. A job interview which we diligently prayed
about fizzled. A financial investment bathed in
prayer turned sour. A request for healing wasn't
granted.
The problem wouldn't be so vexing
if the biblical promises about prayer weren't so
numerous and explicit. But time and again
Scripture declares that specific prayer brings
specific results. "I chose you . . . that
whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may
give it to you" (Jn 15:16). This verse, and
many like it, say that God specializes in giving
us what we ask! Yet, unless we are very unusual,
we don't live the Christian life very long
without some serious bubble-popping in this area.
What we say is not always what we get.
Typically we begin the Christian
life very optimistic about the possibilities of
prayer; then we have some disappointing
experiences with prayer and skepticism sets in.
Few experiences pose a greater challenge to our
faith.
Explaining the Puzzle
We grope for an explanation to
our experiences of unanswered prayer. Many times
we attribute the problem to lack of faith. We
just didn't believe strongly enough. Indeed, this
can be the problem. Yet there are many examples
in Scripture of anxious, ambivalent people
receiving what they ask from God.
Other times
we ring it up to bad motives. We weren't really
praying "in Jesus' name." Again,
motives can be the culprit, as James 4:3 reminds
us. To pray in Jesus' name means to pray with a
desire for his will and glory. Yet we can so
mystify the idea of praying in Jesus' name that
we cease to believe that God is interested in
what we think. As Andrew Murray notes, the thrust
of the biblical promises is that God limits much
of what he does on earth to what his people are
bold enough to request through prayer.*
But more often than not I think
there is another explanation which is far less
appreciated. We underestimate the difficulty of
really wanting God to do what we're asking. The
sort of agreement Matthew 18:19 encourages is an
extremely difficult mental state to experience.
For one thing, as modern psychology has shown, we
are largely subconscious creatures. We may seem
to desire something on the surface yet underneath
greatly resist it.
In addition, we don't know our
future; only God does. He knows that what we will
desire in five years may be strikingly different
from what we passionately crave right now. Would
granting our present petition really be giving us
what we desire in terms of a lifetime?
I now believe that if God had
fulfilled my request for a packed concert hall, a
deeper, more important desire for spiritual
growth and wisdom would have been denied. I would
have been left thinking that Christian programs
can be carried out without the intensive personal
contact work so necessary for effective ministry.
Further, I might have become more locked into a
music career and been less free to consider
teaching, which in time I discovered was more in
line with the gifts God has given me. I can now
say wholeheartedly that God did me a great favor
in allowing me to experience disappointment that
evening.
I believe that most of the
experiences of unanswered prayer which we have as
followers of Christ can be explained in this way.
It's not that God has refused to grant us our
desires-he has simply understood them better than
we have. Appreciating this can do wonders to keep
us from losing heart when our prayers seem to go
unheeded.
Staying Hopeful
Understanding this will help us
find the incentive to keep praying, for it is
through continuing prayer that our desires become
clarified. Some grow stronger. Others fade away
and we're grateful that God refrained from
granting them!
I'm not suggesting, then, that we
shouldn't be bold and specific in raising our
desires to God. Quite the contrary: Scripture
commands us in many places to do exactly that.
Jesus' parable of the importunate widow (Lk
18:1-8) is a dramatic reminder that there are
times when long-term persistence in prayer is not
only permitted but expected. Jesus told the
parable that we might "always pray and not
lose heart" (Lk 18:1). Clearly he meant that
we shouldn't give up praying about specific
personal concerns, no matter how long it takes to
receive an answer.
Indeed, we will probably be
surprised at how frequently the answer that comes
does correspond closely with the prayer we have
made. I'm convinced that if anyone gives serious
attention to prayer over a sufficient period of
time, and broadens her horizons to pray about a
number of concerns, she will have enough positive
experiences to convince her that God is truly
interested in answering her prayers. If we hang
in there, we'll discover that God is more
abundantly willing to grant our petitions than
we've imagined.
I can happily say that as I've
continued to walk with Christ, there have been
enough affirming experiences with prayer to
convince me that this is true. My confidence that
God answers prayer springs not only from biblical
teaching but from personal experience as well.
But it has taken time for that conviction to grow
into a strong and abiding one. I suspect that
this will be case with most of us.
We may experience some
disappointment in the short run. But as we
continue to give prayer the attention it
deserves, we will find over time that our
investment is greatly rewarded.
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