Do you have an unanswered prayer? Something you have been praying for weeks, months, years or decades? You desire that your voice travels all the way to heaven but it feels like it only gets to a glass ceiling a few inches above your head?
I’m going to venture out and suggest that every single one of us has had one of those prayers at some point in our life. There is the woman whose husband of many years lost his battle with cancer and she lost her life partner. And the businessman who ran his company by faith, and had plans of sharing his wealth, but the company went bankrupt because he couldn’t get sales. Or the young boy, who with true child-like faith, asked God to prevent his parent’s divorce. But he spends every other weekend with his dad instead. All of these prayers, and so many more, were prayers of hope and belief and yet were not answered in the way the pray-er desired.
So then, you might say, “See, prayer doesn’t work.”
This is one of the great mysteries of the Christian walk, isn’t it? And we answer the question with a trite “God knows best.” But that is so unsatisfying to the widow as they lower the casket into the ground, isn’t it? It is so perplexing to the businessman who was going to give away 90% of his profits and now is cashing unemployment checks. It is confusing, at best, to the child who feels responsible for his parent’s split.
How do we reply?
The only way we can… with love, compassion, grace… and continuing to affirm that God is God. And that He loves us.
And you may say, “if this is love, I don’t want it.” And I get that. I do.
I believe that the Bible is true. And the Bible says we are God’s children and we have an incredible inheritance… an eternity with no need, no hurt, no pain.
Can you trust that God is in control? Absolutely! Can you believe that He knows your pain? Yes! For did it make sense to the disciples to see Jesus die on the cross? Not at all. Did they understand once they saw Him rise again? Yes indeed!
The encouraging word today is that you can trust in the Sonrise of Messiah Jesus as certainly as you can trust that the sun will rise tomorrow. And if we look close enough, I believe we can make sense of the prayers that appear to go unanswered. We can pray, like Jesus did, that God’s will be done. It’s tough though… especially when there is significant loss.
Hope is found in the promises of God that the lost will be found, the dead will rise, the sick will be healed, the forsaken will be restored, those in prison will be set free, the blind will see and those with a broken heart will find His eternal, unconditional love.
His will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.
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