Reading: When God Says No (Dr.

Roels)
Introduction
Does God always hear our prayers as He promised He would? Yes He does. Does He
always answer our prayers the way we would like? Certainly not! We usually refer to
prayers which do not receive the answer we were looking for as "unanswered prayers”
but it's important to remember that "No” is as much of an answer as "Yes” is.
Almost all of us have experienced times when our prayers were not "answered” the way
we had hoped. We prayed for a job, but we could not find work. We prayed for money,
but we did not receive it. We prayed for strength but we stumbled and fell. We prayed for
victory, but we did not win. We prayed for light, but we groped in the darkness. We
prayed for peace but we saw only conflict. We prayed for the sick, but they did not get
better.
Thankfully, most of us can also point to those many times when God did grant us the
desires of our hearts. He gave us food when we were hungry. He restored our health
when we were sick. He kept us safe when we were in danger. He guided our steps when
we were lost. He gave us peace when we were in turmoil. He gave us comfort when we
were sad. So we KNOW that God does graciously answer prayer and He does often give us
what we have asked for. And sometimes He even gives us even more! But we also know
that God sometimes says "No” rather than "Yes.” And we often wonder why.
The Bible does not answer all our questions concerning "unanswered prayer.” There are
times and circumstances when we just cannot understand why things happen as they do.
But the Bible does help us understand why at least some of our prayers do not receive the
answers we were hoping for.
In this lesson we will consider ten possible reasons why God might answer our prayers
with a "No”--or, seemingly, not at all. We will then look at some Biblical passages or
examples which illustrate those reasons.

POSSIBLE REASONS WHY GOD SAYS "NO.”

1. One of the major reasons why God does not respond positively to our prayers is
because there are unconfessed sins in our lives. If we deliberately harbor sin in our hearts
and do not repent of those sins, we create a barrier between ourselves and God, and God
will not answer our prayers the way we desire. A positive answer to our prayers requires
humility, sincerity, and integrity on our part.
The Psalm writer wrote: "'If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the LORD would not have
listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.” Psalm
66:18-19
To the people of Israel God said: "'When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes
from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; remove the evil of your
deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good.'” Isaiah 1:15-17
Isaiah wrote: "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and
your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” Isaiah 59:2
The prophet Zechariah wrote about the sinful Israelites this way: "They refused to pay
attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not
hear. . . . Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. 'As I called, and they would
not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,' says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 7:11-13
Read the following examples of times when God did not answer prayers because of the
sins of the people who offered them.
Moses told the people of Israel: "So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you
rebelled against the command of the LORD and presumptuously went up into the hill
country . . . And you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD did not listen to
your voice or give ear to you.'” Deuteronomy 1:43-45
Concerning the people of Israel, God said, "'Then my anger will be kindled against them in
that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured.
And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have
not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?' And I will surely hide my
face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to
other gods.'” Deuteronomy 31:17-18
Many years later the Lord said concerning the people of Israel: "'They have turned back to
the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after
other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my
covenant that I made with their fathers. . . . Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them.
. . . Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will
not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.'” Jeremiah 11:10-14 See also
Jeremiah 14:10-12 and 15:1.
After the Israelites were taken into captivity, the Lord said, "'And the nations shall know
that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so
treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their
adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their
uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.'” Ezekiel 39:23-24

2. Another reason why God may not answer our prayers is because we sometimes pray
with the wrong motives. We do not always ask for things in order that God's name will be
glorified or that His Kingdom will be advanced. We sometimes ask for things selfishly or
for things which will serve only to make our lives easier or more pleasant. It's certainly not
wrong to ask for things that would make our lives more comfortable, but we must be sure
not to ask for things which would be displeasing to Him. God wants us to focus our prayers
and requests on things which will help us to serve HIM better. He doesn't want us to use
the privilege and blessing of prayer simply to focus on our own wishes and desires--
whether these would really be good for us or not.
James wrote, "You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so
you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive,
because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”James 4:2-3
Jesus said, "'But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be added to you.'” Matthew 6:33
The Psalmist wrote, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your
heart.” Psalm 37:4
And Peter reminds us that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter
5:5

3. If we harbor an unforgiving or negative attitude toward others in our hearts, God may
refuse to grant us what we ask for--even if we ask for something that would normally be
considered good and desirable. If God chooses to answer some of our prayers with a "No,”
He may be reminding us that we need to restore a broken relationship with someone or to
forgive a person who may have hurt us or offended us.
Jesus said: "When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so
that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.'” Mark 11:25
John reminds us that it is impossible to truly love God the way we should if we have
hatred in our hearts for our brother. "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he
is a liar.” 1 John 4:20
Peter emphasized that even a broken or improper relationship between married partners
can have a negative effect on their prayer life. He wrote: "Husbands . . . be considerate as
you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs
with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” 1 Peter 3:7

4. Sometimes God does not answer our prayers the way we desire because He is
disciplining us for some sin we have committed. Even though He graciously forgives our
sins when we confess and forsake them, He may still punish us for that sin or let sin "run
its course” in our lives with all the negative consequences that result from a bad or sinful
choice we have made.
One of the best examples of this is found in the life of David. When David committed
adultery with Bathsheba, God sent the prophet Nathan to him to confront him about what
he had done. David immediately confessed his sin to the Lord. Nathan then told
David, "'The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by
this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD . . . the child who is born to you shall die” (2
Samuel 12:13-16). David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his
house and spent all night lying on the ground (2 Samuel 12:13-16). But in spite of David's
earnest pleas, God did not spare the child's life.
Sometimes the sins of parents continue to have serious negative effects in the lives of
future generations. David's sin, for example, resulted in severe punishment that was
expressed in these words, "Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,
because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife” (2 Samuel
12:10).
This may be an example of what God meant when he said, "I, the LORD your God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth
generation of those who hate me.” Exodus 20:4-5

5. Sometimes God uses unpleasant or difficult circumstances to draw us closer to

Himself. By not granting what we ask, God may be moving us to focus on eternal and
spiritual values rather than on physical or material things. He wants us to grow spiritually
to become more like Christ. He knows that our greatest spiritual growth often comes
through trials, hurt, defeat, sickness or disappointment rather than through material
prosperity or success. If God always granted us everything we asked for, we might become
proud, selfish, and excessively focused on earthly things.
There are many examples of people, both in the Bible and today, who became much more
effective spiritually and even much happier because of their affliction or weakness or trials
which the Lord chose not to take away. God wants us to put HIM in first place in our lives
so that we focus our lives on bringing glory and honor to Him through how we live. The
natural tendency for us is to focus on our own interests and needs rather than on the
kingdom of God, but a "No” answer from God can help us re-focus on the Lord and His
kingdom.
The apostle Paul is an outstanding example of spiritual growth which came when God
answered His earnest prayers with a clear "No.” Paul wrote:
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, there
was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I
pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for
Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
In writing to the Corinthian believers Paul reflected further on the fact that believers often
suffer trials of one kind or another. He wrote: "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer
self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary
affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look
not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are
seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
James emphasized the same truth when he wrote: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you
meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces
steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and
complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
The Psalmist wrote, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word . . . It is
good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:67, 71
It is good to remember these things, so that we do not become overly discouraged when
God does not immediately answer our prayers for good health, peace, safety, or
deliverance. If we are walking in fellowship with Him and at peace with our neighbor, we
may be confident that God is truly working out all things for our good, even if our
circumstances are unpleasant or difficult (Romans 8:28).

6. By not giving us something we desire or ask for, God may be saying "No” so that
something much better can be accomplished. Though it may seem that God is not
listening to our prayers, He may be responding in a way that leads to greater and better
things than we asked for.
In Old Testament times, Joseph was passionately hated by his brothers who eventually
sold him to some slave traders on their way to Egypt. In Egypt he was unjustly accused of
assaulting his master's wife, he was put in an Egyptian jail for several years, and then he
was forgotten by someone who might have helped free him (Genesis 37:12-36, Genesis
39, Genesis 40:14-15, 23).
Though no specific mention is made of Joseph's prayer life in these chapters, we may
assume that Joseph was a man who spent much time with God in prayer. Many years after
he had emerged victorious over all these trials, he said to his brothers, "As for you, you
meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are today'” (Genesis 50:20). God did not keep Joseph from
being sold, betrayed, imprisoned, or forgotten, but He used all these difficult
circumstances to prepare him for future ministry and service which resulted in the rescue
of his extended family and the saving of many others.
On his second missionary journey Paul wanted to go to a province in Asia Minor to carry
out his mission work, but God prevented him from going there (Acts 16:6-7). In Romans
1:13 Paul indicated that he often had wanted to go to Rome but was prevented from doing
so. By saying "No” to Paul's plans, God was guiding him to places where he would have a
much more effective and fruitful ministry.
When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote, "I want you to know, brothers, that what
has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known
throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are
much more bold to speak the word without fear.” Philippians 1:12-14
Jesus Himself prayed passionately and earnestly to His Father in the Garden of
Gethsemane that His cup of suffering might be taken away from Him--but it wasn't (Luke
22:42-44). And throughout history millions of people continue to thank Jesus for His
willingness to suffer and die for them--even though their salvation was purchased at such
an awesome price.
God often works out His purposes in ways that go beyond our own prayers, plans or
desires. Many people have been very grateful that God did not answer their prayers the
way they had asked, since they realized later that God's answer was far better than
anything they had asked for or hoped for.

7. There are times and situations where sincere people may pray for opposite things
which cannot both happen at the same time. For example, enemies may pray for a
victory in the same battle. Opposing sports teams may pray for a win in the same game.
Two people may desire to obtain the same job. Political opponents may both pray for
victory in the same election. Two students may pray for the same scholarship. Two men
may wish to marry the same girl or two girls may desire the same man as their husband.
We must recognize that God is in control of all things and that HIS purposes will ultimately
be accomplished. We may not understand why one person "wins” while another "loses,”
but we may be sure that God is working things out in a way that will truly advance the
cause of His kingdom while also being best for everyone who sincerely commits his life to
the Lord.

8. There may be times when we do not pray with a humble and sincere faith that God
will answer our prayers. Faith is not some kind of "magic” which automatically guarantees
that our prayers will be answered. Rather, faith is a sure confidence and trust that our
loving heavenly Father will truly grant what is best for us when we seek to do His will and
live to His honor and glory.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us: "And without faith it is impossible to please him,
for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
James wrote: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all
without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for
the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that
person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
Jesus said: "'Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken
up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he
says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in
prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.'” Mark 11:22, 24
Those who do not have faith in God and His promises will often find that their prayers are
not answered as they desire. A clear example of that is found in Jesus' own experience in
His home town of Nazareth. The Bible tells us that Jesus did not perform many miracles
there because of the people's lack of faith. Mark describes that sad situation in these
words, "And he [Jesus] marveled because of their unbelief.” Mark 6:1-6

9. Sometimes we may give up too quickly when we pray. We may become frustrated,
discouraged, or unhappy when we don't immediately receive the answer we want, so we
stop praying. And, as a result, we don't receive the answer God is ready to give us in His
own time.
The prophet Isaiah wrote many years ago, "The LORD waits to be gracious to you and
therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed
are all those who wait for him.” Isaiah 30:18
There are some wonderful examples of positive, persevering prayer in the Bible by people
who wouldn't take "No” as God's final answer--even if God's first answer clearly appeared
to be "No.”

Consider the following examples from the Old Testament.

"Then I [Daniel] turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy
with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” Daniel 9:3
Elijah prayed seven times for rain "with his face between his knees” before God answered
him. After the seventh time, God sent black clouds, a strong wind, and waves of rain. 1
Kings 18:41-46
Jacob kept wrestling with an angel throughout an entire night and said to him, "'I will not
let you go unless you bless me.'” Genesis 32:26
Nehemiah "wept and mourned for days, and continued fasting and praying before the
God of heaven . . . day and night . . . confessing the sins of the people.” Nehemiah 1:4, 6

Read these examples from the New Testament.

A Canaanite woman, a Gentile, kept asking Jesus to heal her daughter until Jesus finally
answered her request. Matthew 15:21-28
Jesus told a parable about a woman who was dealing with an unjust judge. She kept
asking him for justice until he finally granted her what she asked for. After telling this
story, Jesus said, "'Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?'”
Luke 18:7

10. There are times when we do not pray according to the will of God.Many times we do
know what God's will is since He has revealed it to us in the Bible. At other times,
however, we really are not totally sure what God's will is in a specific situation. At such
times we must pray the more earnestly for the leading of the Holy Spirit as we seek to
discern what God's will is. It is also appropriate in those situations to add to our petitions
the phrase, "If it be Your will.”
When we add those words to our prayers, we are not praying with a lack of faith. We
simply acknowledge that we know that God's ways are higher than our ways and that His
thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We confess that we know so little and that our
understanding is so limited. We also acknowledge that our own desires and motives may
not be perfectly pure, so we humbly submit our own desires to God's perfect will.
Read the following Scripture passages about praying according to the will of God.
"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to
his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we
have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:14-15
Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion: "'Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.'” Luke 22:42
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the
LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he
who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for
the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

By carefully studying what the Bible teaches us about prayer, we learn that there are
many reasons why our prayers are sometimes not answered in the way we hope or desire.
Many times we are prompted by our "unanswered prayers” to humbly examine our
hearts, check our motives, and re-evaluate our desires. Sometimes we may be led to
confess hidden sins. At other times we may be moved to exercise greater patience, deeper
humility or greater perseverance. And frequently we will be led to recognize and accept
the need for spiritual discipline so that we may become the kind of people God wants us
to be.
There are also times, however, when we can do nothing more than humbly submit to the
sovereign--and sometimes mysterious--will of God. With Job in the Old Testament, we just
do not understand why some things happen as they do. With the Psalmist we cry out to
God for help in circumstances which are completely beyond our comprehension. We
honestly do not know of any reason why the Lord does not answer us. (Read Psalm 22:1-
21; Psalm 44:9-25; Psalm 88:1-18.)
In times like that, we can only cast ourselves in humble faith on the unfailing mercies of
the Lord, as Jeremiah did after the fall of Jerusalem. He wrote, "For the Lord will not cast
off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the
abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children
of men.” Lamentations 3:31-33
God graciously invites us to pray and sincerely means what He says when He promises to
hear and answer us. At the same time, we must never forget that He is Almighty God and
we are but mortal creatures with limited knowledge, limited understanding, and limited
holiness. To Him belong the glory and praise for ever!
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who
has been his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?' For from
him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans
11:33-36

Reading: Unanswered Prayer (Dr. Feddes)

Unanswered Prayer
By David Feddes

A woman with a husband and two children died of cancer. I can't figure out why God
allowed an awful disease to cut down a precious person in the prime of her life. I don't know
why God allowed her husband and children to lose someone so dear to them, or why her
parents, brothers, sisters, and friends had to go through crushing grief. I don't know why she
got sick and died. I do know that it wasn't due to a lack of prayer.
This woman prayed many times for healing. Her husband and children prayed. Her
brothers and sisters prayed. Her parents prayed. Her friends prayed. Entire congregations
prayed. Many, many of us prayed and prayed and prayed that she would be healed. At times it
even looked like the prayers were being answered in a thrilling way. There were encouraging
reports, and our hopes rose. But those hopes were dashed by cruel cancer, and she died. W hy
did so many prayers bring such a crushing result? How could God not give healing and long
life in response to so many prayers for such a beloved person?
A single woman longs to find a good man, get married, and have children. She's lonely and
would rather not be single any more. She's the sort of wise, gentle person who would make an
excellent wife and mother. She prays earnestly for God to bring the right man. She prays this
way year after year, waiting and hoping. But the only men who show an interest in her don't
share her faith and her moral standards. She's met some decent guys too, but they always end
up marrying someone else. She's getting close to the age when she'll never be able to have
children, and still God has not granted her repeated request for a husband and family. Why
not? She remains committed to God, but she can't help wondering why God doesn't answer
her prayer.
A man works hard and handles his finances honestly but loses his job and can't pay his
bills. He prays for God to meet his needs, but his financial hole keeps getting deeper. Why
doesn't God answer his prayers and ease his financial burden?
We might understand why God wouldn't grant requests for bad things, but many
unanswered prayers are for excellent things.People pray for relief from famines and plagues,
but suffering continues. People pray for peace in their nation, but conflict gets worse. People
pray for their church to flourish, but it keeps going downhill. Why doesn't God answer these
requests?
 Unanswered prayer is a big problem. It's a problem if you're a non-religious person. If you
don't know God very well but are told that he listens to prayers, you might decide to try talking
to him and asking for his help. If you don't get the answer you were hoping for, you might think
that prayer is useless and that God isn't worth bothering with. Unanswered prayer can be a
barrier to faith for non-religious people.
Unanswered prayer can also be a huge problem for people who believe in God and believe
in the value of prayer. Those of us who believe in God have high expectations. We believe in a
God of limitless love and power, and we believe that he listens when we speak to him. So if he
listens and loves us and has the power to do anything we ask, how could any prayer for
something worthwhile go unanswered?
As we ask about this, let's not overlook the many prayers that God does answer. I believe
in the Lord and in the power of prayer, and I've seen him answer prayer in amazing ways. But
I've also seen earnest, desperate prayers go unanswered. There's no denying that
unanswered prayer is a hard problem, even for very wise and sincere followers of Jesus.

A Door Slammed in Your Face

Christian writer C. S. Lewis wrote many excellent books which have helped build faith in
other people, but when his wife, Joy, died, it was a terrible blow for Lewis. Perhaps the worst
times were when Lewis felt God was ignoring him. God had not healed his wife from cancer,
despite all their prayers. After she died, Lewis didn't feel God's nearness or comfort, despite all
his prayers. Lewis kept a journal of his thoughts and later published them in his book titled A
Grief Observed.
"Where is God?” wondered Lewis. "When you are happy... and turn to him with gratitude
and praise, you will be--or so it feels--welcomed with open arms. But go to him when your need
is desperate ... and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and
double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You might as well turn away.”
Years earlier, before C. S. Lewis became a Christian, he had been an atheist. When his
wife died, his faith was sorely shaken, but he wasn't really tempted to go back to atheism. He
was tempted instead to think that God is real but horrible. Lewis wrote, "Not that I am (I think)
in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such
dreadful things about him. The conclusion I dread is not 'So there's no God after all,' but 'So
this is what God's really like. Deceive yourself no longer.'”
Unanswered prayers for Joy's healing and unanswered prayers for comfort in his time of
loss made Lewis wonder if the real truth about God might be that he always tortures people.
With so much pain and so much unanswered prayer, asked Lewis, "What reason have we,
except our own desperate wishes, to believe that God is, by any standard we can conceive,
'good'?” Much evidence seems to point the other way. If God shows kindness for a while but
then keeps his distance in our most desperate moments, what kind of God is he? So many
problems, so much pain and death, seem to indicate a Supreme Being who is cruel.
Christians might point to Jesus to show that God is love and to counter any idea that God
is cruel. Jesus spoke of a loving heavenly Father. But look what happened to Jesus! He was
tortured and died on a cross. As he hung there suffering, he cried out, "My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?” Jesus' words, wrote Lewis, "may have a perfectly clear meaning. He
had found that the Being He called Father was horribly and infinitely different from what he had
supposed.”
Lewis went on to say, "What chokes every prayer and every hope is the memory of all the
prayers [my wife] and I offered and all the false hopes we had. Not hopes raised merely by our
own wishful thinking, hopes encouraged, even forced upon us, by false diagnoses, by X-ray
photographs, by strange remissions, by one temporary recovery that might have ranked as a
miracle. Step by step we were 'led up the garden path.' Time after time, when He seemed most
gracious He was really preparing the next torture.” Unanswered prayer can cause a horrible
inner struggle. It might not be quite so bad if God just denied our request right away, but when
God seems to give a positive answer and gets our hopes up, only to crush those hopes, it's
hard to take.
When C. S. Lewis wrote in his journal of being tempted to believe in a bad God, an
almighty torturer, he was having an especially hard night. The next day, he looked at what he
had written and said, "It was a yell rather than a thought.” It was more a cry of anguish than a
rational statement. Lewis saw that it was nonsense to think of God as a cosmic torturer. Such a
God could never have dreamed up "love, or laughter, or daffodils, or a frosty sunset.” Lewis
refused to believe that Jesus was wrong about God. Later, after more time had passed, Lewis
felt God's light shining afresh into his life. Still, even though he didn't ultimately forsake God,
the fact remains that one of the world's most brilliant and prominent Christians was deeply
wounded and had his faith shaken to its foundations by unanswered prayer.

Darkest Depths
If you wonder why your prayers haven't been answered, if you wonder why God seems to
ignore you, you're not alone. C. S. Lewis felt that way at times, and so did people whose
thoughts are recorded in the Bible itself. Psalm 88 is the prayer of a devout believer named
Heman. He's been through a lot, he feels like he can't take much more, and he wonders why
God doesn't do something about it. He complains that God rejects his prayers, but he still
keeps praying, and even his complaint is a prayer. Heman says, "My soul is full of trouble... I
am like a man without strength... You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.... I
call to you, O Lord, every day... I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes
before you. Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me? ... You have taken my
companions and friends from me; the darkness is my closest friend” (Psalm 88:13-14).
Heman's problem is unanswered prayer. Every day he's been praying for help, but he feels
that God just turns away and lets things get worse. So how does he respond to the pain of
unanswered prayer? He prays about it! Isn't that odd? If you're frustrated that God won't
answer your prayers, why pray to him about those unanswered prayers? Why not stop talking
to God altogether if it doesn't do any good? Well, strange as it seems to pray about
unanswered prayer, it's important to bring your struggle to God and to talk to him about it.
The Bible sets the pattern. In Psalm 13 David prays, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me
forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?” (Psalm 13:1-2). In the book of Habbakkuk, the
prophet prays, "How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2).
Jesus himself prayed that if it were possible, the heavenly Father would spare him from the
horror of being crucified. But it was the Father's will that Jesus suffer and die. What did Jesus
do when his request was denied and he was crushed on the cross? He cried out, "My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?”
Unanswered prayer is a crushing experience, and we don't have to pretend that we're
happy about it and doing just fine. The Bible records many prayers of people who felt
devastated when God did not grant their requests, and in these prayers they poured out their
hurts and grief. Such prayers don't offer clear, simple answers to our problem, but at least we
get a sense that, like these biblical believers, we too may ask questions about unanswered
prayer. We too can tell God about our struggles and express our disappointment that our
prayers didn't get the results we wanted.
 If you're tempted by terrible thoughts about God, you don't have to pretend those thoughts
aren't there. Pretending can't fool God anyway. If you sometimes can't avoid terrible thoughts,
the next best thing is to be honest about those thoughts and to express yourself to God.
Sometimes, by the end of your prayer, you may already feel strengthened--that happens in
many of the biblical psalms. But at other times you may feel as hurt and helpless as ever. At
the end of talking to God, you might still feel the way Heman felt at the end of Psalm 88 when
he spoke of God terrorizing him and said, "The darkness is my closest friend.” But even a
prayer like that is still a prayer. God has included such prayers in the Bible to help us pray
honestly in our darkest, weakest moments when he seems farthest away.
I hear from many people who express struggles and questions about unanswered prayer. I
wish I could offer clear, comforting answers that would set such questions at rest, but I can't.
There are some truths that may help to a degree, but when you're feeling crushed and your
prayers don't seem to be getting any response from God, you don't need answers and
explanations from a preacher. You need God himself. Grief is not something that can be
hurried along, and an inner struggle is not something that a few words from me or anyone else
can resolve. Nothing and nobody but God, in his own way and in his own time, can comfort
someone who feels rejected and abandoned by him.

A Chuckle in the Darkness

C. S. Lewis, in the pit of grief, wrote that when you go to God, all you get is "a door
slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that,
silence. You might as well turn away.” But God didn't leave Lewis locked in despair forever. A
bit later Lewis was thinking about the suffering God inflicted on his wife. He wished he could
have suffered instead of her, but at the same time he wasn't sure if he really would take her
suffering on himself if he had the opportunity, and he wondered if one person could ever be
allowed to suffer for another. Then he wrote, "It was allowed to One [that is, Jesus Christ], and
I find I can now believe again, that He has done vicariously whatever can so be done. He
replies to our babble [about suffering in someone else's place], 'You cannot and you dare not. I
could and dared.'”
Immediately after writing about Jesus taking so many of our sufferings away from us and
shouldering them in our place, Lewis wrote, "Something quite unexpected has happened... my
heart was lighter than it had been for many weeks... I have gradually been coming to feel that
the door is no longer shut and bolted.” The door began to open, not by any brilliant idea or
explanation, but by a fresh sense of the Savior who suffered on our behalf.
That wasn't the end of C. S. Lewis's grief. He still mourned for his wife, and he still had
hard questions about God. At one point he wrote, "Tonight all the hells of young grief have
opened again; the mad words, the bitter resentment, the fluttering in the stomach, the
nightmare unreality, the wallowed-in tears. For in grief nothing 'stays put.'” Still, despite the
recurrence of such moments, said Lewis, "Turned to God, my mind no longer meets that
locked door.” Something had changed. "There was no sudden, striking and emotional
transition. Like the warming of a room or the coming of daylight. When you first notice them
they have already been going on for some time.”
Lewis wrote of a special experience, a sense that God was near and that reality was far
better than he had dreamed. He said he couldn't really describe the experience except by a
simile, a word picture. He said to imagine a man in total darkness, not really knowing where he
is but thinking he's trapped in a cellar or dungeon and feeling dread. "Then there comes a
sound. He thinks it might be a sound far off--waves or wind-blown trees or cattle half a mile
away. And if so, it proves he's not in a cellar, but free, in the open air. Or it may be a much
smaller sound close at hand--a chuckle of laughter. And if so, there is a friend just beside him
in the dark. Either way, a good, good sound.”
 Lewis didn't want to make too much of this experience, but his unanswered prayers and
unanswered questions no longer seemed like huge, overwhelming problems. He wrote, "When
I lay these questions before God, I get no answer. But a rather special sort of 'No answer.' It is
not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate gaze. As though he
shook his head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, 'Peace, child; you don't
understand.'”
Do you know what it's like to be in the dark night of unanswered prayer, feeling alone and
terrified, and then hear something like a friendly chuckle? When you get no answer, do you
ever get that "special sort of 'No answer'” that C. S. Lewis experienced? For a time it may
seem that God is nowhere to be found and that life isn't worth living, and then something
happens. The world around you somehow seems less dark and dreadful, more friendly and
alive with God's presence. When your prayer is answered only by silence, you experience the
silence not as God ignoring you but as quiet rest, as God's peace telling you that some things
are beyond your understanding. That kind of peace isn't something I can create for you in a
few words. "The peace of God that transcends understanding” is God's gift (Philippians 4:7).
The apostle Paul struggled with unanswered prayer about something that bothered him
terribly. We don't know exactly what it was, but Paul called his problem "a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger from Satan, to torment me.” Again and again Paul pleaded with God to take the
problem away, but God didn't do it. Instead God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul's problem remained, making
Paul felt weaker than ever, yet he also felt God's power working more strongly than ever.
Paul's unanswered prayer wasn't really unanswered. God didn't grant Paul's request, but he
gave a better answer: more of himself.

Wait for the Lord

It's comforting to know that God loves you and is listening to you, even if he doesn't grant
your request, even if he puts you through terrible pain and loss. But what if you still haven't
heard that tender chuckle in the darkness? What if you only experience the locked door and
the terrible silence? Again, I can't offer a simple formula so that you will instantly sense God
nearby. All I can say is, "Wait.”
That may sound like lame advice, but often there's not much you can do to deal with the
anguish of unanswered prayer except to wait for God and depend completely on him. In Psalm
27:14 the Bible says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm
130:6 says, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.” When it's
night, you can't do anything to make it daytime. You have to wait for the sun to rise. But that
waiting can be positive waiting, eager waiting in strong expectation. You might be in the
darkness of disappointment and sorrow, you might not see any rays of gladness or hope, but
wait. Wait for the Lord to shine on you.
And as you wait, you can be sure of one thing: the Lord Jesus knows more than any of us
about unanswered prayer and feeling forsaken by God. Though he is the Son of God, his
heavenly Father did not grant his petition to be spared from horrible torture and death or to be
relieved from bearing the pain of all the sins in the entire world. If you cannot yet hear God's
chuckle in the dark, you may still hear the echo of Jesus' scream in the dark as he hung on the
cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That was unanswered prayer indeed--
no one ever suffered so terribly as Jesus did. But after the suffering came the chuckle in the
darkness, then the earthquake, and then death itself cracked apart as the resurrection power of
God burst forth.
Waiting for the Lord may sound lame--until you realize who you're waiting for. Jesus walks
with you through the darkness, and the darkness will surely give way to Easter dawn. As you
struggle with unanswered prayer, it's okay to voice your grief to God, and at the same time it
helps to say, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

In the End
I don't want to sugarcoat sorrow or offer instant comfort by saying, "All's well that ends
well.” But I do want to offer a gentle reminder that if you belong to Jesus, all does end well.
That doesn't mean you have to pretend it's easy to deal with unanswered prayer. If you've
been praying for something for many years but haven't received it, it can be a long, grinding
disappointment. If you've prayed about a crisis of life-and-death urgency but the result was the
death of a loved one, you may feel shattered by unanswered prayer. There is a time to mourn
and to pour out your grief to God, a time when all you can do is try to hang in there and wait for
the Lord until he refreshes your soul. Sometimes you'll feel unable to hang on, and you'll fall
apart. That's okay. God knows how to take things that fall apart and make them better than
new.
A day is coming when all things will be made new, all tears wiped away, every prayer
granted in the fullest most, wonderful way. And even in this life, God may help you see that his
choice was best, even though it wounded you terribly.
After C.S. Lewis lost his wife to cancer, there were times when he raged and despaired,
but in the final entry of the journal he wrote during the grieving process, Lewis wrote, "How
wicked it would be, if we could, to call the dead back! [Joy] said not to me but to the chaplain, 'I
am at peace with God.' She smiled, but not at me.'” Lewis knew that his wife was smiling at
God. The cancer had not been healed and their marriage union was torn by death, but his wife
entered the closest possible union with God. Was that really such a bad answer to prayer?
If you don't have faith in Jesus and don't have a relationship with God, you must receive
the Lord and commit your life to him before you can expect any answers to prayer. If you do
belong to Jesus, you won't get every prayer answered the way you want, but you can be sure
that God's grace is sufficient to get you through, and you can be sure that the small chuckle
you hear now in the dark will become huge, everlasting laughter when the full light of morning
arrives and you see the Lord face to face.

Reading: Too Much to Believe (Dr. Feddes)

I am under constant surveillance. Someone is watching me every minute of the day. He sees when I
sit down and when I stand up. He sees when I leave my house in the morning and when I go to bed at
night. He knows my habits and has a record of everything I do. He knows the way I talk and keeps track
of every word I say. He even knows the way I think. Somehow he gets right inside my head. He knows
me so well that he knows what I'm going to say even before I say it.
No matter which way I turn, he's always there. When I move ahead, he's in front of me. When I
think of turning around, he's behind me. I can't get away from him. No matter where I go, he's always
there first. If I go up into the sky and fly at 35,000 feet, he's in the airplane with me. If I plunge down to
the bottom of the sea in a submarine, he's down there too. If I pack up all my things and cross the ocean
and settle on the other side of the world, he's sure to be there, tracking my every move.
If I turn off the lights and keep the curtains drawn, he still sees me. He sees in the dark as well as the
daytime. I'm under constant surveillance, and I can't escape it.
I'm not paranoid. I'm not talking about a stalker or a secret agent. I'm not talking about someone who
watches me with infrared equipment for night vision, or who listens to me with hidden microphones, or
who keeps a data bank of information about me in a computer, or who consults a panel of psychologists
to explain the way I think and predict my future behavior. I'm talking about Someone who keeps track of
me without the help of gadgets or experts. I'm talking about God.
 The Bible reveals God as everywhere-present and all-knowing. In Psalm 139 King David speaks of
how the Lord watches his every move, understands his every thought, and knows what he's going to say
even before he says it. He asks God, "Where can I flee from your presence?” David says that whether he
soars high in the sky or plunges down into the deep or moves to the most distant place, God is always
there. In fact, says David, every day of his life was written in God's book even before his first day came
to be. God isn't just observing and keeping track of things after they happen; he already has a complete
plan worked out ahead of time.
Now, isn't that too much to believe? How can God know what you're thinking every moment of the
day? And even if he can keep track of your thoughts, how can he keep track of all the thoughts of more
than five billion different people? And just supposing he manages that, how can he possibly know every
thought we think even before we think it, every word we say even before we say it, every deed we do
even before we do it? How can God know all that ahead of time? And if God does know all that and if
he has it all figured into a plan that he's already worked out ahead of time, how can we make any real
choices? Aren't we just robots behaving the way we've been programmed?
Well, I'll put it bluntly: God is too much to believe. Skeptic and Christian agree on that. The
difference between the skeptic and the Christian is this: The skeptic stops short of believing, while the
Christian goes beyond believing. The skeptic won't believe anything that's too much for him to
understand. The Christian, however, believes and then goes beyond believing to worship and marvel at a
God who is too much for us to figure out. When confronted with the mind-boggling reality of the God
who is present everywhere, who knows everything, and who works all things according to his plan and
purpose, the skeptic keep objecting, "How?” The Christian keeps exclaiming, "Wow!”

"How?” or "Wow!”
Are you amazed and awestruck by God? Or do you find it hard to believe what the Bible says about
him? If you're skeptical, is it because you think that what the Bible says about God isn't logical? Or is it
perhaps because you want to be your own person and you can't bear to think that God is everywhere you
go and knows everything you do and think? Maybe you're skeptical for both reasons: in your mind you
can't believe something that you can't figure out or fit together; and in your heart, you can't afford to
believe anything that might ruin your privacy and your right to do what you please. If you were really to
believe, you'd have to do more than believe. You'd have to go beyond belief. You'd have to worship and
obey, and you'd rather not do that.
If you think God is too much to believe, I agree with you. You can't respond to God simply by
believing he's there and filing that fact away in a tidy compartment of your mind. God is too much to fit
neatly into your mental structures. But that doesn't mean you should stop short of believing him and be a
skeptic. Instead, you should believe and then go beyond belief to amazement, trust, and transformation.
If you are at all in touch with God's reality, he overflows all your ways of thinking and overwhelms your
entire being.
The reality of God isn't merely something to be believed but to be marveled at. This shines through
in what David says in Psalm 139. David has no idea how God can keep track of so many different things
at the same time, or how he can know what we're thinking, or how he can know the future. But that
doesn't stop David from believing; it moves him beyond belief, to amazement and worship. He says to
God, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, to lofty for me to attain” (v. 6). When he reflects on the
mysterious and marvelous way God made him, he exclaims, "I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (v. 14). When he thinks of how God
knows the future and planned every day of his life even before he was born, he exclaims, "How precious
to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would
outnumber the grains of sand” (v. 17-18).
Instead of doubting God's mind-boggling powers, David expresses awe and worship. Instead of
demanding an explanation of how God does it, David says Wow! at what God does. Instead of resenting
God's constant presence, David rejoices in it. Instead of trying to escape God's searching eye, David
actually invites God to keep searching him and to show him anything that's amiss in his life and to lead
in him God's everlasting way. At the end of Psalm 139 he prays, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Instead of insisting that God be in line with the way he thinks,
David prays that the way he thinks be brought in line with God.
There are so many things about God that stagger our minds. How could he bring an entire universe
into being out of nothing? How could he make creatures like us who think and make choices--and how
can those choices be genuine if they are all part of his eternal plan? How can God be in touch with all of
us at once?
Taking this even further, how could a Jewish carpenter born 2,000 years ago be true God and true
man? How could the death of this divine carpenter mean eternal life for millions? How could this Jesus
rise from the dead, and how will his second coming bring about a transformation of the entire universe?
How can I even imagine what the new creation will be like? With the biblical writer, I say, "Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

Mind-Boggling But Real

The Bible is full of revelation from God that is too much to believe. You can't analyze God then say,
"Okay, now I've got him all figured out,” and calmly file your belief away in your brain. You either have
to shut your eyes to God, or else be overwhelmed and amazed by him.
Just take the simple question, "Why is there something instead of nothing?” Think about that, and
it's enough to blow your mind. People who supposedly know all sorts of things about the world are
dumbfounded by the simple question why there is something instead of nothing, and yet the one-word
answer is, "God!” Even a child could tell you that! Some grownups find it hard to believe that God
brought the universe into existence out of nothing. But is it easier to believe that nothingness suddenly
went "Bang!” and turned into something? The truth is that everything from starfish to stars, from quarks
to quasars, is planned and powered by God.
The world God made is staggering in its beauty and complexity. The more we know about it, the
more we realize how much we don't know. A century ago, the diagram of a cell was fairly simple. A few
decades later, the diagram was much more complex. Today's diagrams are so complicated it almost
blows your mind. And the process of discovery still isn't over. A Christian biologist recently wrote of
how he is inspired to awe and worship when he looks at cell diagrams. Hosts of brilliant minds, working
for decades, still don't have the full picture of what just one cell involves. What sort of Genius could
come up with such a design? And how can he keep track and remain in charge of every cell in every
living thing on this planet?
God staggers the mind, and God's handiwork staggers the mind. It may be tempting to say you're not
going to believe in a God you can't figure out, but then why should you believe anything else? There's
hardly anything in God's world that people have figured out completely, so why expect to be able to
figure out God himself? Almost everything around you, if you really look into it, is an impossible
wonder--and yet it's real. The simplest cell in the human body is so complex that scientists still don't
have it figured out--but our bodies are real. The nature of light, whether it's a particle or wave or
something else entirely, is still a mystery--but light is real. The basic building blocks of the physical
universe are so mysterious that scientists keep probing further and further. First the atom was said to be
the smallest and most basic. Then it was protons and electrons and neutrons. Then it was quarks. And
physicists still haven't gotten to the bottom of the matter--but matter is real.
The world is a marvel and a mystery and a reality--and the world's Creator is infinitely more
marvelous and mysterious and real. The Bible says, "I saw all that God has done. No one can
comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its
meaning” (Ecclesiastes 8:17). We can't figure God's world out completely, so there's absolutely no way
we'll ever figure God out completely. But that just means that God is more than we understand, not less.
Some of us think we'd find it a lot easier to believe in God if we just had a clear explanation for why
he does what he does. If you're a skeptic and you've got some tough questions, there may be answers for
some of them. But you probably don't need more answers nearly as much as you need a new attitude.
God can't be studied or evaluated by a skeptic, for a skeptic insists on believing only the minimum, and
God is more than the maximum of what our minds can grasp. Because God is more than the maximum,
he can be known only in a spirit of trust and awe.
You may wonder how God can plan all things and direct them according to his purposes and how at
the same time people make real choices and are responsible to God for the path they choose. If it all
depends on God, you might ask, "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" That
question comes up in the Bible, but how does the Bible respond? "Who are you, O man, to talk back to
God?" (Romans 9:19-20). The Lord tells us enough to let us know he's in charge and also that we are
responsible. But he doesn't explain how those two things fit together, and he doesn't want any back talk.
This doesn't mean we can't think about and explore these truths, but it does mean that skepticism and a
big mouth won't get us nearly as far as humble faith and awe at what God says.
According to the Bible, God has a great plan for history which includes his dealings with different
nationalities and individuals. God judges and hardens some people, and he softens and saves others. If I
start to gripe about this, God's answer is to say, "Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” It would be
wiser for me be like the biblical writer, who accepts God at his Word and then goes beyond explanation
and beyond belief to awestruck praise:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his
judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has
been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and
through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

Getting Personal
Let's get personal. We've been thinking about God's astonishing creation and his mysterious
workings in history, but let's get back to the mystery of God's constant presence in our individual lives,
and let's also talk about his presence in Jesus Christ. Here is where God is really too much to believe.
Here, especially, the reality of God meets us in a way that we can't merely believe. We must either react
against God or be transformed by God.
A God who is always present, all-knowing, and all-powerful--how can anybody simply believe in
such a God? You either have to stop short of believing and try to ignore him, or else you have to go
beyond believing and give him his due. One thing you can't do is simply believe that the living God is
right where you are, knowing you and shaping your destiny--and then pretend that it makes no
difference. You must either reject him, or else fall down and worship him, and trust and obey him.
There is one other option, I suppose. Instead of utterly rejecting God or adoring him, you can find a
god who fits your own standards, who thinks pretty much the way you think and who acts pretty much
the way you expect him to act. That way you won't be an atheist: you can still believe in a god and feel
religious without having your mind shaken or your life changed. But that is idolatry. Many of us would
rather have a sensible, manageable idol than deal with the living God of the Bible who is too great to fit
our ideas and expectations.
But the God who is too much to believe is the only God there is. His constant presence will either
disturb us so much that we can't afford to believe in him, or else his presence will awe and comfort us so
much that we will worship and trust and love and obey him. This becomes even more clear when we
think of how God is present to us in the sacrifice of Christ and in his gospel call to repent and receive
pardon and enter a new life.
 This is truly too much to believe: that God became a man in Jesus, and that he died to save not good
people but bad people. After a radio program in which I spoke of how Jesus died for sinners, someone
who heard the program wrote me and said, "God help us if you're right. Then Jesus died for the guilty
sinner, not for the just. Though I may go to hell, I feel sorry for Christ who suffered for guilty sinners
who don't deserve it.” This person finds the gospel too much to believe. It blows his mind to think that
Christ would suffer for the guilty, and at the same time it offends his ego to think that he himself is so
guilty that nothing less than Jesus' blood could save him. He finds the whole idea of God saving the
guilty to be ridiculous.
But in the Bible God invites us guilty sinners to seek him and call on him. In Isaiah 55 the Lord
says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he
will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (v. 7). When God makes that
promise, he knows that it doesn't fit human logic, and so he goes on to say, "'For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts'” (v:8-9).
The God who forgives the wicked, the Jesus who died for the guilty, is too much to believe. You
either have to stop short of believing and say it's crazy to think he died for the ungodly, or else you have
to go beyond merely believing and confess that you're one of the ungodly for whom he died and then
thank him and worship him and love the One who gave his life for you.
If you ask me how one person's death can bring forgiveness to millions, I can't explain it. But I
know that it does, because God says so. And I know that in Christ God is able to do more than all we ask
or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
God's constant surveillance--this truth is so simple that a child knows it means God is always right
there with us, and yet it is so mind-boggling that a genius can't figure out how God does it. Likewise,
God's salvation through Jesus--it's so simple that a child can receive forgiveness and eternal life by faith,
and yet no preacher can explain exactly how it works.
Constant surveillance and complete salvation--do these realities of the living God fill you with
skepticism or with a sense of awe? May God's Holy Spirit move you to trust and worship and obey this
God and Savior who is too much to believe.

PRAYER
Lord, you search me and you know me; you love me and forgive me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; your greatness no one can fathom. Help me to
live each moment in awe of your majesty, in the comfort and challenge of your nearness, and in the
assurance of your forgiving love. Lead me in the way everlasting, through your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Reading: Help in Prayer (Dr. Feddes)

If you're like most people, you pray. According to surveys, almost everybody prays at some time or
another, and most people pray fairly often. You might not go to church often, you might not consider
yourself part of any religion, but chances are you still pray. Even among atheists and agnostics, a great
number still pray from time to time. It may seem strange talking to God without believing he's there. But
every day people do it.
Why is that? What moves almost everybody, even those who aren't religious, to pray? I guess one
reason is that most of us figure we've got nothing to lose by praying. God may not be listening, he may
not even be real, but what if he is? It can't hurt to ask, and it might help. So if you need financial help, or
face health problems, or want something badly, you breathe a prayer and hope for the best. Who knows?
Maybe God will come through. Prayer can be like radioing for help when you're in a boat far from shore.
You don't know if anybody will hear you, but it's worth a try, just in case.
There may also be another reason many of us feel the urge to pray. We don't just want God to help
us out or give us something we're after; we want to make contact with God. We long to be in touch with
Someone great and mysterious who can fill our lives with a sense of wonder and delight. Wouldn't you
like to think that the most important Person in the universe cares about you and listens when you talk to
him? Wouldn't you like to connect with Someone who can touch your humdrum life with a glow of
glory? Inside each of us there's a deep longing for the Eternal, and prayer expresses that longing.
We do indeed have strong motivations to pray--so strong that many of us can't keep from praying.
But at the same time we can't help feeling confused and frustrated about our prayers. We want to pray,
but we don't know how. We want to ask God for certain things, but we don't know what to ask for or
what to expect. And after we finish saying our prayers, we're not always sure what impact our prayers
have had, if any. How do we know we're getting through? We want to get in touch with God, but we're
not quite sure who God is. We may not even be sure who we are. Are we God's friends or his enemies?
Are we people who really seek God, or do we just want to use God as a way of getting the stuff we
want? It's hard to know our own hearts and our hidden motives.
These are just a few of the problems that spring up when we start praying. So yes, most of us do
pray, but most of us suspect we're not doing it very well. We need help.
The good news is that help is available. We don't have to figure God out on our own. God introduces
himself and invites us to be his friends. And we don't have to figure prayer out all on our own. We don't
have to feel all the right emotions or say all the right words. God guides us in how to pray. If we're still
unsure how to pray or what to ask for, God can take our prayer and make it mean what it ought to mean.
Isn't that encouraging?

A Conversation of Love
To see what prayer is about, and to see how God helps us pray, we first need to focus on the nature
of God. The Bible says, "God is love.” This doesn't just mean that God is loving toward other beings,
though that is true. But there's also a deeper truth in the statement "God is love.” Love isn't just what
God does; love is who God is, by his very nature.
In the Bible God reveals himself as one Being in which three distinct, divine Persons are united in
an eternal bond of love. This Holy Trinity, this union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one in power,
one in perfection, one in purpose, one in glory, one in essence, one in love. The Father loves the Son, the
Son loves the Father, and the Spirit is united to both Father and Son in an infinite, eternal outpouring of
love. God is love because God is Trinity.
This great Trinity has chosen to create other beings. Why does God create? To expand the circle of
love, to bring into existence creatures who know God's love and love him in return.
When God's creatures get tangled in sin and death, what does God do? He pours out an even greater
measure of love. In love God the Father devises a great plan to save his fallen creation. In love God the
Son, the second Person of the Trinity, becomes one of us and dies for us and rises again to lift us out of
our misery. In love God the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and touches us with new life and fills our
hearts with his love.
God pours out his heart of love, and in doing so, he calls for the love of our hearts. God calls us to
receive his love and to love him in return.
What does this have to do with prayer? True prayer is first of all a heart-to-heart conversation of
love, a deep dialogue and communion. In prayer we sense God's love for us, and we express our love for
him. Love is the heart of true prayer.
 Here's the prayer of one great Christian: "I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you
until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving
you, than live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally....
My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as
often as I draw breath” (St. John Vianney).
That prayer expresses a deep desire to love God the way God deserves to be loved. But we let's face
it: we can't love God this way, or pray this way, on our own. We need help. We need Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit to draw us into the Holy Trinity's fellowship of love. And when we're mixed up in the
confusion and difficulties of our day-to-day lives, we need Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to take our
mixed up prayers and make them into prayers that resonate in the very heart of God. Prayer is the
privilege of conversation with the Holy Trinity, with the constant help of the Holy Trinity. God likes to
hear his people pray. In fact, he is so eager to hear from us that he actually helps us with our prayers.

Invitation and Introduction

One great help is that God initiates the conversation by inviting us to talk with him and introducing
himself.
Have you ever tried to talk to someone you don't know or whom you suspect would rather not hear
from you? That's awkward, isn't it? It's hard to break the ice when you want to speak with a stranger. It's
even harder if you want to ask for something but you're not sure the other person wants to know you or
help you. That can be a problem in starting an ordinary conversation. But when it comes to prayer, we
don't have to make the first move. God offers an invitation and an introduction.
Before we even think about praying, the Lord invites us to talk with him. When we have a need, we
don't have to worry that it's a bother for God, or that the Lord is too stingy or unkind to give us what we
need. The Bible says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”
(Psalm 34:8). "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). We don't have take the initiative in
prayer. God has already invited us to talk with him.
And as he invites us, the Lord introduces himself and lets us know who it is that we're talking to. If
God didn't do that, there wouldn't be much point in praying at all. If you pray to some great unknown
beyond the clouds, or to a god or goddess of your own imagination, those prayers won't do much.
They're not directed to anyone definite or real.
The Bible tells how God's prophet Elijah challenged 450 prophets of a phony god called Baal. They
were to pray to Baal to send fire from the sky down to the altar of Baal, and then Elijah would ask the
Lord God to send fire from heaven to his altar. The God that answered with fire would be the true God.
So the 450 prophets of Baal prayed and danced and yelled and went through all sorts of wild rituals.
But their altar just sat there. Nothing happened. Nobody answered. They were sending all their prayers
to the wrong address. There was no divine being named Baal to hear and answer their prayers.
When the prophets of Baal finally gave up, it was Elijah's turn. First he poured buckets and buckets
of water all over his offering and altar just to make it harder to catch fire. Then Elijah prayed one short,
earnest prayer. The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the offering, the wood, the water, the
stones of the altar, and even the soil around the altar (1 Kings 18). You see, Elijah prayed to the real
God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Bible.
Prayer isn't much good if it's addressed to a phony idol or a vague unknown. True prayer is directed
to the one true God, the God revealed in the Bible, in faith that this God is real and that he responds to
prayer. The Bible says that "without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to
him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). So
the most basic help God gives us in prayer is that he reveals himself to us. He helps us understand who
he is, and he gives us faith in his love.
God began revealing himself to the Old Testament people of Israel, and this led up to his fullest
revelation in our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, came into the world
as a man. Jesus' life and miracles and teaching and personality revealed perfectly what God is like, and
his death and resurrection removed the barrier of sin between us and God. After doing all that, Jesus
ascended to heaven. There he intercedes on behalf of everyone who prays in his name, and he makes
their prayers effective.
Ten days after Jesus' ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy
Spirit, came with special power on Jesus' disciples. The Holy Spirit opened their minds to all the truth of
Jesus and gave them power to spread that truth to others. The Holy Spirit's work was and is to draw
people into fellowship with Jesus Christ and with God the Father, and this fellowship is the substance of
all true prayer.
If God hadn't revealed himself and removed the barriers between us and him, our prayers would be
useless. All we could do would be to address our prayers "To whom it may concern.” But now we can
speak to our loving Father in heaven in the fellowship of the Holy Trinity. God has shown us who he is
in his Triune being, and so we can come to him in faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus,
to our Father in heaven.
In true prayer, we can't address a phony God, and we can't be phony ourselves. God helps our
prayers by showing us who it is we ought to be praying to, and also by showing us who we are as we do
our praying. The Holy Spirit knows us inside out, our hearts are an open book to God, and once we
know that, we can come to God honestly and pour out everything in our heart, even the things we're
ashamed of. We can admit our sins. We can be honest about our problems and our needs and our fears.
There's no use pretending; we can't fool God anyway. And there's no need to pretend; God accepts us on
the basis of Christ's merit, not because we've got it all together.
Honesty is the best policy in any conversation, and so it is when we pray to God. We speak to God
as he is and reveals himself to be, not just as we'd like him to be or imagine him to be; and we speak as
who we are, not who we wish we were. C. S. Lewis said, "The prayer preceding all prayer is 'May it be
the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.'”

Perfecting Our Prayers

But then what? Once we reach that point, once we hear God's invitation to pray; once we put our
faith in Father, Son, and Spirit, and in what God has done to save us; and once we have some degree of
honesty and awareness of who we are--how do we know what to say? How do we know we're getting
through? How do we know what to expect? What if we don't know what words to use? Again the Bible
gives encouraging news. The Holy Trinity takes our imperfect prayers and makes them into something
much more profound and powerful. In fact, by the time Father, Son, and Spirit have processed our
prayers, those prayers are perfect.
Do you ever feel so sad and heartbroken you can't put it into words, so baffled and confused about
God's will that you don't know what you ought to be praying for, so tired and discouraged that you don't
feel like saying much of anything? How can you come up with the right words at a time like that?
You don't have to. God does it for you.
The Bible says, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our
hearts know the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's
will” (Romans 8:26-27). You know what that means? It means that even if you don't know what to say,
even if all you can do is groan, God's Holy Spirit living inside you makes your groaning his own and
translates it into a perfect prayer that God understands completely and that fits perfectly with his will.
The Spirit isn't the only one who helps our prayers. Jesus, the Son, also helps. After showing how
the Spirit intercedes, the Bible goes on to say, "Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised
to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). The
word interceding means speaking on someone's behalf. The Spirit speaks on our behalf from inside us,
and Jesus speaks on our behalf in heaven. With that kind of help in our prayers, how can we be anything
but confident when we pray?
The Bible encourages us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests” (Ephesians 6:18). It says, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most
Holy Place by the blood of Jesus... let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith”
(Hebrews 10:19,22). The Spirit and the Son perfect our prayers and bring them to the Father, the first
Person of the Trinity.
And it's not as if the Father needs to be convinced or cajoled to hear our prayers. If the Father didn't
love us, if he weren't for us, would he ever have sent his Son and Spirit? When we pray, all we have to
do is mention Jesus' name in faith, and we have the Father's instant attention. Jesus intercedes on our
behalf, says the Bible, but that doesn't mean he's trying to convince the Father to do something He
doesn't want to do. The fact that Jesus came and is now back at the Father's side is itself a guarantee that
the Father is already for us. "In that day,” says Jesus, "you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I
will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and
have believed that I came from God” (John 16:26-27).
Jesus earned us the right to come to the Father and call him "Our Father,” and the Spirit brings us
into the experience of being children of the Father. The Bible says, "Those who are led by the Spirit of
God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our
spirit that we are God's children” (Romans 8:14-16). When the Spirit lives in us, and we trust in Jesus,
we can be sure that we are children of a heavenly Father who is eager to hear us and help us.
Jesus teaches us to start our prayers by saying, "Our Father.” We are God's children, talking to a
Father who wants to hear from us. He loves us so much that we don't need big speeches to convince him
to care. He knows us so well that we don't need lengthy lectures to tell him things he doesn't know. Jesus
tells us, "When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because
of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”
(Matthew 6:7-8). The Father helps us in prayer by knowing in advance what we need most.
Now do you see how marvelously God helps us? He draws us into the great circle of communication
within the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit, united in love, help us and make our prayers what they
ought to be.

More Than We Asked For

When you saw that this article was about help in prayer, maybe you were hoping for practical
pointers on how to get through to God and make sure he gives you what you want. I haven't said much
about that, and you might feel disappointed. That's understandable. We all have times when we'd like to
know what button to push and what string to pull in order to get our way. We'd like to bring God in tune
with our will. But when God helps us in our prayers, he does something even better. He brings us in tune
with his will. He doesn't just give us what we ask for. He gives us what we need. Someone has written,
I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I
asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I
asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power
that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I
 asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got
nothing I asked for, but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken
prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
In prayer we seek God's gifts, but even more, we seek the Giver himself, because in him, we have
everything else. We seek the God whose love is better than life itself, and we express our love and our
longing for him. The Bible records this beautiful prayer: "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you... Because your love is better than life, my lips will
glorify you” (Psalm 63:1,3). This longing for God, this delight in the Father's love, this desire for the
glory of his name and for the coming of his kingdom, inspires us to pray in the words that Jesus himself
taught us:
PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen.