PRAYER-UNANSWERED
God
will either give you what you ask, or something far
better.
It
is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to
continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in
prayer until we obtain an answer; and further we have not only to continue in
prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us, and
will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer
until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.
George Muller
It may be,
remember, that God has indeed answered but not in a way that is obvious to
us. And it is possible that nothing is
amiss in our praying, but that we haven’t yet seen the answer only because God
intends for us to persevere in praying about the matter awhile longer. But we must also learn to examine our
prayers. Are we asking for things that
are outside the will of God or would not glorify Him? Are we praying with selfish motives? Are we failing to deal with the kind of
blatant sin that causes God to put all our prayers on hold?
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 79, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved. For more
information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
If our
prayers are not answered – always answered, but not necessarily granted – the
fault must be entirely in ourselves, and not in God.
God delights to answer prayer; and He has given us His word that He will
answer.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 2.
If we ask and
God does not give, then the fault is with us. Every unanswered prayer is a
clarion call to search the heart to see what is wrong there; for the promise is
unmistakable in its clearness: “If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will
I do” (John 14:14). Truly he who prays puts, not God, but his own spiritual
life to the test!
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 3.
When we
confess that we “never get answers to our prayers,” we are condemning not God,
or His promises, or the power of prayer, but ourselves. There is no greater
test of spirituality than prayer.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 6.
Most
Christians do not give God a chance to show His delight in granting His
children’s petitions; for their requests are so vague and indefinite. If this
is so, it is not surprising that prayer is so often a mere form – man almost
mechanical repetition, day by day, of certain phrases; a few minutes’
“exercise” morning and evening.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 4.
God cannot
always grant our petitions immediately. Sometimes we are not fitted to receive
the gift. Sometimes He says "No" in order to give us something far
better.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 7.
Do not stop
to ask the writer if God has granted all his prayers. He has not. To have said
“Yes” to some of them would have spelt curse instead of blessing. To have
answered others was, alas! a spiritual impossibility –
he was not worthy of the gifts he sought. The granting of some of them would
but have fostered spiritual pride and self-satisfaction. How plain all these
things seem now, in the fuller light of God's Holy Spirit!
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 8.
It is a very
singular thing…that the only petition recorded of St. Paul seeking something
for his own individual need [removal of the “thorn in the flesh”] was refused!
The difficulty, however, is this: Why did St. Paul, who had the “mind” of
Christ, ask for something which he soon discovered was contrary to God’s
wishes? There are doubtless many fully-consecrated Christians reading these
words who have been perplexed because God has not given some things they prayed
for… St. Paul was tempted to think that he could do far better work for his
beloved Master if only that “thorn” could be removed. But God knew that Paul
would be a better man with the “thorn” than without it.
Author
Unknown
The Kneeling Christian, circa 1930, ch. 8.
We all want
God's voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God's is the still, small voice…the
gentle whisper. Perhaps there's a
reason. Nothing draws human focus quite
like a whisper. God's whisper means I
must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with
His. And then, as I listen, I will find
my answer. Better still, I find myself
closer to God.
Author Unknown
If
your prayers were always answered, you’d have a reason to doubt the wisdom of
God.
Author Unknown
God delays in
answering our prayers because men would pluck their mercies green; God would
have them ripe.
Author Unknown
Never
make the blunder of trying to forecast the way God is going to answer your
prayer.
Oswald Chambers
It
will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find
that the prayers we clamored for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that
God’s silence has been the sign of the answer.
If we always want to be able to point to something and say, “This is the
way God answered my prayer,” God cannot trust us yet with His silence.
Oswald Chambers
Some prayers
are followed by silence (from God) because they are wrong, others because they
are bigger than one can understand. It
will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find
that the prayers we clamored for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and
that God’s silence has been the sign of the answer.
Oswald Chambers
Daily Thoughts for Disciples, Christian
Literature Crusade, 1976, p. 75.
When Christ
delays to help His saints now, you think this is a great mystery, you cannot
explain it; but Jesus sees the end from the beginning. Be still, and know that Christ is God.
Robert Murray McCheyne
Comfort in Sorrow, Christian Focus, 2002, p.
38, Used by Permission.
Christ
frequently gives us the desires of our heart, though not at the peculiar time
we desired, but a better time.
Robert Murray McCheyne
Comfort in Sorrow, Christian Focus, 2002, p.
44, Used by Permission.
He hath
engaged to answer the prayers of His people, and “fulfill the desires of those
that fear Him.” But it proves a long
voyage sometimes before the praying saint hath the return of his adventure. There comes oft a
long and sharp winter between the sowing-time of prayer, and the reaping. He hears us indeed as soon as we pray, but we
oft do not hear of Him so soon. Prayers
are not long in their journey to heaven, but long a coming thence in a full
answer.
William Gurnall
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 220.
Set no time
to the Lord the creator of time, for His time is always best.
Samuel Rutherford
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 220.
Even if all
the things that people prayed for happened – which they do not – this would not
prove what Christians mean by the efficacy of prayer. For prayer is request.
The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not
be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite
and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse
them. Invariable "success" in prayer would not prove the Christian
doctrine at all. It would prove something more like magic – a power in certain
human beings to control, or compel, the course of nature.
C.S. Lewis
The Efficacy of Prayer.
God can
answer prayer, though He bestow not the very thing for
which we pray. He can sometimes better
answer the lawful desires and good end we have in prayer another way. If our end be our own good and happiness, God
can perhaps better answer that end in bestowing something else than in the
bestowment of the very thing which we ask.
And if the main good we aim at in our prayers be attained, our prayer in
answered.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards, p. 117.
We must not
think that [God] takes no notice of us, when He does not answer our wishes: for
He has a right to distinguish what we actually need.
John Calvin
Quoted in: Tabletalk, March 2008, p. 46.
We ought to
rejoice that in God’s great wisdom and love He does in fact answer all of our
requests, though to be sure, He says no to some things because our having them
would hurt us in the long run. We also
ought to rejoice that in His wisdom He gives us what we ask at the best time,
rather than at an earlier time when our very limited judgment thinks it would
be best. And finally, we ought to rejoice
that God’s love and wisdom gives us what often turns out to be far better than
the precise thing for which we had asked (Eph. 3:20).
The Unity of the Bible, Zondervan, 1992, p.
165.
Cold prayers
always freeze before they reach heaven.
Thomas
Brooks
Sometimes
when we pour out our desires to God, He appears
to be indifferent. When the apostle Paul earnestly petitioned God for the
removal of his thorn in the flesh, the request was not granted. However, in not
giving this desire of Paul’s heart, God gave him his deeper desire. Certainly
Paul’s greatest desire was to know God’s grace and power in order to be the
most useful servant he could possibly be. God withheld the request in order to
give Paul his deepest desire and thus glorify Himself (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Bill Thrasher
A Journey to Victorious Praying, Moody Publishers, 2003, p. 59.
Jesus hears
us, and in His own good time will give an answer... He may sometimes keep us
long waiting...but He will never send us empty away.
J.C.
Ryle
Commentary, Matthew 15.
The Bible is
very clear on the reasons why prayers go unanswered, and every reason centers
on the believer’s relationship with God. God will not cooperate with prayers of
mere self-interest, or prayers that come from impure motives. The Christian who
clings to sin closes the ear of God. Least of all will God tolerate unbelief,
the chief of sins.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 91-92.
God often takes
a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow
views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and
prospects when He is about to give us the desires of our hearts.
John Newton
If the Lord
will but hear us we will leave it to His superior wisdom to decide whether He
will answer us or no. It is better for our prayer to be heard than answered. If
the Lord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests it might
be rather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility
of our lives upon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious
position: But now the Lord hears our desires, and that is enough; we only wish
Him to grant them if His infinite wisdom sees that it would be for our good and
for His glory.
C.H. Spurgeon
Treasury of David, Psalm 130:2.
When we ask
of the Lord cooly, and not fervently, we do as it
were, stop His hand, and restrain Him from giving us the very blessing we
“pretend” that we are seeking.
C.H.
Spurgeon