In the Old Testament book of 2nd Kings, Elijah challenged some very bad people to a prayer contest. Elijah asked for fire to strike down from heaven and set the wood on fire. Fire did come down and burn the wood. Don’t you love it when God answers our prayers?
In March of 1999, I got a call late one might from my brother in North Dakota – telling me that our mother was in the hospital and she would not live through the night. I called the doctor at the hospital and asked if I should drive up immediately so I could say good-bye to our mother. The doctor said that she would be dead by the time I got there. I remember hanging up and feeling frustrated. All I could do is pray and ask the Lord to let my mother live—at least let her live through the end of the summer when both of my sisters could come home and see her again for one final time. My mother always loved summertime in North Dakota. You know what? My mother survived even though the doctor said that she would die. My mother lived until the end of that summer in 1999. The Lord answered my prayer. You have it love it when God answers prayer especially when He answers the way that we ask Him to.
But for every story of answered prayers, there is another story of unanswered prayer. Many of those stories are from seemingly godly people. Now God does not need any defense. But I find that people, including Christians and sometimes myself, often want an explanation for things. The topic that I have written about is “Why doesn’t God always answer our prayers?”
It's not a new question; Job asked it 4000 years ago. Job 30:20 (Good News Bible) "I call to you, O God, but you never answer; and when I pray, you pay no attention.” Have you ever felt like that? Prayer is a confusing mystery to many people. To some people, prayer is just a ritual. Others think of prayer as some kind of Aladdin's lamp—that God is a genie up in the sky saying, “Your wish is my command". Others think prayer is a first aid kit to be used only in case of emergency. Some people think prayer is a tug-of-war. In other words, you have to fight with God to get Him to say "yes" to your prayer. The fact is God wants to answer our prayers. He says to ask anything, yet we don't get everything that we ask for. So, what is the problem?
I believe that God wants to answer prayers. He told Jeremiah: “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and un-searchable things you do not know.”
Most of understand that God answer prayers in 3 ways —“yes, no, or wait.”
We love the yes answer. We have troubles though, when God says “no”. Some people have even abandoned church because God didn’t answer their prayer the way that they expected Him to.
Sometimes God says, “No.” The fact is God doesn't give us everything we ask for. The Bible is full of examples where God said, “No” to people. Moses said, "I want to go into the Promised Land." God said, “No.” David said, "I want you to save the life of my son." God said, “No.”
Why does God say no? There are three reasons why God says, “No.”
1. God says “No” when He has a bigger perspective.
God can see the whole picture, we don't. He sees things from a wider viewpoint than we do. Hebrews 4:13 says, "He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from Him..."
Life is unpredictable. We can't predict the future. We can't predict the consequences of our choices. As a result we have a lot of problems. If you were like God and you knew everything that would solve all of your problems. You'd never have car trouble on the freeway, that kind of thing. Life would be so much simpler if we could see into the future. But unfortunately we can't. We don't see the consequences or the effects. But God does.
Proverbs 2:8 says, "God guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones." Sometimes God says, “No” to protect us from unforeseen problems.
You know there was this pilot who flew one of those little planes and he was flying out to the western part of Colorado. He was flying at 14,000 feet and he was in the clouds and “doggone it”—he had been in the clouds for awhile flying. He had never been to Colorado before. He wanted to see the beauty of that state and he wanted to see the mountains. So, he radioed an air-traffic controller and said he wanted to drop to 10,000 feet so that he could see things. It was a reasonable request. He wanted to see the mountains. But the air-traffic controller said, “No!”
“What?” thought this pilot. He wondered if the air-traffic controller was being unfair. Why wouldn’t this air-traffic controller let him drop down to 10,000 feet and see the sights?
It was later that he found out that there were mountain peaks below where he was flying. Had he been allowed to drop to 10,000 feet he would have flown right into a mountain. The air-traffic controller knew what was best. God is like that too. He sees things from a higher perspective than we do.
2. God says “No” when He has a better plan.
Often God wants to fulfill our desires but He wants to do it in a different way than we have in mind. He has a better idea. In Isaiah 55, God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, My ways are higher than your ways.”
Notice the word - "ways". God has more than one way of doing things. He's not limited in His options. He's never forced into one answer. He has many alternatives.
We let God answer, not only in His time, but in His way. Our problem is that we get a preconceived idea: "God, do this and do it my way." We not only want God to answer us but we want Him to do it the way we've already planned out, because we think that is the most logical way. And most of the time, we always pick the least painful way of having God answer our requests.
Hebrews 11 talks about God’s Hall of Fame people Heb. 11:39-40 "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, God had planned something better."
Many prayed and their answers were not the way they prayed. Daniel said, "Lord, keep me out of the lion's den." God said, "My plan is to put you in the lion's den and shut the mouth of the lions."
We let God answer in His time and His way and God says, “No” sometimes because He's got a better plan. He's going to fulfill your desire but He's going to do it His way. He says, “No” to your preconceived idea.
The Apostle Paul really wanted to preach in Rome. He wanted more than anything else to impact the Roman Empire with the Gospel. Paul prayed and prayed and prayed. The book of Acts tells us that Paul eventually did get to Rome, but not in the way he had planned. Paul's idea was to cruise to Rome, rent the Coliseum, pass out flyers and have a great miracle tent rally. God's plan was: Go to Rome by being shipwrecked, and put in prison. Instead of preaching in a coliseum he's stuck in a prison. How is that a better plan? While he was in prison, Paul wrote a lot of what is now called the New Testament. God knew what Paul's real desire was to reach people. Paul thought the best way to do that was rent the Coliseum and preach all over Rome. But God knew the best way was to put Paul in a prison because he was such an energetic guy. It was the only way God could get Paul to settle down -- be in jail and then he would write. God said, I've got a bigger perspective and a better plan to fulfill your desires.
3. God says No when He has a greater purpose.
Isaiah 40:10 "God says My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please."
God isn't obligated to explain to us everything He does. He doesn't have to check it out with us. God may have a purpose that we may never understand this side of heaven. Everything God does in your life He has a purpose for it—including problems and including saying, “No” to some of your prayers. There's a purpose in it.
2nd Corinthians 4 says, "We do not lose heart for our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!"
Behind every problem there is an eternal purpose that we don't even see right now. Don't always look at the circumstance you're in right now. Circumstances are like a feather mattress, -- you get on top and you'll rest easy, you get under and you'll suffocate!
Joni Ericson Tada, the paraplegic, has been an incredible blessing and encouragement to people. I'm sure she's prayed that God would heal her. Yet God has said, “No.” Instead He has a greater purpose for her life.
Even Paul had to learn this: 2 Cor. 12:7 - "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing revelations there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away but God said to me, `My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness."
Two things to remember when God says No to your prayers:
1. Everything God does, He does out of love.
Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love God." It's working for good and not for bad. When God says, “No”, Satan will tempt you with all kinds of doubts: "I told you. God doesn't care about you. He likes other people – not you."
The truth of the matter is that God loves us too much to answer all your requests.
When I was about 6 years old, I wanted a BB gun. I felt I was ready for it and it was a reasonable request. I’d shoot some of those barn swallows that were flying around buzzing over our heads and bothering us. But my parents knew that I’d probably shoot some little calf’s eye out or worse – shoot my own eye out. They knew better.
It’s the same with God – He loves us too much to say, “Yes” to all of our requests. God isn't a vending machine where we put in a prayer and pull out what you want. A vending machine will give you things that are bad for you; God won't.
Psalm 25:10 "All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful." If we got everything we asked for in prayer, - we'd be the most selfish, spoiled people in the world. God loves us too much to answer all our prayers the way we want them answered. He has a better plan.
2. God always gives us grace when He says “No”.
Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh, his problem. 2 Cor. 12:7-9 says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said, `My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness."
Grace is the power to do what is right. Whenever God says, “No” to a request He always gives you more power, more grace.
How do I respond when God says No?
1. We can resist God. We can be mad at Him.
2. resent God. You can have a pity party.
3. You can relax and rejoice.
You can know that God has your best interest at heart, that He loves you, that He has a bigger perspective, a better plan, a bigger purpose.
There are people like Paul who have learned that their greatest weakness is turned into their greatest strength. My own mother struggled with Multiple Sclerosis for 44 years and yet God blessed many people through her.
God has a bigger perspective in life than we do. We have limited knowledge, He does not. We don't see the consequences of every choice we make, He does. We live in an imperfect world where people make choices that have bad implications. And sometimes we're the innocent victims of those wrong choices. Sometimes we pray for a certain thing and He's protecting us from an even greater problem. Maybe He said, “No” because He has a better plan.
Let’s stop telling the Lord what to do. Instead, pray “Lord, however You want to answer it....I’m trusting in You.” God has a greater purpose. And His purpose is that He wants to build our character and He wants to make you like Jesus Christ. And His purpose is that He wants to build our character and He wants to make us like Jesus Christ.
In March of 1999, I got a call late one might from my brother in North Dakota – telling me that our mother was in the hospital and she would not live through the night. I called the doctor at the hospital and asked if I should drive up immediately so I could say good-bye to our mother. The doctor said that she would be dead by the time I got there. I remember hanging up and feeling frustrated. All I could do is pray and ask the Lord to let my mother live—at least let her live through the end of the summer when both of my sisters could come home and see her again for one final time. My mother always loved summertime in North Dakota. You know what? My mother survived even though the doctor said that she would die. My mother lived until the end of that summer in 1999. The Lord answered my prayer. You have it love it when God answers prayer especially when He answers the way that we ask Him to.
But for every story of answered prayers, there is another story of unanswered prayer. Many of those stories are from seemingly godly people. Now God does not need any defense. But I find that people, including Christians and sometimes myself, often want an explanation for things. The topic that I have written about is “Why doesn’t God always answer our prayers?”
It's not a new question; Job asked it 4000 years ago. Job 30:20 (Good News Bible) "I call to you, O God, but you never answer; and when I pray, you pay no attention.” Have you ever felt like that? Prayer is a confusing mystery to many people. To some people, prayer is just a ritual. Others think of prayer as some kind of Aladdin's lamp—that God is a genie up in the sky saying, “Your wish is my command". Others think prayer is a first aid kit to be used only in case of emergency. Some people think prayer is a tug-of-war. In other words, you have to fight with God to get Him to say "yes" to your prayer. The fact is God wants to answer our prayers. He says to ask anything, yet we don't get everything that we ask for. So, what is the problem?
I believe that God wants to answer prayers. He told Jeremiah: “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and un-searchable things you do not know.”
Most of understand that God answer prayers in 3 ways —“yes, no, or wait.”
We love the yes answer. We have troubles though, when God says “no”. Some people have even abandoned church because God didn’t answer their prayer the way that they expected Him to.
Sometimes God says, “No.” The fact is God doesn't give us everything we ask for. The Bible is full of examples where God said, “No” to people. Moses said, "I want to go into the Promised Land." God said, “No.” David said, "I want you to save the life of my son." God said, “No.”
Why does God say no? There are three reasons why God says, “No.”
1. God says “No” when He has a bigger perspective.
God can see the whole picture, we don't. He sees things from a wider viewpoint than we do. Hebrews 4:13 says, "He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from Him..."
Life is unpredictable. We can't predict the future. We can't predict the consequences of our choices. As a result we have a lot of problems. If you were like God and you knew everything that would solve all of your problems. You'd never have car trouble on the freeway, that kind of thing. Life would be so much simpler if we could see into the future. But unfortunately we can't. We don't see the consequences or the effects. But God does.
Proverbs 2:8 says, "God guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones." Sometimes God says, “No” to protect us from unforeseen problems.
You know there was this pilot who flew one of those little planes and he was flying out to the western part of Colorado. He was flying at 14,000 feet and he was in the clouds and “doggone it”—he had been in the clouds for awhile flying. He had never been to Colorado before. He wanted to see the beauty of that state and he wanted to see the mountains. So, he radioed an air-traffic controller and said he wanted to drop to 10,000 feet so that he could see things. It was a reasonable request. He wanted to see the mountains. But the air-traffic controller said, “No!”
“What?” thought this pilot. He wondered if the air-traffic controller was being unfair. Why wouldn’t this air-traffic controller let him drop down to 10,000 feet and see the sights?
It was later that he found out that there were mountain peaks below where he was flying. Had he been allowed to drop to 10,000 feet he would have flown right into a mountain. The air-traffic controller knew what was best. God is like that too. He sees things from a higher perspective than we do.
2. God says “No” when He has a better plan.
Often God wants to fulfill our desires but He wants to do it in a different way than we have in mind. He has a better idea. In Isaiah 55, God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, My ways are higher than your ways.”
Notice the word - "ways". God has more than one way of doing things. He's not limited in His options. He's never forced into one answer. He has many alternatives.
We let God answer, not only in His time, but in His way. Our problem is that we get a preconceived idea: "God, do this and do it my way." We not only want God to answer us but we want Him to do it the way we've already planned out, because we think that is the most logical way. And most of the time, we always pick the least painful way of having God answer our requests.
Hebrews 11 talks about God’s Hall of Fame people Heb. 11:39-40 "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, God had planned something better."
Many prayed and their answers were not the way they prayed. Daniel said, "Lord, keep me out of the lion's den." God said, "My plan is to put you in the lion's den and shut the mouth of the lions."
We let God answer in His time and His way and God says, “No” sometimes because He's got a better plan. He's going to fulfill your desire but He's going to do it His way. He says, “No” to your preconceived idea.
The Apostle Paul really wanted to preach in Rome. He wanted more than anything else to impact the Roman Empire with the Gospel. Paul prayed and prayed and prayed. The book of Acts tells us that Paul eventually did get to Rome, but not in the way he had planned. Paul's idea was to cruise to Rome, rent the Coliseum, pass out flyers and have a great miracle tent rally. God's plan was: Go to Rome by being shipwrecked, and put in prison. Instead of preaching in a coliseum he's stuck in a prison. How is that a better plan? While he was in prison, Paul wrote a lot of what is now called the New Testament. God knew what Paul's real desire was to reach people. Paul thought the best way to do that was rent the Coliseum and preach all over Rome. But God knew the best way was to put Paul in a prison because he was such an energetic guy. It was the only way God could get Paul to settle down -- be in jail and then he would write. God said, I've got a bigger perspective and a better plan to fulfill your desires.
3. God says No when He has a greater purpose.
Isaiah 40:10 "God says My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please."
God isn't obligated to explain to us everything He does. He doesn't have to check it out with us. God may have a purpose that we may never understand this side of heaven. Everything God does in your life He has a purpose for it—including problems and including saying, “No” to some of your prayers. There's a purpose in it.
2nd Corinthians 4 says, "We do not lose heart for our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!"
Behind every problem there is an eternal purpose that we don't even see right now. Don't always look at the circumstance you're in right now. Circumstances are like a feather mattress, -- you get on top and you'll rest easy, you get under and you'll suffocate!
Joni Ericson Tada, the paraplegic, has been an incredible blessing and encouragement to people. I'm sure she's prayed that God would heal her. Yet God has said, “No.” Instead He has a greater purpose for her life.
Even Paul had to learn this: 2 Cor. 12:7 - "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing revelations there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away but God said to me, `My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness."
Two things to remember when God says No to your prayers:
1. Everything God does, He does out of love.
Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love God." It's working for good and not for bad. When God says, “No”, Satan will tempt you with all kinds of doubts: "I told you. God doesn't care about you. He likes other people – not you."
The truth of the matter is that God loves us too much to answer all your requests.
When I was about 6 years old, I wanted a BB gun. I felt I was ready for it and it was a reasonable request. I’d shoot some of those barn swallows that were flying around buzzing over our heads and bothering us. But my parents knew that I’d probably shoot some little calf’s eye out or worse – shoot my own eye out. They knew better.
It’s the same with God – He loves us too much to say, “Yes” to all of our requests. God isn't a vending machine where we put in a prayer and pull out what you want. A vending machine will give you things that are bad for you; God won't.
Psalm 25:10 "All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful." If we got everything we asked for in prayer, - we'd be the most selfish, spoiled people in the world. God loves us too much to answer all our prayers the way we want them answered. He has a better plan.
2. God always gives us grace when He says “No”.
Paul talks about his thorn in the flesh, his problem. 2 Cor. 12:7-9 says, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said, `My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness."
Grace is the power to do what is right. Whenever God says, “No” to a request He always gives you more power, more grace.
How do I respond when God says No?
1. We can resist God. We can be mad at Him.
2. resent God. You can have a pity party.
3. You can relax and rejoice.
You can know that God has your best interest at heart, that He loves you, that He has a bigger perspective, a better plan, a bigger purpose.
There are people like Paul who have learned that their greatest weakness is turned into their greatest strength. My own mother struggled with Multiple Sclerosis for 44 years and yet God blessed many people through her.
God has a bigger perspective in life than we do. We have limited knowledge, He does not. We don't see the consequences of every choice we make, He does. We live in an imperfect world where people make choices that have bad implications. And sometimes we're the innocent victims of those wrong choices. Sometimes we pray for a certain thing and He's protecting us from an even greater problem. Maybe He said, “No” because He has a better plan.
Let’s stop telling the Lord what to do. Instead, pray “Lord, however You want to answer it....I’m trusting in You.” God has a greater purpose. And His purpose is that He wants to build our character and He wants to make you like Jesus Christ. And His purpose is that He wants to build our character and He wants to make us like Jesus Christ.
