Unanswered Prayer

               

            “I appreciate all that you do for me Lord, but that is not what I prayed for.”  Have you ever prayed with all your might for something?  Have you ever spent hours on bended knee, crying your heart out to the Lord for help, relief, or change?  I think everyone has a defined moment of when they came to God in such submission, full of hope and knowing exactly what you want God to do for you.

                I mean think about it.  You listed out everything you needed.  You mapped out for God just how to deal with your problem and how He can fix it for you.  Because don’t you know your way is best. Then God answers your prayer, to a point.  He deals with the issue, just not how you wanted Him to.

                The Apostle Paul wrote in a letter to the church in Corinth about having a “thorn in his flesh.”  He prayed to God three times for it to be removed.  God didn’t remove it.  Now this thorn caused issues with his being able to do his ministry.  But God still didn’t remove his “thorn”.  

                There are reasons God does not always remove the difficulties in our lives.  He knows what is going to happen before it does.  He has already seen where you are going and what you will do.  So he gives and takes away at his leisure.

                Sometimes what we think would be a blessing if God removed our trial is really a hindrance in our spiritual walk.  He needs us to be solely reliant upon Him.  When we are relying on our own strength we are not focusing our attention on God and what he does for us.  Often we start to see the good things in our lives as the product of our own efforts.  In order to be a good Christian we must be humble and God has no problem with keeping us in our place.

  Paul also talks about the strength you gain in your weaknesses.  He thanks God for not removing his “thorn.”  You see Paul knew that he was weak.  He knew he needed God to be his strength.  When we are conscious of our weakness and our need for God in our lives that is when God manifests his power to uphold us in our times of distress and need.  Stay strong in your faith.

Another way to look at the situation is that God has something better in store for us then what we hope for ourselves.  So if he answers our pleas to please us we could be missing out on the greater blessings he will provide.  An example of this is the country song, “unanswered prayers,” by Garth Brooks.  He talks about running into an old girlfriend at a football game.  He tells how he prayed to God every night to just make her his.  Seeing her he realizes that God hadn’t planned for her to be his.  As the girl walks away he looks at his wife and thanks God for his unanswered prayers.  God cares about you even when you think he doesn’t.

His hopes and expectations for us will be so much more than what we see for ourselves and if we stay focused on His goals for our lives then our prayers will be answered in the way they are supposed to.