Does He even care about me? Why doesn’t God grant my prayer requests? You may feel that God has never granted anything you have ever prayed for!
Job struggled with this issue. God’s silence led him to ask in frustration, Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him? (Job 21:15). Left unanswered, such questions can raise serious doubts in the minds of believers and can even become the catalyst for unbelief... giving up on God altogether.
When life is filled with pain and sorrow we turn to God for relief. You don’t have to be a devout Christian to know this happens. When humans can’t fix a problem, we turn to God. It’s human nature to want relief from discomfort. When our prayer requests don’t work out as we want them to... God gets blamed for human suffering, sorrow and pain. He gets blamed for not intervening and stopping the circumstances and situations that cause pain and suffering.
However it’s important to remember, God does not intentionally inflict pain and suffering on humanity. There is a significant difference between “causing human suffering” and “permitting it to continue” for a purpose. Many situations, in fact most things that happen to us can and will have a beneficial result if we persevere through the experience. Therein is the challenge... persevering. This is hard to accept when you’re the one in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, God will not allow us to be crushed, bearing more than we can handle. He knows our limits.... but he also knows the strength of our hearts and our capacity to handle situations. He knows what we need to experience to grow in Him and prosper in our faith.
But didn’t Jesus make several promises that in fact say that God will answer our prayers.... for whatever we ask?
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NAS
"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21:22 NAS
"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." Mark 11:24 NAS
These are indeed the words of Jesus. They sound as if He will grant our every request. We need to carefully study the promises Jesus made in order to understand what he really promised.
First, we might want to change our perspective on the often used term of “unanswered prayer”. It wrongly suggests that God is either unable or unwilling to respond to our prayers when He may very well answer in ways we do not recognize. God hears the prayers of the faithful and obedient. We think unanswered or ungranted, when the suffering continues. In fact we don’t always understand nor do we comprehend God’s answer to our requests.
What was Jesus talking about when He made these promises? Context is critical. Whenever we study the Scriptures, we need to be careful not to extract specific verses and treat them independent of their context. Context controls meaning. Each promise in the Bible should be read within the framework of the teaching, the principles and the statements surrounding it. To whom was the promise given? Does the context limit or qualify the meaning? What does the rest of Scripture teach on the topic?
Examining the Prayer Promises of Jesus
The aforementioned verses were in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, where a broad array of teachings and principles are given. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8). Sounds like an unqualified open-ended promise doesn’t it? Until you examine the context.
In the context, we see an emphasis on spiritual growth. Therefore, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, asking for spiritual help and growth, then God will grant our requests, including giving us the Holy Spirit to help us (Luke 11:13).
Jesus did not mean he would grant our every desire and wish, giving us exactly what we request. However, when we ask for the kinds of things mentioned in the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, he promises to answer. He does add an important required ingredient that factors into our prayer.
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). After withering the fig tree, Jesus says if the apostles have faith they could cast a mountain into the sea (Matthew 21:21). We have no record in the Bible of Jesus or anyone else moving a physical mountain into the sea. Even in ancient times, “moving mountains”... was a figure of speech for doing something extremely difficult or seemingly impossible. We still use that expression today.
Jesus explained to the apostles that just as they needed faith to work miracles, prayer required faith on the part of the one who prays. He is not talking about a mere affirmation of belief. He means a relationship of genuine trust in God characterized by living in submissive obedience to God’s Word and His will. Jesus does not mean we can manipulate God or use prayer like a magic wand, but that prayers offered in trustful submission to an all-powerful God can overcome what seems to be the impossible.
Jesus made several promises during his ministry. Some of these promises were limited to the apostles and their work in the first century. The apostles filled an unrepeatable role as Jesus’ representatives in establishing His church. Certainly not all promises Jesus gave to His apostles can be claimed by Christians today. God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a child in their old age does not mean senior citizens today should claim that promise for themselves.
Even when Jesus was speaking to the apostles, in some cases the context of His teaching makes it clear that the promise has a broader application to all believers in general. Whether these promises about prayer apply primarily to the apostles or to us as Christians in general, such prayers are subject to the qualifications Jesus established. Rather than reading these as unqualified promises, attention must be given to the “condition of our lives” that empower God to respond to our prayers.
Jesus stated, “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” ( John 15:7). Abiding in Christ means surrendering to Christ’s spirit and will and living in obedience to His Words and with all that Christ stands for. Far from assuring us that our every wish will be granted, being totally committed to Christ means we will desire that His will be done in our lives. Our prayers will be in agreement with God’s will because we share the mind of Christ.
God answers our requests according to His will. As we grow in Christ’s likeness by keeping His commandments, our wills become more aligned with His will. God does not answer our prayers because we have a clear conscience, but because such a good conscience shows that we are keeping His commands and doing what pleases Him.
Scripture stresses that God hears the prayers of the righteous. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16; cf. Proverbs 15:29; Psalm 66:18; Job 27:8; Isaiah 1:11-15). Because of our relationship with Christ, we can pray with a confident boldness knowing our Father hears and will answer according to His will and purpose.
In times of pain and sorrow we have to TRUST God. Frankly, we have no other option. We have to understand what it means for God to answer our prayers and how He might answer... which sometimes feels like no answer at all.
While this statement seems harsh and unloving... we are going to have to accept that the “answer” to many of our prayers may be continued pain, suffering and sorrow. God never wastes His children's pain. We should take a measure of comfort in knowing that God uses the sorrow and pain of our lives to inch us ever closer to Him. To being transformed into a Christlike new creation.
It's a difficult truth to accept when we’re the ones who have to suffer to achieve this closeness to God. But it is the way God uses the difficult periods of our lives to grow us in Christ. He does not make our pain, that is a consequence of the fallen world and the Curse we live under. He does not manipulate us like puppets into situations of suffering and pain, but He will use these circumstances to shape and hone us in our trust and faith in Him, if... we let Him.
Trust God. Continue to pray and allow Him to transform you... what other choice do you have?
