Unanswered prayers
Alberto González Muñoz
SUMMARY: Just because we pray for something doesn't mean God will grant it. We can't command God to obey us, and we shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that prayer is a magic wand that will make everything we want come true. Sometimes God denies our requests, even if they are sincere and just. We should trust that God knows what is best for us and that His love is still present even when things don't turn out the way we wish. Just like Paul learned to live with his thorn, we too can learn to trust in God's plan for us.
There are prayers that God does not answer us. We have all made requests that we never received. When I was a teenager I was moved by the biblical verse that states that whatever we ask in prayer believing we will receive . Next to my house lived a little friend whose parents gave an electric train like the one I always wanted to have. But my parents couldn't buy it. So I started asking God for it and since I knew He had no limitations, I asked Him for one much bigger than my neighbor's. Needless to say, God did not grant it to me.
The promise is not that we will achieve all our cravings just by asking God for them. Some believers think that yes, they can command God and He obeys. We must be careful not to fall into that common mistake in these times. Some say that the Lord gives them so much that He spoils them. As if God did not know how to educate his children! He says, "Cry out to me and I will answer you" but that does not mean that prayer is a magic wand that everything it touches becomes what we want. In the same way that the Bible teaches that God will grant our requests, it is evidence that sometimes He will not, even if our requests are sincere and even if what we ask is just and necessary in our view.
Paul intensely asked the Lord for deliverance from a suffering which he called "a thorn stuck in my flesh." We don't know what he meant by those words, but it was so horrible that Paul considered him a messenger of Satan who slapped him. Yet God did not free him from the thorn. The answer he received from the Lord is surprising: "My grace is sufficient for you." With this the Lord wanted to tell him that contrary to what he thought, he could be useful and efficient despite his limitations and sufferings. Otherwise he could become proud and useless.
When God denies us a request we should not feel disappointed, but protected. He knows what is good for us because he knows us better than we know ourselves. Our spiritual vision is sometimes so short that we do not understand how much goodness is contained in the requests that God denies us. We cannot doubt his love because things do not turn out as we wish. Paul learned to live with his thorn. Can't you and me do it?
God bless you!
The promise is not that we will achieve all our cravings just by asking God for them. Some believers think that yes, they can command God and He obeys. We must be careful not to fall into that common mistake in these times. Some say that the Lord gives them so much that He spoils them. As if God did not know how to educate his children! He says, "Cry out to me and I will answer you" but that does not mean that prayer is a magic wand that everything it touches becomes what we want. In the same way that the Bible teaches that God will grant our requests, it is evidence that sometimes He will not, even if our requests are sincere and even if what we ask is just and necessary in our view.
Paul intensely asked the Lord for deliverance from a suffering which he called "a thorn stuck in my flesh." We don't know what he meant by those words, but it was so horrible that Paul considered him a messenger of Satan who slapped him. Yet God did not free him from the thorn. The answer he received from the Lord is surprising: "My grace is sufficient for you." With this the Lord wanted to tell him that contrary to what he thought, he could be useful and efficient despite his limitations and sufferings. Otherwise he could become proud and useless.
When God denies us a request we should not feel disappointed, but protected. He knows what is good for us because he knows us better than we know ourselves. Our spiritual vision is sometimes so short that we do not understand how much goodness is contained in the requests that God denies us. We cannot doubt his love because things do not turn out as we wish. Paul learned to live with his thorn. Can't you and me do it?
God bless you!
