The ABCs Of Unanswered Prayer

By John Stallings


…..And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do. John 14:13

One night a little boy told his mom as she tucked him into bed that he had a problem that was worrying him and needed her to help him solve it.

The mom told her son to tell her the problem and forget it, go to sleep and let her worry about it. An hour later the concerned little boy knocked on his mom's doors and asked, “Mom, are you still worrying?”

There’s a big difference in praying about something, leaving it in God’s hands and letting Him do the worrying; and praying about something, then carrying it with us when the prayer is over. We must take our needs to God in prayer and trust Him with the answer and let Him do the worrying and the driving.

To me the book of John just may be the best book in the whole Bible. Oh the riches those twenty-one chapters contain. Later you’ll see more of the reason why I say this. The passage in John 14:13-14 is one of the greatest in the Bible and it explains to us that if we ask anything in Jesus’ name He’ll do it. Do you really believe that?

Well it’s a wonderful promise---a promise that our Father will say “yes” to all of our requests that we ask in Jesus’ name.

Does this really work? Look what happened in Bible days.

· MEN would pray and oceans and rivers would part revealing super hi-ways.
· MEN would pray and the dead were raised.
· JOSHUA prayed and the Sun stood still for almost a whole day.
· DANIEL prayed and the starving Lions went on a vegetarian diet.
· ELIJAH prayed and there wasn’t a drop of rain for three and a half years.
· ELIJAH prayed again and the earth was blessed with an abundance of water.
· THE EARLY CHURCH prayed and Peter escaped from jail.

JOHN STALLINGS prayed and often nothing at all happened.

Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to me many times. I’ve prayed for a lot of things that I’ve never gotten. It can be very frustrating when you spend a lot of time praying about something and things get worse. We can feel like we’ve struck out in the spiritual ball-game too many times with few home runs.

Then we read James 5 where it says –The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much- and we think, “I must not be a very good Christian. My prayers don’t amount to much."

One thing I can tell you after over fifty years of ministry is; some people I pray for get well and others die. We pray for things and they just don’t materialize and we’re tempted to think our prayers must not get past the ceiling.

If you’ve ever felt like that, this message is for you.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

FIRST of all, you are not alone! There were many people in the Bible whose prayers were turned down. God said No!

· Paul had to accept No when he prayed for the thorn in his flesh to be removed. - 2 Cor.12:7-8.
· Joseph had to accept No when he prayed and asked God to release him from the jail in Egypt. Don’t you imagine he prayed many a prayer as he was being misused by his brothers and sold down the river by seemingly everyone he came in contact with? Most of his prayers were put on hold from age 17 to 30.
· Abraham had a burning desire for a son and prayed often for God to allow his wife to become pregnant but for most of a hundred years he was childless.
· Jesus prayed and not all His prayers were answered immediately or with a “yes.” In Matt. 26:39 he prayed to His father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will but as you will.· Look at His words on the cross; My God my God, why have you forsaken me? Matt.27:46---Obviously Jesus felt deserted. He could have taken things into His own hands and called enough angels to sweep Golgotha clean, but He didn’t.

We can see that good people can pray and receive a No answer from God. So if it happens to you don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, it happens to the best of people.

GOD ISN'T A VENDING MACHINE WE CAN WALK UP TO WITH A SPIRITUAL QUARTER, PUT IT IN, AND OUT COMES THE CANDY.

God knows best and our part is to let Him know what we desire and quietly and faithfully trust Him for the answer. He’s our best friend & we can always trust Him. Jn.14:13 says- if we ask in His name we’ll receive- but of course it doesn’t say “when” and it doesn’t say “how.” So when some of our prayers come back with a big “no” stamped on them, we shouldn’t get discouraged and stop praying. We shouldn’t stop praying because delay isn’t always denial and God still loves us, cares for us, suffers with us and He knows best.

GOD IS ALSO AN EDUCATOR.

God has a much more comprehensive picture of our situation than we do. He sees the whole parade of our life as it passes. I’ve learned that it’s best to make my request known & then submit everything to His higher & broader will as well as His timetable. God isn’t always thinking about delivering us as much as he’s thinking about developing us & educating us.

WHY ARE SO MANY OF OUR PRAYERS NOT ANSWERED IN THE WAY WE’D LIKE?

Let me try to answer that question, with the caveat that I don’t think we’ll ever understand it all until we get to heaven. You will be able to think of other things not included here, but here some reasons prayers aren’t answered.

1. JAMES 4:2 says, We have not because we ask not.

The number one reason for prayers being unanswered is that we don’t pray. If your child wants a piece of watermelon but doesn’t ask for it, chances are good you want give it to him/her. You don’t even know they want it unless they ask for it. God obviously knows our wants & needs but still admonishes us to ask. What if a parent were to create a fund when their kids were small, give them a pass-book & tell them that all their needs are met if they just go to the account & use the money? No parent would do that & the major reason is that it would cut off the personal contact with the child. We want our children to come to us & discuss their needs with us & we’ll move heaven & earth to see that their needs are met. God is the same way. He wants His children to come to Him with their needs. If you haven’t tried it lately, why don’t you ask God to grant a request & give Him an opportunity to be God in your life?

2. HEBREWS 11:6 says…For he that cometh to God must believe that He is & that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
So often people just pray & then hang up the phone. If I’m reading right, a lot depends on whether or not we truly want the object of our prayers enough to ask, seek & knock. When Jacob wrestled with the angel who was the pre-incarnate Christ, He asked to be let go as the day was coming. When you think about it, what did it matter to God whether it was day or night? When Jesus met the disciples on the Emmaus road, He would try to go & they’d keep prevailing on Him to stay longer. Jesus would often say things to needy people that seemed to be discouraging them or trying to get them to go away, but then when they pressed on in refusing to take no for an answer, He’d grant their request & comment on their great faith & determination.

What’s going on here? I believe the answer is that God wants us to want Him. Over & over we’re told that we’ll find God when we seek Him with our whole hearts. It would be wise for us to ask ourselves how much do we really desire what we say we desire, for if the Bible asks any question, it asks, “How much do you want it?” Another helpful thought in prayer is to always be willing to be a part of the answer to the prayer you pray. If you pray for a million dollars, I don’t have a doubt you’ll get it if you pray within certain parameters, but instead of a million dollars lying on your pillow the next morning, you’ll probably be given a great business idea that, if properly pursued, will net you much more than you prayed for, for the next number of years. This, my friend is one way God answers. Now look back on your life & “ see what the Lord has done.”

3. PSALM 66:18 says, If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.

I used to think that I had to be sinless & perfect or I couldn’t get a prayer answered. If that were true, believe me no prayers would ever be answered. What that really means is that if we highly cherish some sin in our hearts, it impedes & interferes with our prayers. How can God answer our prayers when He knows that we are locked in an embrace with some known sin? It just can’t happen. If we have an agenda of sin that we cling to tenaciously, our prayers aren’t going to have a positive outcome.

Have you ever drunk water from a garden hose? I certainly have & I learned that if a hose is all knotted & crimped up, nothing but maybe a fine mist will come out. The water source is there but it can’t get to us until the hose is straightened out. All the power God has is as available to us as it was the Apostle Paul, but if there are knots tied in the “hose” nothing will come out.

I think this is an awesome truth. There are individuals & churches that for years have had answers to prayers & mighty showers of blessings all backed-up just waiting to be released & come gushing through to them. It will happen as soon as they get the kinks & knots of bitterness, stubbornness & other sins removed. It’s not that we’re begging God for revival & he’s turned His back on us. A thousand times no. The principal will work for us just as it has & does for others, for God is not a respecter of persons. The answers to prayer are, in a spiritual sense, backing up in the ‘hose,” waiting for the impediments of sin to be removed.

In John 15:7 Jesus said,--If you abide in me & my words abide in you , you shall ask what you will & it shall be done unto you.

The word abide means to have full access. If you say you abide in a house, that means you have full access to the entire house. It doesn’t mean you are holed up in part of the house; you have access to every room of the house. If Jesus’ words abide in us, that means He isn’t cordoned off to just a part of the house, & kept out of the rest. No, He’s invited into every room. When we can truly say that we are abiding in Christ, & His words abide in us; he has access to all of our lives, then we can ask what we will & it will be done.

4. GOD CAN’T ANSWER ALL PRAYERS IN A POSITIVE WAY, HE JUST CAN’T DO IT.

You might say that God can do anything, & in a sense He can. But take the example of a woman praying over her little garden that’s about to dry up & die. She’s praying that God will send her some rain. But next door there’s another lady praying for God to let the weather be dry that day because her daughter is going to have a very expensive outside wedding ceremony. How can God answer both those prayers with a “yes?”

Say a man is trying to sell his car & he’s praying that God will let him get as high a price as possible for it so he can send his son to college. Then the man who’s coming to look at the car has little money but needs the car & is praying to get it as cheaply as possible. How is God going to answer both those prayers positively for both men? It’s not possible. Two Christian football coaches may be praying for God to let their team win but we all know God isn’t on either side, like a parent being impartial with their children, & the game probably will go to the better prepared team.

5. WE PRAY FOR THE WRONG THINGS WITH WRONG MOTIVES.

JAMES 4:3 says, Ye ask & receive not, because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your own lusts.

The world would be a strange & dangerous place if God answered every prayer in the affirmative. I’ve gotten to the place that most of my prayers are for God to let my life fit His master plan for He alone holds those plans. A good prayer as far as I’m concerned is, “Lord help me to submit to your plan for my life & show me that plan. Thank you for the good work I know you’re doing in my life.”

I heard the story of a little girl who wished for years that she’d be a boy. She knelt down & prayed one night asking God to please make her a boy, for she thought boys had a lot more fun in life. She actually prayed & believed that when she woke there’d be a cowboy outfit hanging on her chair & she’d be a boy. However, as you might expect, in the morning she had a great disappointment. She was still a little girl. You & I would hear that story & smile, rightly thinking it’s cute, but also knowing that it’s just a very childish request that an all-wise God would never grant. True, but I submit that all of us at times have prayed prayers just about that selfish & unwise, at least in God’s eyes. As we’ve grown up we’ve began to realize that God seldom answers a selfish prayer & can’t answer us in the affirmative when the thing we request is not according to His will.

YES WE SHOULD ASK, BUT WE MUST BE WILLING TO LEAVE THE OUTCOME IN HIS HANDS.

We should--with thanksgiving let our requests be known to God. But the larger & better prayer is that we might have the strength to submit to the master plan of God for our lives.

THE GREATEST PRAYER EVER PRAYED.

Reading the book of John, you see that chapters 13-17 are Jesus’ “Long goodbye.” They are among the most profound chapters in the whole Bible. The first section of the book deals with seven miracles of Jesus. The second half deals with the long goodbye & the explanation, then the account of the actual events of “The Passion.”

In John chapter 17, the greatest prayer ever prayed is recorded. It takes about six minutes to read aloud but what it lacks in length it makes up in depth. If you want to do yourself a favor sit down & read this prayer. There is so much richness in it that it can totally revolutionize your prayer life. There are approximately 650 prayers recorded in the Bible but none can match this Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Nor can any prayer ever recorded outside the Bible. The prayer is regarded among scholars as a literary & theological masterpiece.

Notice what the conditions of this prayer were. When Neal Armstrong said the words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” had he said those words while playing hopscotch with neighborhood kids, no one would have thought them great. But he uttered those words as he stepped down from his spacecraft, the first man to walk on the moon.

The occasion surrounding Jesus’ prayer makes it so significant because it is spoken about His greatest hour. What hour is that? He says in the first verse, Father the hour has come, & it was the hour of His crucifixion. A time of separation & betrayal, in which God's eternal purpose is about to be carried out; A time when Jesus is about to carry the sins of the whole world on the cross. This gives great weight to the words of His prayer because what’s on His mind at this time must be very important. But notice he doesn’t say He’ll be “Crucified,” but rather “Glorified.”

Jesus knows He’ll be leaving soon & until now He’s been physically with His disciples. Now He feels & acts somewhat like a big brother looking after a much younger brother. The disciples will be on their own & then what? What would become of them? What would happen to Simon Peter, compassionate, full of ideas but mouth too often running without engaging the brain? What would happen to the “Sons of Thunder,” James & John? They always managed to shoulder their way to the front of the line, what would happen when that line was a line of suffering? Matthew? He’d left behind a high-power job as Tax Collector & all it,s perks. Would he continue in his Master's service or would a good offer come to him from H&R Blockstein?

In this prayer, Jesus deals with great themes. He takes us back in time to eternity past in verse 5 & forward to the future glory in verse 24. It deals with glory & love & contains great petitions. “Glorify me” in verses 1-5, “Keep them” in 6-12, “Sanctify them” in 13-19, “That they all might be one” in verses 20-23, & “That they may behold my glory” in verses 24-26.

Jesus is revealed in John 1-3 as being God & being with God the Father from the beginning. He is proclaimed in the book of John as The Word, The Lamb of God, The Son of God, The Promised Messiah, The Bread of life, The Light of Life, The Light of the World, The Great “I AM,” The Good Shepard, & “The Resurrection & the Life.”

Jesus prays for Himself in verses 1-5, His disciples in verses 6-19 & all believers in verses 20-26. He prays that His disciples won’t be Deceived, Defiled or Divided. The verb “give” is used 17 times, 13 associated with The Father giving to The Son, & the other 4 with Christ giving to man. Jesus, after this High & Holy prayer, gives into the powerful hands of His Father all He’s accomplished as He prepares to leave the quiet safety of the table where He shared this meal with the disciples, & go into the garden of Gethsemane where the suffering would begin.

This Priestly Prayer of Christ is indeed the greatest prayer ever uttered, but it is a prayer on behalf of those who are Jesus’ disciples. Think of it; Jesus was also praying this prayer for you & me. So much the more we should go back & read it often. For those who aren’t disciples, Jesus’ prayer is that they would become one. Then as disciples we should do all that we can to see that “The greatest Prayer ever prayed” be fulfilled in our lives.

I hope you immerse yourself in Jesus’ prayer. I also pray that your life unfurls expecting great things from our great God. I hope you & I will live with a happy response to His love & His plans for us & that we never forget to,

Delight thyself also in the Lord & He will give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4

Blessings,


John