Why won’t God answer my prayers?
Photo by Kristine Tumanyan on Unsplash
How long is too long to wait? 10 minutes? 5 days? 2 months? 30 years?
Guess it all depends what you’re waiting for! Can a queue for Penney’s for 10 minutes compare with 30 years for Liverpool Football Club to win the Premiership?
What are you waiting for as you read this? Are you waiting for a phone call, an appointment at the hairdressers (aren’t we all!) or just the kettle to boil? Perhaps it’s waiting on test results or exam results for your children as they plan the next step in their lives. Whatever it is, waiting can be hard sometimes.
When we were young my siblings and I were called upon, literally, to help our Daddy to move cattle from one field to another. Sometimes this was as simple as standing in a gap in the hedge or around the farm. Other times it was a longer journey and we had to prevent cattle from entering lawns or disappearing down laneways. It was quite enjoyable. We were instructed on where to stand and the time passed quickly. However, because we were perhaps now far from home, the return journey was in the backseat of the car. Oh, how those minutes dragged! If you’ve ever had to wait for someone you’ll understand. Daddy drove at a snail’s pace to look over every hedge, into every field, to count cattle and check fences. But worst of all was when he met a fellow farmer on the road. They could talk about the weather, the prices, the local news and more. Sigh..it felt like we would never reach home ever again! We had no choice but to wait.
Now, my perspective was of course that of a child. My father’s perspective on all of this was, I’m sure, quite different. It was neighbourliness of course, but those conversations would influence and affect the future in ways of which I knew nothing about. My task was to wait.
Now I’m older, I’m still learning to wait. I find myself having to wait on God, because when I pray God can answer yes, no or wait. The yes prayers are the easiest to accept usually. (Although I did pray for patience and spent the next 2 years wondering why nothing was going smoothly! God was answering my prayer in a way I didn’t expect).
Sometimes looking back you can see the wisdom of God in how he held back something you thought you really wanted. Garth Brooks summed it up well in his song Unanswered Prayers. The singer, alongside his wife, meets an old high school flame at a football game. He reminisces and is glad that those prayers regarding the woman went unanswered. He sings his thanks to God for that unanswered prayer “that because he (God) doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t care”.
But other times when God says no, the struggle is real and it can stop prayer for a short time or even a long time.
Prayer is not a magic formula where if I say the right words or say them often enough I can manipulate God to do what I want. Rather prayer is trusting a God who knows what is best for me. And for me praying Your Will Be Done.
It doesn’t mean that I stop asking and bringing my needs before Him. It’s believing that even when things don’t go my way that God has a different perspective or a bigger picture that I’m not aware of. It’s during those times that I have to lean harder on God my Father. And that means less looking to the world to be my peace but telling God that “this is hard” and “I don’t understand” and “Please help me because I don’t know where to go or what to do” or asking God to send someone to help me.
And then waiting….
Not futile waiting but listening for God to bring peace from something in His Scriptures. Psalm 130 verse 5 says “I wait for the Lord, My soul waits, and in His word I hope.” Or Psalm 131 verse “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
I’ve found that waiting on God actually increases my faith. Seems strange. I used to think if God gave me all I wanted straight away I’d trust Him more, but it’s not been my experience.
Some prayers I’m still waiting on the answer and maybe I’ll not actually see them answered in my lifetime. But God knows because He’s got the big picture and that’s okay.
