When God Doesn't Answer

Has there ever been anything, that you’ve prayed for, for a really long time? … Without having an answer?

I’m certain you have.

Here’s what happens:

We come before God with this, issue… and it’s the most pressing issue in our life / in our WORLD

We bombard heaven with this issue time after time after time…

Until we get tired / weary of asking for the same thing over and over

And then after a while we realize we haven’t been praying about it as much as we had been before…

NOW we feel guilty because it IS important thing, and we SHOULD be praying about this important thing, and we’ve STOPPED praying for this certain thing.. and so we pray about the fact that we’re not PRAYING about this important thing that we OUGHT to be praying about.

So we go back to praying about it again… and as we embark upon that prayer journey we start to think, “Well what’s going to be different about it this time??”

And we continue to pray…

Everything in our culture tells us to believe that we should have things, quickly.

If a package is a day late… we get mad.

If the light stays red for too long… we get mad.

If our football team doesn’t drive down there and SCORE before the time runs out, we are going to get mad!!

We need things to happen NOW… and when we pray… that doesn’t always happen.

And when our prayers aren’t answered quickly and we lose hope, thats NOT God’s fault!

Scripture tells us time and time again that our life is short, James says it’s like a vapor… and in the blink of an eye, we’re gone! So we’re told to endure. But for how long?!!! Why doesn’t God answer us NOW!

Yet are there not things that we long for, hope for, pray for that REQUIRE us to endure.

There is this tension: Between the belief that it should’ve already happened… and the knowledge, that we gotta continue to pray.

This is where “sin” enters in, and we question:

Our lives

Our decisions

Our motives

Our relationship with God… and we become GUILTY all over again! GOD!! PLEASE!! Answer me!!

Will I be sick forever?

Will my spouse leave me?

Will my kids be safe?

Am I still a child of God?

And we SPIRAL into thinking that the experiences we face in life are a result of whether God heard and accepted our prayers or not!

Does he really love me?

Is he really there?

All because its taking… “awhile”

generally when we are persisting in prayer, there is something ailing us, troubling us, hounding us, eating away at us, frightening us, oppressing us, hurting us, discouraging us, confusing us… That’s when we persist.

Until we reach that age old question: “Why would an all good and powerful God, dot dot dot.”

Exodus 2 answers our questions

encourages us in the midst of troubling and ongoing prayer

How to think about prayer when prayer isnt being answered

Exodus 2:23 NASB95

23 Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.

“During those MANY days”

Moses is 40 years old when he comes to the wilderness in Midian… he’s 80 years old when he goes back to deliver them

It’s been 40 years… but the author writes… in those many days. That’s Moses’s reflection, as he pondered that time in his life.

Exodus 2:23–25 NASB95

23 Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. 24 So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.

God Heard… God Remembered… God Saw… God Knew…

Those 4 words are absolutely CRITICAL… for sustaining prayer when we don’t see answers.

The Backdrop:

Moses is in the wilderness… because the king, the Pharoah, has discovered what he did in killing an Egyptian.

He’s there for 40 years…until there’s some kind of trigger that would allow him to eventually lead God’s people out of bondage

That trigger was verse 23: “Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died.”

And when the king dies… the people of Israel rise up and ignite their groaning to the Lord… and it’s in the midst of this that we hear those 4 words.

So this morning I want us to consider those 4 words… and to see exactly how to pray confidently and consistently in light of our situations.

God Heard

You need to know God hears your groanings. God hears the groaning of his people.

He’s not deaf.

People gives us cues that they hear:

smile

laugh

nod their head

“mhm” “yeah, I agree”

Our natural tendency is to look at our unchanging circumstances, and to say “God doesn’t hear me” … This text, says different

Israel had assumed that God hadn’t heard.... They are groaning and crying out to God… it’s been 4 centuries… 400 YEARS… and still there they stay in Egyptian bondage.

But saying that don’t believe God hears us, means that we doubt God cares for us. And it leads us to say: “Why should I persist in prayer, when God… doesn’t hear me.”

But the Bible makes it clear that He DOES hear us when we pray:

Psalm 55:17 “17 Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice.”

Prov 15:29 “29 The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

1 John 5:14-15 “14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”

We are wrong to say that God doesn’t hear us… and you need to know… that It is a privilege, to be heard by God.

Not a privilege for God to hear and ANSWER our request, NO! A privilege to be HEARD by God.

If you never get a affirmative from God for the rest of your life… you are STILL more blessed than you deserve! By hearing you when you pray

God is upholding the universe, and yet He takes the secondary moment to listen to what we have to say…

He flung the stars into space… upholds them and sustains them! and yet he hears us… what a privilege.

We are sinful and insignificant… yet he Hears us!!

God owes me death and judgement, that’s all God owes me!! And yet he hears me!

God doesn’t owe you a hearing. He doesn’t have to hear you and yet he does… what a comfort.

Psalm 23:4 “4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me;”

God hears you. You prayers ARE being heard. Don’t forget it.

God Remembers

What does God remember? The text says, He remembered His covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob

I prayed to you God

I go to church

I don’t do all the awful things that other people do

I’m a Christian! I believed and gave my life to you and you didn’t do what I asked you to do!

God remembers His covenant, He answers prayer according to HIS WILL. Even JESUS prayed: “You’re will be done, not mine.”

We don’t have the answers. We THINK* we do… but we don’t!

God does not exist to give us what we want… God orders all things according to His will, and according to His redemptive purpose.

CHRIST suffered for the glory of the Father!

He never did anything wrong and did everything right!

He is radiance and glory of God in the flesh and yet he SUFFERED and GROANED and he CRIED OUT in the Garden of Gethsemane!

Sweat drops of BLOOD as he prayed, and yet here we think WE deserve something from God!

It’s a privilege not to be crushed by our sin… It’s a privilege not to be crushed by the majesty of God… yet He remembers His covenant.

When we pray, we need to know that God is working all things according to His will, and that many of the things that I ask, are NOT according to His will.

We don’t see the whole picture, but God does.

God hears… God remembers

God Sees

How could God see this and not act? Do you think Israel asked that?

Psalm 121:1-8 “1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.”

God is watching… God Sees. When:

Bad diagnosis … God was watching

Heart was broken

Loved one died

Suffered that miscarriage

The storm destroyed all you had

That child went astray

Parents divorced

Lost your job… God was watching

How is that a comfort? God SEES? I want Him to act!! … think of the alternative

If God didn’t see the hardship we face, then that means he’s not in control, and you have no hope that he is going to work all things together for your good. Because there would be things he didn’t see / know.

God Knows

He loves us… He pities us.

He knows which circumstances will maximize His glory… and if thats my goal in life? Then I should embrace ANY OUNCE of suffering that comes my way, like the disciples did:

Acts 5:41 “41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

God knows what you really need. And if you’ve been praying persistently and you’re still in the thick of it? … It seems apparent that God is working on a different timetable, a better timetable.

God knows what you can bear.

God knows what’s best.

And the worst thing that you are oppressed with in this life, I PROMISE you, is not:

your fading health

the disappointment of your circumstances

loss

people hurting you

The WORST oppression is SIN!!

Because there is a holy and righteous God that demands righteousness and yet you sin against him, thats the worst thing on your plate.

You sin EVERY day against a righteous God, and thats WORSE than a bad diagnosis from the doctor.

It separates us from God

Israels sin, was worse, than Israels captivity… yet they cried out for deliverance! And not forgiveness!

How many times have you prayed BEGGING God to forgive your SINS!! Let alone your struggles?

You don’t need a deliverer from pain, you need a deliverer from SIN!

Finally…

The book of Exodus does not end with Israel coming out of Egypt… it ends with the tabernacles

Because Israel didn’t just need to get out of Israel, they need to get INto a relationship with God.

They needed sacrifice for sin

They needed spiritual deliverance… and thats what you and I need more than anything else

Will all of these other things still hurt? YES! But put them up against our sin, and they become nothing. Nothing.

Where was God? …

He was in the same place, when He bore witness to the crucifixion of His son on that old rugged cross.

And that’s where God remains. And that’s where God will be.

Whatever it is, that keeps you up all night praying… whatever it is that makes you shake your fist at God… know this...

God HEARS you

God REMEMBERS his covenant, and will always be faithful to it

God SEES EVERYTHING that you are going through

and God KNOWS

We do not have a savior who cannot identify with us.

What is it you are going through?

God knows because Christ was tempted at every point that we were, and yet without sin.

Christ endured REJECTION

Christ endured the CROSS

Christ endured DEATH

Christ endured SHAME

Christ endured EVERYTHING

So whatever it is, not only does Christ know your circumstances, not only does Christ know you, but He knows your PAIN… and he knew it without deserving it.

And He overcame it at the cross

“Help me to be satisfied, Help me to endure. Give me what I need to trust you, and to fight another day.”

The greatest need we have is for Christ.

Rom 8:18-19 “18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”