Praying Through Unanswered Prayers

Bethel Baptist Church, Laramie, WY Sunday, Mar 25, 2020 OUTLINE: WBC (Peter Craigie) Pastor Nathan Sehi When our prayers go unanswered, we often search for something more then God’s perfect wisdom and will. Perhaps God doesn’t care. (v.9) Perhaps God is not powerful enough. (v. 1-3) Perhaps it is our sin. Yet, Unanswered prayer may simply be the perfect, good, and loving wisdom of our God. (v. 22, 26) Or unanswered prayer may simply not be God’s timing. (v. 26) This national Lament after a battle reminds us of God’s power (v. 1-3), to place our trust in God and his wisdom (v. 22-26), and to recognize God’s will has greater purpose. (v. 22, Romans 828, 36) Psalm 44 – Praying Through Unanswered Prayer Psalm 44 Summary: (Ross) Psalm 44 is a national lament, a prayer of the people who shared a common plight. The lament in this case is that the nation has suffered a harsh and humiliating military defeat because God had not gone with them into the battle, meaning God had not answered their prayers for victory. The psalm conveys the grief and sorrow over the devastating defeat as well as the frustration and perplexity over God’s failure to help them. Unanswered prayer is a problem that the psalmists frequently had to cope with; it would have been easy for them to conclude that God did not care, or that God was not able to deliver them, or that their sins had prevented his intervention. But when they recalled God’s history of intervening in their lives to fulfill his promises, they regained confidence to keep on praying in the anticipation of deliverance. But they had to live with the tension that for some reason God was not helping them even though he was the one who would help them. 1. God’s past acts as basis for current confidence (44:1–8) a. People: God’s acts in the past (v 1–3) b. King: the appropriation of the past (v 4) c. People: the normal grounds of confidence (v 5) d. King: declaration of trust (v 6) e. People: declaration of confidence (v 7-8) 2. The Lament (44:9–23) a. People: lament of the present crisis (v 9–14) b. King: declaration of shame (v 15–16) c. People: declaration of innocence (v 17–22) 3. Concluding prayer (44:23–26) King and people pray for deliverance and help. Note: Craigie does a great job at tracing and explaining the transition between singular and plural. This outline is the best reflection of this that I have seen. Questions 1) When God doesn’t answer your prayers – how do you process that answer? 2) How do you struggle with unanswered prayers? Author: Korahites (Plural) Structure: A strophe Psalm Devotional Outline: Message of the Psalms by Michael Wilkcock 1. What has God done? (vv. 1–3) 2. We are trusting (vv. 4–8) 3. What is God doing? (vv. 9–16) 4. We are obeying (vv. 17–22) 5. What will God do? (vv. 23–26) 3) In what ways does this passage help us understand unanswered prayers?