The Problem of Unanswered Prayer

The Problem of Unanswered Prayer 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Habakkuk 1:13, 2:4, 3:2 A small boy said to his father, "Hey, Dad, watch this!" He then threw the ball into the air and swung the bat fiercely, only to miss. "Wait, Dad, watch this one," he said. And for the second time he swung and missed. Then a third time, "Here's the one, Dad!" but the result was the same. Suddenly, the boy called out: "Three strikes - and yer out," he yelled. "Gee, Dad, aren't I a great pitcher?" Prayer is not about getting our way, but rather asking, is there another way of looking at life and our walk with God. Two farmers were having a long bitter feud over a fence line. The quarrel became more and more spiteful until finally, under cover of darkness, one farmer went to the other's well and dropped bags of salt into it to contaminate it. He thought he would really show his opponent who was in charge, until a few days later when he lifted water out of his own well and discovered that it had a salty taste; point being, both farmers' wells shared a common underground water table. In the same way, many of our deepest desires, whether made known or kept hidden, have a way of infiltrating the entire substrata of our souls, that which sustains and waters our spirit. Spiteful, salt-infused prayer can wash its way throughout our whole being, contaminating us just as easily as that farmer's well. Prayers can be bad for the soul, as well as good for it, depending on what you ask and the attitude with which you offer it. Or, in the words of Peter Marshall and Martin Luther King, Sr., and many others, "Be careful what you pray for; you might get it." There was this guy who was having a terrible time at life. His boss was cranky; his wife has having fits all the time and the kids were out of control. He fell on his knees and prayed to God, “Lord, give me patience in the midst of all my trials.” (Smile now, you know what’s coming.) The Lord answered him and granted his request…, and life got worse.” Did you get the point? Lord, give me patience. Okay, you’ve got it. How do you know? Life gets worse and you find - you can bear it and overcome and claim the victory in faith. Be careful what you pray for? Then again, be brave and pray for the impossible, for our God can provide! In Jesus' prayer life, there was a codicil to every one of his prayers, expressed or implied: "not what I will but what You will." This codicil is the solution to the problem of unanswered prayer. In life there are optimists, pessimists and Woody Allen. From his film Love and Death (1975) Allen looks at life with all its suffering and hardship, all its evil and misery, and boldly concludes that there is no God and that suicide is probably the most reasonable response to the angst of existence - only to quickly catch 2 himself and consider, "Well, let's not get hysterical, I could be wrong.” Throughout his films, Allen kept asking the questions of life's ultimate meaning and considered the possibility that there is a God, and that this God cares about humanity. In the movie Love and Death (1975), Diane Keaton’s character cries out, "Oh, if only God would just give me some sign. If He would just speak to me once - anything; one sentence, two words. If He would just cough.” Have you ever felt God wasn’t listening? If "prayer has always been a problem," as one theologian argued, then the problem of unanswered prayer has always been the worst part of the problem. People of faith have always struggled most when God seems distant or hidden from view, or when our prayers, breathed fervently in the air, drop with a hollow thud inches in front of our feet. Today’s Scriptures offer two different, but related, responses to such moments in our spiritual desert. 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 insists that we "keep the faith" - that is, keep nurturing, keep vital and alive what has been passed on to you. It also means keeping faith with those who have helped you along the way by lifting them up in prayer. These are prayers that do not demand an "answer." Rather, they are instead answers themselves answering the tests made on your spirit, with a remembrance of all the faithful who have helped bring you to where you are today. Even as others have prayed for us, so we then are to offer prayers of thanksgiving for their faithfulness to us. As Paul counsels Timothy, we find the "answers" to our "unanswered" prayers in Scripture and throughout the tradition of the body of Christ. When we become members of the church, we pledge to support her with our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service. Did you catch what was first? Prayers first and foremost, followed by attendance at worship, meetings and activities, followed by our tithes, gifts and offerings and then last, but not least, our service for the good of the church and the Kingdom of God. In the midst of all this, we may well find the answer to our prayers, if we but “keep the faith.” From Habakkuk's situation we gain another perspective on the powers and purposes of prayer. The prayer that opens the book of Habakkuk may be seen as that prophet's scolding remarks to a deity he knows is watching, yet seems slow to move into action. In chapter 2, Habakkuk is now faced with something he did not expect - a "wrong" answer from God. Having called on God to correct the injustice in his day and imposed upon his people, Habakkuk is horrified by the "cure" God prescribes – which is a period of a complete overthrow and occupation by the Babylonians. Looking for divine justice, Habakkuk only gets the assurance 3 that new, foreign injustices must soon be endured. But Habakkuk does not rail against God for not answering his prayer in the way he expected; instead, the prophet responds to God's answer, and is changed by it. In response to God's answer, Habakkuk changes his question. Remember the little boy in the beginning? He changed his concerns from being a lousy hitter to being a great pitcher. What might God want to change in us about our understanding of our station in life? Confronted with a new, even more daunting future, Habakkuk does not despair of God or of God's caring for the nation. The key to prayer, Habakkuk realizes, is to carry on and not lose heart; to keep the faith. Jesus Himself had to come back to prayer again and again and again before He found answers. Think back to the Garden of Gethsemane story. This is where Jesus confronted the problem of unanswered prayer most dramatically. In agony over the sacrifice God was asking of Him, Jesus prayed in the garden, in so many words, "Is there no other way?" He interrupted this prayer for a moment and checked on His disciples, whom He had instructed to stand guard. He found them asleep. After waking them up, He returned to prayer and entreated God with the same supplication, "Is there no other way?" Again, He interrupted His prayer to check on the disciples, only to find once more that they had let Him down and were asleep. Again, He returned to prayer and then back again a third time to His disciples to find His closest followers unable to stay awake with Him. Suddenly, Jesus realized the answer to His unanswered prayer had been there all along. What was it? The answer was in the sleeping disciples. Here, even those who were closest to Him, His most intimate friends who knew His message best, were unable to stay loyal and keep the faith. If they, of all people, failed so miserably, how much more would the rest of humanity fail? No, there was no other way. The salvation of the world could come in no other way but in His death and resurrection. Jesus' prayer was answered, not as He wanted it, and not where He looked for it. His prayer was answered, not in voices from heaven, but in the soft snoring of His sleeping disciples. His prayer was answered, not with a crown, but with a cross. A small boy was asked if he ever prayed. In answering the question the boy made a wise and profound distinction. He said, "Sometimes I pray, but sometimes I just say my prayers." Sound familiar? There is a world of difference between "saying our prayers" and experiencing the power of prayer. We all taste the dust of a drought-stricken prayer life at one time or another. We don't realize the power of prayer because we have a mistaken impression of what prayer is. Prayer is not identical with the act of praying. Prayer is not something 4 we do with our lips - praying is something we do with our lives. The point is not to say The Lord's Prayer. The point is to be the Lord's Prayer. Prayer is our faith in action. To pray without ceasing doesn't mean to keep praying without taking a break. It means that the constant ebb and flow of our being should be toward God. If anything, prayer is not talking. Prayer is active listening. Prayer changes things, because one of the first things it changes is us. It makes us get busy; it clears our mind of that which clouds the vision; it sets us to work for our brothers and sisters. Prayer is a course of action. Prayer releases spiritual forces that are unforeseen and unimaginable. Indeed, by praying we sometimes become entry points for God's power to enter situations in order to redeem and heal them. There was a little girl who had been sent to her room to "think things over" after some irresponsible behavior. After a while she emerged all smiles and said, "I thought and I prayed." "Fine," said her mother. "That will help you to be good." "Oh, I didn't ask God to help me to be good," the girl replied. "I asked God to help me put up with you." If you're really praying, you seldom get the answer to the prayer that you're looking for, because true prayer causes the pray-er to make a new prayer. True prayer convinces the one who is praying that what was once desired is no longer desirable. Prayer makes a new person out of the pray-er. No one can feel the power of God's love and remain the same. Once God has touched us, our concern becomes more to express unbinding love than to receive it. Real prayer forces us to face who we are and to tell the truth about ourselves, which changes our prayers. Have you ever noticed, as did Huckleberry Finn, that "you can't pray a lie"? When you pray, listening to God speak to you, you are forced to deal with yourself: there are no roles to perform; no impressions to keep up; no masks to hide behind. Maybe this is one reason we are so afraid of prayer. For in prayer, we learn to tell the truth about who we are and what our motivations are. We learn to critique our whole way of being in the world, to lay down our old selves and accept our new selves, which are in Christ. Our desires, our askings, our selves alter as we pray. Prayer changes what we think until we are more and more able to say, "Not my will, but Thine be done." By the way, Jesus still has an unanswered prayer out there hanging in the wind. It comes from John 17:21 and it is “that we may all be one.” May we be the answer to His prayer and really work on being one in our everyday affairs.