Didn’t God Answer Your Prayer?

by Karen S. Roberts

Some people believe that God didn’t answer their prayer.

Tragedy Can Bring Different Responses

A local family had a young daughter with cancer.  They and many other people were praying and believing for her healing.  Yet she died.  Afterward they shared courageously how God had used her short life to touch and positively influence many people. Also they talked about how their family drew closer to God and each other through all of the long months of her cancer fight.

 

Even the newspaper reported on the strong words of hope and strength spoken by her father at her funeral.

However, another family who had to deal with the death of a loved one built walls instead of bridges to God after this person’s death.  They could not understand why God, at least in their minds, didn’t answer their prayers.

If God Doesn’t Seem to Answer…

As a child I was taught that God always answers prayers.  However, His answers are not the same as giving us what we want.  Sometimes His answer is “yes”; sometimes it is “no”; and sometimes it is “wait”.

God sees an overall picture and purpose in what we are going through.  He uses circumstances, struggles, and even death, to work in people’s lives so that they can grow closer to Him. His greatest desire is for each of us to be 100% sold out to Him.  He wants us to trust Him, to rely on Him, to let Him cleanse us from sin, and to allow Him to work in and through us to let others see Jesus in us.

He wants to bless us abundantly.  But that doesn’t happen when we walk away from Him or simply choose to live life in our own way.  By seeking Him in spite of our pain, trusting that He is bringing about what is best, and clinging to faith in Him even when we don’t understand, we experience His presence and His blessings.

Do You Need to “Forgive” God?

If you have turned away from God because things didn’t go the way you thought they should when you prayed, think about this:  Is it that God didn’t answer your prayer or that He didn’t answer in the way you wanted Him to?

Sometimes we actually have to “forgive” God because in our minds He treated us badly.  He didn’t really, but that’s how we feel.  We need to come to Him and admit our negative feelings, let go of what we think He should have done, and also seek His forgiveness for how we’ve turned away from Him.  When we do that, we can once again experience His wonderful presence and work in our lives.

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