"Why aren't my prayers being answered?" is a great question that I believe we have all encountered at some point in our lives. In the past I have heard that God always answers prayers, with either a yes, no, or later. This is a good saying but is oversimplified.
Our prayer lives may still be disillusioning, especially if he take one verse for our full doctrine on prayer and don't look at the Bible as a whole.
I will break this article into three main ideas:
1. Butterfly Effect
2. Free Wills
3. Miracles
1.) BUTTERFLY EFFECT
To start us off, it's important to note the concept of chaos theory, which will here be completely oversimplified (sorry about that, but I'm no physics wiz). Certain laws are followed in the natural world, and that's where science comes from. We observe patterns of cause and effect to test if they will yield the same results each time. However, when we see the world as a whole and look at the timeline of the universe, events that occur over time can become quite random because each event is dependent on the many causes that come before it.
Consider the film Butterfly Effect or Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder and see how this theory is addressed in media and literature. Small events can change everything in the future.
When we then try to understand why things happen the way they do and why God seemingly answers prayer or not, we see that all reasoning becomes slightly muddled. For example, God may answer a prayer but then another person takes an action to destroy that answer's effect. This transitions us into an understanding on free will.
2.) FREE WILLS
We must understand that God's will, according to the Bible, is that everyone would be in perfect relationship with him and that there would be no pain, suffering, or death in this world. (That's how he first created it.) However, God also allowed for free will of humans and other entities so that he could have true relationship with us. Free will is required to have true relationship, after all, because true relationships have an element of mutual agreement.
Therefore, an all-powerful God relinquished some of his power so that he could allow for relationship with us. This is still incredibly frustrating for me to understand and I hate that this granting of free will allowed humanity to screw it all up. I still struggle with this understanding, although my qualm is challenged with the idea that God was willing to come to earth himself and die a terrible, terrible death in order to maintain the possibility of genuine relationship. I may be frustrated with the effect of suffering, but God found the losses worth the gain, and he took on some of the worst losses to prove that to us. He created free will because he loves us and he suffered much because relationship was worth it to him.
Because we see that free will exists, then, prayer will be influenced by multiple entities, including:
-God's will (1 John 5:14-15) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. Clearly, we must pray according to what God wants to expect the prayer to be answered with such confidence.
-Human will (Joshua 24:14-15) “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord
seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Clearly, God gives options like this to many people groups and especially Israel over and over again. He gives us choice and free will all the time.
-Angelic will (Daniel 10:2-14) At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude... Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.” In this passage, we see that God's will was that the angel would give Daniel a message. However, the will of a demonic power kept the angel from arriving in the intended time.
To read more on this topic, look up Gregory Boyd's books:
-Is God to Blame?
-An Intro to Open Theism
3.) MIRACLES
Concerning miracles, it is first essential that suffering is often nobody's fault in particular. Yes, we sometimes make mistakes and then suffer consequences. However, disabilities, illness, and death are not the sufferer's fault (John 9:1-7, Matthew 17:14-21). In fact, we only see death as the "payment of sin" (Romans 6:23). Today's world is a fallen world; due to choice and free will, humanity has brought God's perfect kingdom into suffering. Unfortunately, we now experience the world in its fallen state, which means suffering exists.
Now, when it comes to the miraculous, this means that God is disregarding his normal rules about the natural world and changes something in an unexpected way. Because we do not have accurate documentation of everything that has ever occurred on earth and because science, by definition, cannot affirm the miraculous, people often choose to disregard miracles. However, scientists still must assert that there are phenomenons that are no able to be explained. In this case, they are stating that there are events that stand outside of "science," meaning that which can be explained through patterns. In other words, the unnatural (or miraculous) does occur.
Why do miracles happen in response to prayer sometimes and not others? Not only do we have all the wills in conflict as with other forms of prayer, but we also have the conflict of faith (Mark 6:5-6). According to this Bible passage, Jesus cannot perform many miracles in an area because they had so little faith there. Strange but true.
However, the effects of prayer may not always have to do with human will or faith or lack of faith. Instead, God will sometimes have purposes for our suffering which is beyond our current understanding (Isaiah 55). Unfortunately, not everything is explainable. For these frustrating instances, only God understands, and we have to trust his character.
For example, I have dealt with depression for my entire life and have prayed constantly for a healing. However, he has not yet allowed for this healing. In this case, I am trusting that MY KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S LOVE FOR ME IS STRONGER THAN THE QUESTIONS I HAVE ABOUT HIM NOT HEALING ME.
Here are some awesome passages that teach us about his love:
http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/20-inspirational-bible-verses-about-gods-love/
To read more on this topic, look up Ravi Zacharias' book:
Why Suffering: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense
Or John Piper's book:
Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die
Or C.S. Lewis' book:
On Miracles
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