Digging Deeper – Answers Can Leave Questions

On Sunday, we looked at some of the answers that God gives us when we pray: Yes, Better, No, Grow, and Slow. But let’s be real, the first two are great, but the last three are confusing. I mean, all three feel like “No” in the moment.

When we pray and don’t get an immediate or positive answer, we get impatient. We want a customer service number: “Press three to find out the status of your current transaction.” But prayer is not a transaction.

When we don’t get an immediate or timely answer to prayer, we can start thinking strange things and attribute ideas to God that aren’t from Him. We do this in our regular relationships: when someone does something that may have a negative impact on us, we begin to come up with reasons why they acted (or didn’t act) as they did:

“Maybe they didn’t hear me.”

“Maybe they didn’t understand how important this is to me.”

“Maybe they are playing favorites and giving what I should get to someone else.”

Usually, when we jump to these conclusions about people, we are wrong. We often find that their reasons are far more nuanced than we thought. This is even more the case with God. When we try to divine His reasons, we are probably going to be wrong.

Sometimes we can turn to Scripture and see what God is doing, but even if we don’t find the answer, turning to Scripture is our best response. The Bible is full of people in dire situations who call out to God and don’t immediately get the answer that they need in the moment. Job, David, and even Jesus ask God to move and don’t get the answer they request, but all three eventually get an answer, and whether positive or negative, they accept what God is doing.

Negative answers to prayer can feel like punishment, that God is not working because He is correcting us in some way. If you will indulge me, I would once more quote J.R.R. Tolkien from a draft of a letter to a reader:

“A divine ‘punishment’ is also a divine ‘gift,’ if accepted, since its object is ultimate blessing, and the supreme inventiveness of the Creator will make ‘punishments’ (that is, changes of design) produce a good not otherwise to be attained.” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 286)

So, when you get one of the last three answers, and you are waiting to definitively understand what God is doing, just remember that the God you serve is GOOD, which is often the real question we are asking when answers don’t turn out the way we want. Know that there is more going on than you will ever see, and trust your Father in heaven, who loves you more than you will ever know.