The Purpose of God In Unanswered Prayer
John 11: 1-45
When it comes to God’s answering our prayers, it often seems that if we do not hear the answer we want to hear, we conclude that it was no answer at all.
It’s like the three retirees, each with a hearing loss, who were taking a walk one fine April day. One remarked to the other, "Windy, ain’t it?"
"No," the second man replied, "It’s Thursday."
And the third man chimed in, "So am I. Let’s have a coke.”
I believe there are times that we tend to think that God is the One with the hearing problem, when it turns out to be that we are the ones with the hearing problem.
Why does God allow us to experience delays in answers to our prayers?
Do we not understand there are some divine reasons
why our prayers are delayed? God is often doing something to build our lives and to bring about a blessing to us and others in the delay.
Through delayed answers or even unanswered prayer God often grows us!
Let’s consider the burden and desire of Lazarus’s two sisters --Mary and Martha:
1. There was no problem with their devotion. (11:1-3)
2. There was no problem with their desire. (11:3)
I don’t think this was their problem.
A small boy came home from school and went straight to his room to pray. His mother had never seen her son do this, so she listened outside his door. She heard him praying softly and then saying, "Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo," loudly. She went into his room and asked what he was doing. He responded that he had taken a geography test that very day and was worried about one of his answers. He was praying to God asking the Lord to please make Tokyo the capital of France!
Many prayers are selfish. James said that are prayers are often not answered because they are asked incorrectly - they are prompted by our personal ambition and lust. However, I think we will see in a few minutes that this was not Mary and Martha’s problem.
3. There was no problem with their dependence (no lack of faith or expectation) - (11:3)
Now, the truth is there are several reasons why the Lord does not always answer our prayers as we think He ought to or when we think He ought to.
I. Christ Delays His Answer To Prayer For Lazarus For the EDUCATION (profit) Of Others: (John 11:15)
So many times we are apt to forget that love permits pain. Sickness in the life of a believer is by no means incompatible with the Lord’s love for such a one. The Lord permitted the sisters to suffer because of the benefit others would experience through their suffering. The sisters suffered because their pain offered a platform on which Jesus could erect one of His greatest miracles which would stands as a beacon to weary hearts of all ages.
Man’s disappointments are often God’s appointments!
Jesus’s delay allowed Lazarus to die so He could perform the miracle of resurrection and increase the faith of His disciples. They needed to have faith in Jesus’ ability to conquer death because they would soon see their beloved Savior soon hanging on a cross. At that point, they would need to reach back into their reservoir of faith to believe He had power over death.
Resurrection from the dead posed no problem for Jesus. He waited because He wanted their faith to increase. The disciples had some faith, but they needed more, and this miracle was going to be part of that process.
Jesus does not say, "I regret that I have tarried so long." He does not say, "I ought to have been here sooner." Wonder of wonders, He says, "I am glad that I was not there." Glad, is this word out of place? Martha and Mary are weeping out for sorrow, and yet their friend Jesus is glad!
"I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." Christ is not glad because of sorrow but only on account of the result of it. He knew that this temporary trial would help His disciples to a greater faith, and He prizes their growth in faith that He is even glad of the sorrow which brings it.
Jesus sets so high a treasure upon His children’s faith, that He will not screen them from the very trials by which their faith is strengthen.
Faith untried may be true faith, but it is little faith. This was a trying time for their faith.
Two men were talking of the experiences they had. One said to the other, "It’s terribly hard to trust God in the dark."
The other man quickly answered, "If you cannot trust a man when he is out of your sight, then he is not worth much, and if you cannot trust God in the dark, it shows that you not trust Him at all."
II. Christ Delays His Answer to Prayer for Lazarus To ESTABLISH Doctrine In Their Heart (John 11:22-27)
Sometimes God delays in order to make truth a
reality to us. Mary accepted the resurrection as some distant Jesus is going to move the resurrection out of the future and put it into the present. Jesus is going take the resurrection out of a book called the Old Testament and put it onto a PERSON named Jesus Christ.
Instead of looking to the past - “if thou hast been here” and to the future - “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of that the last day,” Martha needed a living hope centered in the person of the Lord Himself in the present.
It’s easy to rejoice in the power of God for the future while doubting it today. We often do that, saying something like, "Some day the world is going to go up in smoke and Christ will come out of the sky on a white horse. Some day there will be a new heaven and a new earth." But when we run into a problem today, we have an anxiety attack because we fail to realize that God can also work in the present. Such reasoning is ridiculous. If you can trust God in the future, you can trust Him in the present. His power does not change. Since Jesus can handle the resurrection of all the dead (John 5:25-29), it would be a small thing to for Him to raise Lazarus, who had been dead only four days.
Jesus was saying, “It is immaterial whether you’re talking about the past, present, or future. I am the resurrection and the life.”
Martha projected God’s resurrection power into the future, but Jesus said, "It’s here right in front of you, Martha--it’s Me! Time is not an issue. I will resurrect Lazarus whenever I design to do so."
Martha’s general understanding of the resurrection at the last day was inadequate for the present situation, for the gift of life that conquers death is a present reality to Jesus. The resurrection is not only a future reality, but something to be experienced and enjoyed in the present as well.
Often we get taken up with the Second Coming of Christ, and lose sight of the Christ of the Second Coming.
God may have to delay an answer to our prayer in order to may Himself precious to us.
Jesus delayed to answer her prayer to minister to her faith to bring her to complete trust in Him. If we have Him, we have all, and we need not wait for some divine event or miracle for the realization of our heart’s longings.
Often the delays to prayer are for the purpose that we will get to know Him better. Delays to our prayers often bring insight to our souls we would never receive any other way.
III. Christ Delays His Answer to Prayer for Lazarus To Expand Their Witness ( 11:45; John 12:2-3; 9,11)
He opened a door of new opportunity for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. As a result of the resurrection of Lazarus, many of the people had open hearts to hear the message of salvation as never before.
People came from all over to see this man who was resurrected from the dead.
God works in unusual ways to bring people to Himself. The miracle that took place as a result of the delay to answered prayer brought a great witnessing opportunity. Do we look for the same?
God’s delay in prayer may hurt you, but it will not harm you.
IV. Christ Delays His Answer to Prayer for Lazarus To EXHIBIT His Glory (John 11:4)
God’s glory is at stake in our lives - will our prayer life
bring honor to Him? The ultimate plan of God in permitting your trials, troubles, and grief often is bring attention to the Lord God and His power and purposes.
Do we truly believe that God is good? Do we truly trust Him in all things? Does our prayer life build such a walk of simple faith?
Conclusion:
Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents’ house. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers. The youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs, "I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE. I PRAY FOR A NEW NINTENDO. I PRAY FOR A NEW VCR..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn’t deaf."
To which the little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
Often times, when we pray, we may wonder if God is deaf because we do not receive and or the answer we desired. However, God is not deaf ! How perfect are the ways of God! If Martha and
Mary would have had their prayer granted, not only would they (and Lazarus too) have been denied a far greater blessing, but the disciples would have missed that which must have strengthened their faith.
Christ would have been deprived of this opportunity which allowed Him to give the mightiest display of His omnipotent power that He ever made prior to His own death; and the whole Church as well would have been the loser!
God knows what He is doing; let us learn to trust
Him.
