Unanswered Prayer (Part 1) Series

Three weeks ago, we studied how God invites us to ask Him. Therefore, do not hesitate to ask for something or express our wishes to God. The Lord Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you." (Matthew 7:7). If so, why are there prayers that God does not answer? You may have prayed for something for months or even years, but God hasn't responded, or even God didn't grant it, like what happened in this story. A wife prayed for her husband's recovery, but the husband died instead. The husband was still young, had just graduated from becoming a doctor, and they had a small child. As a result, the wife became disappointed in God because God did not heal her husband. Why are there prayers that God doesn't answer? Today we seek the answer from God's word.

There are several possibilities for why God does not grant our prayers:

The first possibility, what we ask is not according to His will. In 1 John 5:14, the Apostle John says: "And this is the confidence we have in him, that he hears us if we ask anything according to his will." John emphasizes two interrelated things: God will grant our prayers and the conditions if we ask according to His will. So, the request that God grants is by His will. Even though we think what we ask for is very important and we need it, if it is not in accordance with what God wants or has planned, then God will not grant that prayer. An example of this is the prayer of the Apostle Paul. In 2 Cor 11, he tells how he prayed for God to pull out a thorn in his flesh three times, which was most likely a severe eye disorder (as we discussed a while ago), but God did not grant it. What Paul asked for was important. He must have good eyes to write letters to the churches and support his mission. In his struggle, Paul understood why God did not give his request. Let's read 2 Cor 11:7-9. God knew if He granted Paul's request, he would become arrogant and less dependent on God. God wants Paul to be humble and always depend on Him.

When I was in the seminary, I had a friend who wanted to have children. After more than five years of not getting pregnant, she and her husband went to an obstetrician for consultation, but it still didn't work even though she had done what the doctor suggested. During a testimony event, she shared her disappointment and sadness at not being able to have children. Indeed, this kind of thing is a mystery. She and her husband want to have children. I believe they would be responsible parents and love their children, but God does not give them any children. Meanwhile, some don't want to have children but are blessed with them. Some mothers even have the heart to throw their babies in the trash, like what happened in India a few days ago. Thankfully the baby was still alive when scavengers found her. As God's children, we need to learn, like the Apostle Paul, in response to our prayers that God doesn't answer, namely accepting and finding out what God's will is for us. When God said 'no' to Paul, he was not disappointed, let alone protested to God. Paul realized who God was and who he was. How could a creation dare to protest against his Creator? After that, Paul struggled to find God's meaning by not granting his request.

So, couples not blessed with children need to learn to accept God's will. Then, they find out what God's will be for them. Some are not blessed with children, so they can be more flexible in serving God, such as Daniel Alexander and his wife, who serve the Lord in Papua. There, God used them to raise and educate hundreds of children. Some couples are not blessed with children because God wants them to adopt abandoned children whose biological parents refuse or cannot care for them, even though those children are valuable in the eyes of God. Several friends of mine are servants of God who have adopted children; one is Rev. Yahya Chrismanto, and his wife adopted a child with Down syndrome. They love their adopted daughter very much.

For those who are blessed with children, even though they don't want them or are not ready yet, look at them as trust and gifts from God. If, for some reason, they are not prepared to have children, do not abort your baby. As Christians, we must know that abortion is a sin because it is murder. Many people refer to abortion as "pro-choice." If it should be "pro-choice to murder." Psalm 139:13 states: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." The baby in the womb is a human being that God created, so to abort them means to murder them. Instead of aborting, giving them to couples who don't have children or want to adopt children is better. So, when God does not answer our prayers, there is a possibility that what we ask for is not according to God's will. When that happens, we learn to accept His will, as the Lord Jesus did: "... not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39), and then we struggle, asking God what He wants. After knowing it, we obediently accept His will. We believe that God's will must be better than ours.