About "Unaswered Prayer"

"Why doesn't God answer my prayer? Why doesn't He fix what is so wrong and so painful in my life? If He is such a good and loving Father, then why does He let me suffer? Why do innocent children suffer? If He anwered prayer long ago as recorded in the Bible, why does He not do the same now?"

First, a little of my personal theology. I strongly believe that the answer to most of these questions is recorded in 1 Corinthians 12-13. Miraculous intervention was used throughout Biblical history to prove that God was GOD, and His messengers who spoke for Him did indeed speak for Him. The world was and is a battlefield for the minions of evil trying to demonstrate the ultimate superiority of EVIL over GOOD. This is a war that we can never hope to fully understand on this side of eternity; and one of the rules of engagement is that we must fight it in Faith. GOOD has already won the war. Like mad fanatics Evil can only cause GOOD to suffer by persuading God's creatures not to follow the Way back to Himself that God provided. Satan is denied even this perverted satisfaction if creatures of independent will and self-determination actively choose to follow the way of Goodness and reject the way of EVIL. In the first skirmish of the battle, EVIL won, with mankind chosing to disobey and long for self-determination of right and wrong. Note that it was not the appearance of the fruit that was the real temptation; rather that one could discern right and wrong for oneself and be "as wise as God." But "God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son....." The mighty ruler of the universe loved His creations so much that he was unwilling to leave them in the fate destined for His enemies - He demonstrated who He was by His miraculous power, and then left a means whereby his creations could demonstrate that they were truly His by living out that same LOVE - a love that loves the unloveable. He even made that possible by the indwelling of His Spirit, knowing that mankind lacked the power to do son on his own.

One of the unspoken tenets of salvation is the rejection of the original sin - the desire to discern for ourselves what is right and wrong, what is wise or foolish, ultimately what is good or evil. We are continually tempted to do just that. We make decisions without praying for wisdom. We flaunt the wisdon we are granted by rejecting God's counsel because we want a different outcome. We pray for a long, healthy physical life instead of a useful duty assignment in His battle against EVIL and the attendant reward of faithful service to Him. (Not that we don't want the reward, we just don't want the hard duty assignments.)

We pray for healthy, beautiful, prosperous children instead of for spiritual children as jewels in our crown of Glory. (Often, we hope someone else's bright intelligent children will seek to serve God as their profession, so that we can have exciting times of corporate worship; but pray that our own will have a more conventional worldly form of prosperity.)

We seek an attractive, prosperous spouse instead of first requiring that that help-mate be a spiritual partner who is primarily interested in our everlasting life.

The bottom line for me is that God is not there to fix all of our problems and make life "happy" for us; but that He has sent His Spirit, the Comforter, to enable us to bear up under any skirmish that Satan sends our way. He has enabled us, through faith, to know who has won - not the battle, but the war. We are saved by grace through faith - not by deed or by proof or by doubt. We are saved "so that we may do good works", not so that we can continually be on R&R from the war on EVIL.

Yet, what hope we have! What eternal joy we can live! The only casualties in this war are those who do not choose to live by Faith; or those who choose to live and then desert the battle when physical casualties ensue. It is Satan who whispers "Why doesn't God stop the suffering?" when Satan himself is the source of that suffering. Remember the temptation Satan sent to Job through his wife - "curse God and die!" Satan seeks to have us blame God for the evil he (Satan) perpetrates on the world.

Why doesn't God fix all of the ills of this world and stop the evil that is ongoing? Because He has charged us with the demonstration that Love is more important than all of these things. We need to demonstrate that we are truly made in His image by Loving the unloveable, the way that he loved us by bearing the burden of our sins with the blood of His Son. We cannot know eternal life without being made over in His image; and the definition of that image is "God IS Love." Self-sacrificing, divine love - not a squishy feeling - not a warm feeling - but a way of thinking that always acts for the good of the loved object; not for one's own comfort, health, or well-being. The right sad thing is recognizing that God's Son came to live and die on a mission that today we would call a "suicide mission." We are called to walk in His steps, not on His back.

God has already answered every prayer that we have to offer with the power to overcome - the power to triumph - the power to glorify GOOD - the Father in the way that we respond to every challenge.

I have heard it said that God answers prayer in three ways - Yes, No, and wait. I am certain there is a fourth way - I have already given you more than you need to deal with this; and you know what that is and how to draw on it. Let the Spirit work within you and "do not quench my Holy Spirit."