The Prayer Book of the Rabbi
Jesus consistently teaches that we are to pray boldly for God's intervention in our lives and world. A few examples:
"Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24)
"If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it." (John 14:14)
"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find." (Luke 11:9)
"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?" (Matthew 7:11)
Yet almost every Christian has asked God for something and not received it. Even the most desperate prayers for the sick, poor and forgotten (prayers that seem to be clearly "in Jesus' name") occasionally languish without resolution, despite the Scriptures above.
What do we do when God is silent in the face of our prayers? What do we do when God says "no" to our requests?
Sitting and the Right and Left Hand of the King
In Mark 10:35-45, James and John, sons of Zebedee, approach Jesus with a request. They say, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Jesus' response is telling. He replies, "You do not know what you are asking."
How often do we make requests of God without knowing the full significance of what we ask? I imagine we do this daily. Like with James and John, God's unwillingness to grant our requests is often rooted more in his love and protection of us than in our perception of the Lord's distance and indifference.
James and John also discover that their prayer has collided with God's plan. Jesus says, "To sit at my right and at my left is not mine to grant; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." Again, while God will respond to our prayers, and while he involves us in his plan of redemption, the Father never allows us to endanger his larger design for salvation.
Our prayer requests must always be filtered through the lenses of God's sovereignty and God's provision; for he will give us only "good gifts," whatever we may ask of him. How can these two ideas help you wrestle with your own "unanswered" prayers?
Extras:
Our second Scripture this week, Psalm 139, reminds us of both the providential plan of God, and also his loving care for us since before our birth. Furthermore, Psalm 139 affirms God's foreknowledge of all his creatures. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made." God's foreknowledge extends to every aspect of our lives; for example, the psalmist writes, "even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely."
Understanding the fullness of God's loving plan of our lives is beyond our capability. Indeed, the psalmist exclaims, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it." Yet this knowledge speaks again to the extraordinary love of the Father, Son and Spirit for their world. Rather than becoming tangled up in the complexity of thoughts that are above our own, let us instead affirm our gratitude to God for his unending faithfulness and mercy to us.