When prayers are not answered…

The promise of God is that His people are “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3) and that as “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

This is evidence of the Spirit-filled life. In that place where Jesus reigns, sin cannot, but if I have unconfessed sin that I know about and have not taken it to the Cross, God can bestow no other blessings, no matter how much I desire them and fervently pray for them. Today, I’m thinking about the need for purity in my life takes priority over God answering all my prayers. As one writer says, the temple must first be made pure before the King will come in to reign there!

For example, when severe famine hit and God’s people suffered, He sent Joseph into Egypt — sold as a slave, suffering all the way and “the word of God tested his faith” until the ruler who had food “set him free and made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom.” (Psalm 105:17–22)

It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning his future that was always on his mind. It must have seemed totally impossible at times but after this man grew through the testing, then he was fit for the the task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with the love and patience of the Lord.

I will not experience what Joseph did, but as I pray for what God promises to do, for myself and for those that I pray for, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard. Yet I see that this is a discipline of faith for me also. It brings me into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.

What does this look like? Oswald Chambers describes it with spiritual disciplines, calling them habits. He warns that as I become more virtuous, patient, even godly, these are only stages and if I stop there, I can easily strut as if I’ve arrived. What God wants is that those disciplines be practiced so they are not conscious habits at all, because they are lost in the life of Christ.

In other words, God wants spiritual discipline to be such a part of me that I do the right things without even thinking about it. Yet I could make a god out of my little Christian habits, and if that happens, the Lord will upset the habit to show me what I’ve done.

Yesterday, before sitting to devotions, an interruption came and it upset me — I wanted to be reading the Bible and praying when God wanted me to be eager to help. Had I made a god of my spiritual disciplines? Likely.

Chambers says love means invisible habits. That is, unconsciously doing whatever God puts before me in grace and being ‘at home’ with it, not upset because an interruption messed with the practice of ‘my’ habit. Jesus is my example. No matter what came along, He was at home with God and not disrupted by anything.

This partly answers why God focuses more on my shortfall than on answering all my prayers. I am not yet ready to live with the answers because I realize how many demands they could make on the current habits of my life. 

PRAY: Jesus, this is huge. I knew that any interruption to my plans needs to be met with grace and godliness, but not only did my frustration miss that, it also missed the point Chambers makes, that I can put even my spiritual disciplines ahead of what You are calling me to do, making them my god rather than You. Thank You for this conviction and I do confess the root of how I reacted. Forgive me for thinking a virtuous habit is more important than hearing You in the midst of even that. Help me be a better listener, doing it because that is who I am.