Guests: Doug Sharp and Rich Geer
Description: The disappointment of unanswered prayer is a challenge every believer must face. We have been taught that God is a good God and that he answers prayer.
I Peter 3:12-13
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
Also, continue reading to the end of the chapter.
But God isn’t like a bubble gum machine when you insert a quarter and out pops a gumball. There are some who treat God poorly, then expect Him to come through to do their bidding. They put God in a Mason jar, screw on the lid, and then when trouble comes, they open it up and expect God to go clean up their mess. They are oblivious to the self-defeating faults and habits that they are enslaved to that hinder God from fulfilling their wants and needs. God is sovereign. I treat prayer like this: coming into agreement with God’s will so I can either cooperate or stay out of the way.
This raises an interesting question. Do our prayers actually change God’s mind and alter the course of history? One such prayer comes to mind. When I went into the Navy, my wife Vivian prayed that I would not be away from her for more than two weeks at a time. I didn’t have the best of attitudes, and I felt like I was being jerked around and being given less opportunity than what I was promised by the recruiter. But I ended up with choice of duty and got the only shore duty out of the radar operations class. After two years, my assignment was to a ship that was coming into the yards. When the ship got out of the yards, we were supposed to go for 6 weeks of refresher training, but the oil crisis hit, and we had to come into port every weekend.
Prayer involves trust in the living God. Are we dismayed when we ask for something and don’t get it? God can answer three ways. Yes, no, wait.