Unanswered Prayer Question 2

Posted by occwebsite
26th Jan 2016

It seems that Jesus answered and healed every need he met in his ministry, yet it doesn’t seem to happen that way in our everyday life. What is the difference?

Well, He’s the Son of God – we’re not! He had a little advantage there! This goes back to the C.S. Lewis quote I referenced in Unanswered Prayer Question 1. He said that what bothers me is not unanswered prayer but the holding on to the expectation and the promises. It wouldn’t bother me at all if Jesus could just do all the miracles, and that He was the miracle worker and we’re not. I could deal with that. The trouble is that he was the miracle worker, and then He said in John 14:12, “Greater things than these shall you do.” That’s where the problem lies – right? And we’ve got to be okay saying, yeah, that’s a problem, that bugs me, I just don’t have an answer for that. I can give you some variables and some other things; but, in the end, I can’t answer the question.

I have enough reasons, however, for believing that Jesus is the Son of God. He’s the revelation of God. He reveals the deepest truth about who God is, about who I am and about who you are. I can give you all my reasons for believing that no matter how aggravated I am by the miracle‐working power that we’re supposed to have, and, although, it doesn’t show up as much as I would think it should, it doesn’t trump all the reasons for my believing He’s the Son of God. And so, I’ll keep on believing, and I’ll keep on obeying, which means I’m going to keep on praying. I’m going to keep on pushing forward. And then, we do our best to try to understand questions like this.

So, in this case, it does help that Jesus, as a perfect, sinless human being, had a relationship with God that we’re to aspire towards; but I don’t think any of us are there. And, I suspect, that one of the reasons why Jesus batted almost 100%. But part of it was that he’s listening to God, and God knows all the variables, so he only prays for those for whom it would be effective to pray for. That would be the kind of consideration you’d look at, and there are other things, as well. In the end, it’s a very, very tough question. You’ve just got to keep plowing forward.