Over the last few days we have been exploring the subject of prayer and faith. We started this series mentioning that while prayer is the great privilege of the believer, yet prayer is probably one of the most neglected disciplines of the Christian life (the other being personal Bible study).
The reason I stated for this neglect is often disappointment with God for what appears to be unanswered prayer.
As we have examined this subject my text has been that great Hall of Fame chapter on faith, Hebrews chapter 11. We have seen that faith sometimes changes our circumstances (verses 1-35a), and faith sometimes does not change our circumstances (verses 35b-39).
What makes the people who did not experience miraculous deliverance equal in faith to those who did? They never questioned God (at least to the point of giving up on him) in their circumstances. Faith, real faith, is not receiving from God what we demand, real faith, true faith, accepts what God gives without doubting him or questioning him, or saying as the woman used in the illustration that opened this series, “Because God did not answer all those prayers (the way we wanted), I’m never going bother him with another request again!”
There are all sorts of things for which we pray. Sometimes God steps in and does the miraculous, sometimes he works through such natural means that if we are not careful we will miss the fact that he has answered. Other times, for reasons known only to him, he doesn’t answer the way we want, and if we are not careful, we can mistake those times either for his absence or we can believe the lies of some who proclaim that we simply don’t have enough faith, or we can rest assured that the God of the Universe might know better how to do his job than we do! Our text says in Hebrews 11:30-40, “All of them pleased God because of their faith! But still they died without being given what had been promised. This was because God had something better in store for us. And he did not want them to reach the goal of their faith without us.” (CEV).
It is easy to prove that great men of faith did not always receive exactly what they wanted when they prayed. Let me give you three examples (though I could give you many more, but space limitations are always a concern.) First is the example of these people in our text. Abraham for instance, had many promises that were not fulfilled in his own lifetime. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t keep his promises, it simply means that he does so on his time-table. Many people mistakenly think that God has abandoned them because he isn’t blessing us now in some way, when in reality, his greatest blessings are yet to come! But we want temporal riches while his view is eternal riches. God always keeps his promises.
Second is the example of Paul. Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” (see 2 Corinthians 12:1-10). Many scholars believe that this “thorn in the flesh” was a painful eye disease that was not only excruciating but was robbing Paul of his vision. Galatians 4:12-16 seems to be a reference supporting this belief. Some apparently were questioning and leading the Galatian believers away from the truth he had taught him, probably by stating that if Paul really was a man of God he wouldn’t be suffering this way. Yet the text makes it clear that in this case, the “messenger from Satan” was in the plan of God, and the form of healing that God chose was grace to get through the circumstances not a miraculous healing of Paul.
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