How do you respond when things go wrong in your life? When you pray and your prayers aren’t answered? Or worse still, the opposite of what you pray happens?
This week I had two experiences of this. The temptation could be to get down in the dumps and say ‘then why bother praying. God’s not listening or doesn’t care.’
From previous experience and my relationship with the Lord, I know that is far from the case. So why do things not work out as hoped?
Several reasons suggest themselves. One is, the Lord knows better than I do what I need and knows that to answer my prayer in this instance would be against my best interests. The second might be the timing is not right for the answer to this prayer. Other events need to fall into line. The third could be God is testing my faith to see how serious I am about this matter and this prayer. The reason could be a combination of any of the above.
It could also be that Satan is interfering. Some years back when I started as teaching leader for a bible study group, I had a run of what the world would call ‘bad luck’ that l ranged from being attacked by a hive of wasps, breaking a foot and burns to my face and shoulders from a bizarre incident where an eggplant I was cooking exploded. It would have been easy to opt out of teaching my bible study and think what was the point. The more I was trying to do for the Lord the more things went wrong.
But then I remembered a comment made years ago by a pastor of a previous church. It went something like, ‘Do you worry about the struggle in your Christian life and think if you were a better Christian you wouldn’t have these struggles. You should worry if you don’t struggle in your Christian life, because it means you are no threat and Satan doesn’t to need to worry about you.’
The Bible backs up this view. You only have to look at the struggles Joseph had with his brothers, with lies, with prison, with being forgotten by the butler before God’s plans came to fruition. Or the struggles David experienced, being chased and threatened by Saul, even though God had promised David would be king. Or Job who clung to God despite all the disaster that befell him and his family. Or the struggles the apostle Paul had in his life not just from Jewish persecutors but from within himself as he struggled to combat the old nature, Romans 7:15-24. So next time it seems your prayers aren’t answered and everything seems to be going from bad to worse, take heart from these giants of faith.
Years ago in Australia, the then current Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser made the observation that ‘life wasn’t meant to be easy.’ Neither is the Christian life meant to be easy. If you’re having struggles, thank God, because it means you’re doing something right. God is training you and Satan is doing his utmost to interfere with that training. Who are you going to let have the victory?
The Names of God–El Roi
Supporting Others During Their Trials