When I was a Pastor, and now as as Evangelist, I have often had people express their doubts about the effectiveness of prayer and, ultimately, their doubts about God, when bad things happen and God does not seem to answer their prayers.
Most often this happens when someone becomes stricken with a disease such as cancer, but it might be a financial situation or a child or other loved one who has become involved in drugs or alcohol or some other destructive and sinful lifestyle.
When we, as Christians, are faced with these kinds of tragic or crisis situations, we begin to pray in tears and with great passion and in faith and with belief that God will answer our prayers and we ask other Christians to pray with us. We pray for God to miraculously intervene in the situation and provide a resolution to the financial problem or a complete healing from the disease or that our child or loved one would change their life.
There are times when God does miraculously intervene, but there are many more times that it seems that God does not intervene - that He has not heard our prayers - or that He does not care. It is then a very short step to begin to question if God ever answers prayer or even if there is a God. We begin to ask "Why didn't God answer my prayers?" And, then we begin to even question if God has ever answered any prayer we've prayed or was it just happenstance or coincidence that seemed like an answer to prayer and the outcome would have been the same whether we prayed or not. We begin to ask, "What's the point?" And, it is not long before we become discouraged and disappointed and far too often our faith begins to fail.
Maybe you're in that kind of place right now. Maybe you've been praying and praying and it seems God is doing nothing and you are beginning to question if He hears your prayers, if He cares about you and your crisis, or even if God is even real. The fact is that all of us will be tested in this manner at one time or another. If you're not there now, you've been there or you'll be there sometime soon.
I wish I had a word for you that would remove all your doubts and restore your faith, but I don't. It is something each of us has to work through on our own. Each of us has to make the personal decision that even in those times when I can't see God working, even in those times God does not seem to hear, even in those times when it seems that God doesn't care - I'm going to keep praying and keep believing.
You see, there comes a point in faith, when the only way you can continue on is by faith. Does that make sense? We can try to figure it out logically, but, in the end, we have to continue on in faith, by faith. We can read our Bibles, we can review the miracles in answer to pray which God has previously done in our lives, but when faced with a crisis which only God can solve and He does not bring the solution we've prayed for, it is only human to question it all.
And, in that, I think we find the key. We have to stop looking at things through human eyes and stop trying to understand with human understanding and, instead, begin to see things through God's eyes.
I heard my Pastor, Dixie Pebworth, tell a mother who had for many years prayed that her son would be turn from the lifestyle he was living and, yet, he seemed only to get deeper and deeper in that lifestyle, "God is has not finished writing your son's testimony."
Another friend of mine, Jim Murphey, who was a preacher before the effects of a brain tumor caused him to have to step from the pulpit was once confronted by a man who was crying that he had prayed and prayed in belief and with great fervor that his wife would be healed from cancer and asked "Why did God let her die? Why didn't He answer my prayers? Why didn't He heal her?" And, Jim said, "Brother, God did heal your wife. She doesn't have cancer anymore. She is completely healthy and more alive then she has ever been." Jim passed away less than a year later, but we didn't have a funeral, we had a "home-going" celebration!
When we can move beyond seeing with our human eyes and begin to see with God's eyes, then we begin to see that God always answers our prayers, even when He doesn't answer with our preconceived and sometimes even selfish idea of how He should answer. When we can move beyond seeing with our human eyes and begin to see with God's eyes, we begin to realize how much He loves us and how He pours blessing into our life - even in the most tragic circumstance.
I have never seen such a great illustration of what I'm talking about then this video. Have some tissue ready, because I guarantee you will cry, but you will also see God's hand and God's blessing and God's love and God's eternal promise in what would be with human eyes the most tragic of situations.
Love in Christ Jesus,
Jim
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