"The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why...?'" Numbers  22:32

As I have wrestled with the problem of unanswered prayer, at times my thoughts have been in turmoil:  Does God really love me?  Has He heard me?  Does He care?  If He cares, is He unable to answer?  Have I done something to displease Him?  Why?  Why doesn't God answer my prayer?  I also have been confronted with the temptation to blame God, to resent God, to turn away from God - to just stop praying since He doesn't seem to be answering anyway.

As I have struggled with my "Whys?", I have sought answers in God's Word.  He has led me to John 11 and the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  As the passage begins, Mary and Martha are praying for their brother with eloquent simplicity, Lord, the one whom You love is sick.

The verses make it very clear that although Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus were loved by Jesus, He didn't say anything and He didn't do anything in response to their desperate cry.  Then the situation they had asked His help for got dramatically worse when Lazarus died!

When Jesus finally arrived at the grief-stricken tomb of Lazarus, He challenged Martha to believe in Him alone.  And Martha's small tendril of faith that had survived the devastating loss of her brother wrapped around the words of Jesus with dramatic results!  Martha discovered that God had a greater purpose than answering her prayer by giving her what she wanted, when she wanted it, and the way she wanted it.  God's greater purpose was to develop her faith so that He could display His glory in her life - if she would just trust Him.

I believe many people today who call themselves by God's name have deep-down resentment, confusion, hurt and bitterness over not only unanswered prayer, but over the suffering and brokenness that God sometimes allows us to experience.  They wrestle with it until they are spiritually exhausted and defeated, then simply cover it up with activity, religiosity, and hypocrisy.  Because they just don't understand Why?!

I myself have needed to be reminded that some times God uses unanswered prayer simply to develop my faith in Him.  At other times, He may seem silent because unanswered prayer will display His glory "exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." (Ephesians 3:20) 

God has reminded me also that after the Cross came the resurrection and the glory and the crown - and that my focus should be on the big picture and the ultimate goal - to live by faith in Jesus alone so that I might display His glory to an increasingly skeptical, cynical, hostile world.

Bottom line is that God has offered me - and you - the stewardship of trusting Him when we don't understand and nothing seems to make sense.  So would you join this AnGeL in tightly clasping the hand of Jesus and looking full in His wonderful face until our faith becomes sight...and even AnGeLs no longer ask Why?

Instruction

Read James 1:2-4

• What or who is causing you to lose sleep, or even to weep?
• According to James 1:2, what is to be our attitude when we experience pain, pressure, persecution, problems...or just hard times?  How is this attitude confirmed by 1 Thessalonians 5:16? Philippians 4:4?
• Is this a suggested attitude based on emotions?  Or a command based on choice?  Give reasons for your answer.
• Is it possible to rejoice in a situation, yet not rejoice for it?  What's the difference?
• What reason for our positive attitude is given in vs. 3-4?  1 Peter 1:6-7?  2 Corinthians 12:7-10?  John 11:39-40?  Hebrews 12:2-3?
• How does knowing that your suffering is not wasted...that God has a greater purpose in it...help your attitude?
• If your attitude is less than what is described in these verses, what will you do today to adjust it?

Download the full version of our print newsletter here.