I noticed in the "Chaplain's Office" people are praying for my wife who has been diagnosed with cancer. Thank you very much for your concern, and I sure would like to think it can help, but I really don't think so. You might prove me wrong, but here's what I think:
The Problem of Unanswered Prayer.
I’m not a stranger to unanswered prayer. I prayed daily for several years that Elton John would become a Christian and record Christian songs, when I was young. I finally gave up. Some may even be as skeptical of prayer as the late Carl Sagan, who wrote: “We can pray over the cholera victim, or we can give her 500 milligrams of tetracycline every 12 hours…the scientific treatments are hundreds or thousands of times more effective than the alternatives (like prayer). Even when the alternatives seem to work, we don’t actually know that they played any role.”
The Demon Haunted World, (Random House, 1996, pp. 9-10).
The problem of unanswered prayer is particularly vexing when many Biblical promises of answered prayer seem unqualified (
Matthew 7:7;
John 14:13; 15:16; and 16:23). The problem is that our experience teaches us otherwise. We all know of someone who has died even though believers had prayed. This is true even of those we deem spiritual giants.
When we seriously reflect upon it, a recipe for disaster would be for God to simply give us whatever we ask. Whenever we experience the slightest suffering, answered prayer would rescue us. Yet suffering teaches us to have a deeper faith we are told, which brings more glory to God (
James 1:2-4;
I Peter 1:6-7). According to the Bible it’s God’s will that sometimes we suffer (Job). Sometimes it may even be God’s will that we fail in an endeavor. For only through pain and failure can we learn of God’s grace and truth in our lives in a way that makes future ministry more effective, it is said. (See
Acts 7:23-36;
Luke 22:31-32;
John 21:15-19).
Several Biblical examples of unanswered prayer are discernible. They include Jesus’ request to avoid the cross (
Matthew 27:39;
Luke 22:42); Jesus’ prayer for Christian unity (
John 17:20-22); Paul’s request to remove a “thorn in the flesh” (
II Corinthians 12:7); and Paul’s request that he would be delivered from unbelievers in Jerusalem (
Romans 15:31; compare
Acts 21). While it may be true that both Jesus and Paul sought “Thy will not mine” their expressed desires went unanswered as intended.
INADEQUATE SOLUTIONS-- Three solutions are inadequate for this problem. One) Some Christians simply deny that prayer ever goes unanswered if prayed in faith. This is a radical view and has given rise to the “name it claim it” theology. But this view leads to intense guilt if prayers go unanswered, and forces some to paradoxically claim that God healed them even when the symptoms remain!
Two) Others believe God always answers prayer, but that sometimes his answer is “No.” But think about it; how is it possible that a negative answer is not considered an unanswered prayer? Someone who says an answered prayer is one in which God could sometimes say “No”, is merely saying God has responded in some way. But for us to say that prayer was answered we really want to know whether the request was granted or not. A denied request is one that goes unanswered, and a request granted is one that is answered. If someone wants to maintain that all prayers are answered, then we merely need to ask them whether God says, “yes” to all prayers, and God clearly doesn’t do this. That’s the whole reason why unanswered prayer is a problem in the first place, and it is a problem.
Three) Still others rationalize things away so that they can still say God answered their prayer even though God didn’t do as they requested. One church prayed for a cancer patient who died. The minister subsequently claimed God had answered their prayer because he said they were praying for her release from the hospital. Since she died, she was in fact released from the hospital and went to be with God. But that was not what they meant when they prayed. While it may be true to say God gives us what is best, that doesn’t mean he gives us exactly what we asked him.
SOME OTHER SOLUTIONS— Several other solutions are offered to help explain the problem of unanswered prayer. They demand that we see the promises of answered prayer as qualified ones.
My contention here that the promise of answered prayer “dies the death of a thousand qualifications,” so to speak. There is no reason to think that God, if he exists, will answer our requests. Depending on how one categorizes them I’ve discovered several qualifications to answered prayer.
ONE) Sin in our lives. God is under no obligation to answer the specific prayers of one tangled in sin. (
Psalms 66:18;
Isaiah 59:1-2;
James 5:16;
I John 3:21-22). This includes all of the outward and inward sins in the Bible, plus not treating family members right (
I Peter 3:7), and not growing as a Christian (
John 15:15-16;
Galatians 5:22-23). But a problem surfaces here. Since Christians are washed in the blood of Jesus, God supposedly sees no sin in them. How can God see our sins if we are already washed clean? But if somehow God can see our sins, and if that means seeing inside our filthy hearts, then no one is clean enough to expect anything from God when we pray. No one.
TWO) Wrong motives in our prayer. God is under no obligation to answer selfish prayers. (
James 4:3). Conversely, our prayers must seek to glorify God not us. God is under no obligation to answer prayers that fail to give glory to God. (
John 14:13;
II Corinthians 12:9-10). We may not even know what would bring God the most glory. (
John 9:3).
But there are some very strong arguments that indicate there is nothing a human can do or say that are completely free of selfish motives. Psychological Egoism, for instance, is the theory that everything we do, even if in some small degree, benefits us the most. While I do not accept that theory, it has a very large degree of truth to it. Even if we don’t take that extreme stance, most all of what we do is done from motives that benefit ourselves first. Most all of our prayers contain some selfish motives. Even the preacher who prays that his church mature and grow can also be wanting a bigger paycheck, more power, some recognized fame, and fewer problem people as they mature in their Christian faith.
THREE) Lack of faith in prayer. God is under no obligation to answer the prayers of someone who doesn’t believe he will. (
Mark 11: 24;
James 1:6-8; 5:15). This faith must show itself to be persistent and earnest in prayer. (Matt. 7:7;
Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-8). Jesus does talk as if all you need is faith and God will intervene for you. He makes it sound easy. All you should have to do is say to that mountain to move over there, and it shall be done. But it doesn't move. So you blame yourself. Something must be wrong with your faith, is the conclusion. Then that failure is a memory and you don't step out so far on the limb next time. And when you fail in faith again, then you hesitate to step out on that limb again. This happens until you find yourself clinging to the tree trunk for fear of stepping out on faith much at all. So you feel guilty about this all over again. Then you hear a good sermon and try again, and when your faith fails you are back to the tree trunk again. So you feel guilty again. It's simply impossible for adults to have childlike faith because we are no longer children. We've had too many experiences that temper our faith—too many tragedies, too many unanswered prayers, too many setbacks. And all of these things have taught us that believing doesn't always work. So we simply don’t believe like we think we should. So we feel guilty, and we struggle some more. And we feel guilty some more for struggling, etc. I blame the traditional faith for causing this guilt. My view doesn't produce guilt because I no longer have such expectations that God will intervene in prayer.
FOUR) It must be according to God’s will. God is under no obligation to answer the prayer that is ignorant of God’s will. (
I John 5:14-15:
Matthew 27:39-41;
Luke 22:42;
John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23). Conversely, our prayers must not bring social injustice here on earth. God is under no obligation to answer a prayer that brings any injustice on others. (
Luke 18:7-8).
Why would God answer the prayers of a slave owner who asked that none of his slaves would run away, or the prayers of the KKK for white supremacy, or the prayers of those who want a man standing accused of a crime to be found guilty, if in fact he is innocent? Unjust prayers have no assurance God will answer them. I understand that. But there are so many other ethical and social issues in our world today. How can we really claim on every issue that we really know the mind of God enough to pray for what we think should be done? Most of history is the history of human errors.
It is said that we may be praying for an end to AIDS, poverty, teenage pregnancy, and so on, but God doesn’t do much to change the situation because as a nation we have to repent first. But I cannot see how it’s not God’s will that more people be saved, and yet the Christian faith is losing ground in the world today. My cousin told me once that he doesn’t think God wants everyone to be saved. Of course he’s a good Calvinist and thinks God wills or decrees everything that happens. But the problem of evil resurfaces here. It takes more faith than I will ever have to say that it was God’s will for Hitler to start WWII, or for terrorists to fly planes into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York, or for good churches to fight and split up, or for children to die prematurely, or for people to starve to death. Calvinists believe God decrees those things to happen, and non-Calvinists simply believe that Christians are the ones blamed for not praying enough. But maybe prayer just doesn’t always help us like that.
FIVE) It must be within God’s power to grant the request. Sometimes believers are praying for contradictory things. It’s like two fellows both praying for the romantic affections of one girl, two athletes on opposite teams both praying to win a certain ball game, two people praying for the same job, or the farmer who prays for rain while the vacationer is praying for sunshine, and so on. Then too, what about mothers who are praying for the lives of their sons on opposite sides of a battle during the Civil War, or WWII? Or, what of a convicted criminal who prays for a judge to be lenient in his sentencing versus the victim who prays the criminal receives the maximum penalty allowed by law? God cannot answer all prayers because to do so would be to do what is logically impossible.
This qualification alone may cause hundreds of thousands of prayers to go unanswered!
SIX) Biblical history teaches us that when praying for certain things God is under no obligation to answer our requests in our lifetime. We are told we must have patience because of God’s timetable. Think of the prayers offered during the long Israelite Egyptian slavery (
Exodus 2:23-25), or the Babylonian Captivity (
Lamentations 1-5). There were Jews who prayed for the coming of the Messiah, and for the many Christians down through the centuries who have prayed for the return of Jesus. There are surely other requests that just don’t fit into God’s timetable because we just don’t know God’s plan for earth. But in the meantime we wonder why God doesn’t help and/or rescue us when we hurt so badly.
SEVEN) Certain other requests must eventually be denied no matter how often we pray for them. Death, sickness, pain, hard work and strained relationships are part of the curse placed upon humankind because of the supposed Fall into sin. (
Genesis 3:8-19). Prayer can lessen the effects of the Fall but it cannot eliminate them. We will eventually die. We cannot avoid getting sick from time to time. There will be strained relationships, and work will nearly always be hard. You cannot expect God to answer these prayers. Do not pray that you won’t die, or that work will be easy, or that you won’t have strained relationships. You will have strained relationships even if you pray daily not to have any. He cannot answer such prayers.
EIGHT) There is the additional problem of human free will (for non-Calvinists). There seems to be the admittance throughout the Bible that human beings have been given free will and that some choose to reject God ("whosoever will, may come"). Given this fact, one must wonder how much change we can expect by praying for an unrepentant person. I recall a conversation my Pastor had with me, as I was becoming a skeptical person. It went like this:
Pastor: John, my prayer for you is that you come to your senses before you go off the deep end.
John: Well, if that's your prayer and if prayer works, then I won't go off the deep end, will I?
Pastor: But it will depend upon whether or not you have a receptive heart.
John: Well, if it depends upon my heart, then why bother to pray for me?
Had my Pastor responded further by saying he will begin praying that I have a receptive heart, I could've responded as I did at first. I could've replied, "Well, if that's your prayer and if prayer works, then I will be given a receptive heart, won't I?" [Sometimes I’m just cantankerous]. Of course a Calvinist must admit that God has decreed that I should be a doubter and that I should write a book that will lead others into becoming doubters like me—even though the Bible tells us God desires all people everywhere to be saved! (See
II Peter 3:9). [see my book:
From Minster to Honest Doubter: Why I Changed My Mind, available at amazon.com].
A FINAL THOUGHT—Even though there are many qualifications for answered prayer we are told not to be timid in prayer. Jesus encouraged us to pray with expectation. In
Hebrews 4:16 we are encouraged to come confidently before God’s throne of grace. Even when we are unsure what to pray for we are assured that God can read the thoughts of our hearts (
Romans 8:26-27). But with all of the qualifications this is extremely hard to do. These qualifications are set up as a brick wall to our expecting anything from God.
Tends to make all those little problems go away, kind of like an Alka Seltzer.
