Tag: Wisdom of God

“Seeing” Answered Prayer

God always hears our prayers. He always has an answer. But it isn’t always the answer we expect. Sometimes, God answers, “No,” or “Not yet.” Sometimes, He answers in ways that seem confusing and mysterious, and even ironic.

I remember as a young teen praying for a woman in the community who had lymphoma. In treating her condition, the doctors, trying a new experimental treatment, did permanent damage to certain muscles, leading to a progressively debilitating condition. She died a slow and painful death, unrelated to her original condition. Where was God? How could He listen to our prayers and give such a cold, cruel answer?

But God sees a bigger picture than we do. This precious woman had incredible faith and grit. She had spent years working diligently to help others and teach God’s Word. She continued her work, even in the midst of her health struggles almost to the end of her life. What might have caused some people to turn their backs on God made her more dependent on His Grace. She faced her pain and weakness with grit, strength, and hope in God’s eternal healing. God’s answer wasn’t to rescue her from the suffering, but to be present in it with her. And her example lives on to this day.

Some people would read about this and be dismissive. What a cop-out! What a delusion! But there is much more to her story than her own condition or even her response. One of the men in our church really struggled with God’s seeming indifference. He wrestled with his own faith for many months while watching her get weaker and weaker. But through his struggle, he grew in his conviction that God was present in every situation. He was inspired to do short-term mission work, partly as a result of this growth. Knowing that God would be with him, he threw himself into loving people from a different culture–different climate, different language, different work ethic– and helped build churches and other facilities for those in need. Many people were helped, inspired, and encouraged because of his dependence on God– a dependence enhanced by facing his own questions and doubts.

Family members and community members, watching her struggles, were inspired to pick up where she left off– working and teaching and reaching out to others with zeal and joy–following her marvelous example. Today, some of her family members are leaders in their churches, raising the next generations of witnesses to God’s mercy and power. Doctors, having failed in her treatment, learned from it– a difficult lesson for all, but a lesson, nonetheless. Her joyful attitude (before and during her struggles) inspired me to direct the Vacation Bible School program at our church for a few years, and to teach Sunday School when I moved to a new location. And those are just a few of the ways I have “seen” God’s answers to our prayers. God did not give our friend the physical healing we wanted. But her struggles– and her response of faith and perseverance–inspired a ripple effect far beyond her own pain and disappointment. And she has received the ultimate healing! Her pain, intense and unjust as it was, was only temporary. Her life, her legacy, her joy– they all live on!

How often do we look at a situation and think we know what is “best?” How often do we feel that God’s answers are “wrong?” Wrong timing, wrong outcome, full of hardship or pain– how can this be God’s “perfect” will for us? There was nothing about this woman’s situation that was comfortable; no reason to see a good outcome for her or her immediate family. She died. She experienced pain, with no earthly justice. Her suffering was undeserved and unmitigated. She refused to sue the hospital or the doctors– she wanted them to be able to continue to learn from her experience so they could help others NOT to suffer in the future. But her life was shortened and made grueling in the process, and she received no payout, no financial compensation, no symbolic reparation for her sacrifice. We received no “miraculous” answer to our prayers. It seemed at the time that the more we prayed for healing, the worse her condition became. We continued to pray anyway, knowing that God DID hear us, and God’s ways were not our ways– they are always better. Even when His ways seem like silence.

This all happened several decades ago, and many of the “answers” from our urgent prayers are still hidden from our eyes. Many of our questions remain unanswered. But God’s will is still active, even in these tragic circumstances. Someday in Heaven, it may be revealed to us exactly how God used this woman’s life and struggles to bring about blessings to hundreds of other people– causing them to grow strong through her weakness, drawing them to His healing and wisdom in a world of pain and confusion.

I have lost many friends to cancer. I pray for each one, and the outcomes are never exactly the same. Some go into remission, only to have the cancer return three or four years later. Others get amazing healing– surgeons are astonished and perplexed by the rapid or miraculous disappearance of cancer cells. Some go into fast decline and die almost immediately after their diagnoses. And each situation impacts people in different ways, showing God’s power and presence for those who are willing to look for them. Prayer isn’t a magic formula for immediate and total healing. Prayer is lifting up a situation that is beyond our control or understanding and trusting that God has a perfect plan beyond what we can see or understand. Cancer cannot take God by surprise. Death cannot outwit or overpower God. We live in a world where Evil can overwhelm us; our bodies can betray us; our future can be lost in the fog of uncertainty and suffering. But God is present– not only IN our suffering, but ABOVE and BEYOND our suffering.

We don’t pray for our friends and loved ones to suffer. We want them to be healed, to be free of pain and grief; to be at ease and blessed with abundance. This is normal; it is good. God wants to bless us. It doesn’t bring Him joy to watch us suffer. But He also wants us to see the blessing of His presence, His wisdom, and His power. Sometimes, we can’t see that as we look around. Sometimes, we need to look up! Even from a hospital bed (see John, chapter 9). Even from the flames of suffering (see Daniel, chapter 3). Or from the belly of a whale (see Jonah, chapter 2). And we will find that God is there.

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Over There…

Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there,
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word to beware,
We’ll be over, we’re coming over,
And we won’t come back till it’s over over there.

“Over There” by George M. Cohan, 1917

In 1917, as war was raging in Europe, songwriter George M. Cohan wrote a song urging young men in America to take up arms and fight in a war that seemed remote and unconnected with American interests (at that time). Americans were reading about the atrocities and massive numbers of dead and dying in the fields and trenches of France, Germany, Belgium, and Russia (among other places), and they were moved to do something bold and dramatic. Little could they imagine the true horror that awaited them in the mud- and blood-covered lands across the sea. Driven by emotion, rage, and a certain optimism that came from being an emerging “world power,” the “Yanks” swept into Europe, and they fought and died to bring an end to “the war to end all wars.”

Of course, they didn’t abolish war– less than a generation later, Europe and Asia were engulfed in World War II. Wars have been almost constant– somewhere in the world– throughout history. Violence, vengeance, terror, torture, oppression and lawlessness well up and spill over all the time. Just over the past weekend, terrorists carried out vicious attacks on Israel, and Israel has responded with vicious retaliation.

The soldiers who went “over there” in WWI and WWII were no safer or braver or smarter than the many thousands who had already died. They arrived, and they were forced to march through mud, suffer through trench warfare, breathe in deadly mustard gas, and risk dying in order to bring peace–just like their European counterparts. Many of them died within days, never knowing the outcome of their sacrifice. And many of them were too young to remember first-hand stories of our own horrible Civil War and the devastation in our own land, or the full-scale destruction of the Napoleonic, Germanic, and Crimean wars of the nineteenth century.

I have seen memes and posts, sent from Americans, asking for prayers for Israel, prayers for Gaza, prayers for Palestine, and prayers for peace in the Middle East. We are moved and horrified by what we see and hear on TV or over the internet. Some of us are moved to pray; some are moved to seek governmental or even military intervention. And this is natural– we can only imagine what horrors have already taken place, and what others await as the violence continues to escalate.

But, in another sense, it is all happening– “Over There.” We see footage of atrocities– families being ripped apart or slaughtered in front of cameras– many recorded precisely to amplify the terror of their actions. But we sit in comfort and safety. We imagine that such viciousness would not happen in our own neighborhood; would not affect our own families–not that it NEVER could; but that it would not– not here; only “over there.” The Middle East, or central Africa, or Eastern Europe.

Among American Christians, there is a dangerous mindset that such atrocities might not happen here because we are a “Christian” nation, or just because of our geographical distance from some of the current “hot spots.” But God has no sacred contract with the United States. There is nothing sacred about the North American continent that God will not allow terror to overwhelm us (We should know this from 9/11)! He does not “owe” us His sovereign protection; we do not “deserve” a pass on hard times, violent conflict, or upheaval. And we must resist the urge to “explain” away such horror. “Oh, they’ve always had conflict in the Middle East.” “Well, if ________(event) hadn’t happened, this wouldn’t have been necessary.” There were many here in America who tried to rationalize the wars of the 20th century by referring to colonialism and reparations– as though war and violence, genocide and massive destruction are rational acts.

We SHOULD be praying for the region of Israel and Gaza– as well as the conflicts going on elsewhere around the world. We should speak out against the horrors and atrocities of terrorism and war– wherever we find them. But we must do so with the humility and humanity that recognizes the following:

  • God is still sovereign– these attacks and retaliations have not taken God by surprise. The chaos and bloodshed break His heart– but they do not change His plans, or alter His Holiness, or nullify His mercy. We can pray with hope and confidence in His timing and judgment, but we cannot pray in our own “righteous” opinions or knowledge. He is God– We are NOT.
  • God sends rain and sunshine on both the “righteous” and the “wicked.” We can take sides in any conflict, but we cannot know God’s full plan or His purposes in letting conflict arise, or letting it continue. Our prayers should reflect that, even as we pray for peace.
  • God’s message to us is the same as always– Trust Him and Obey His Word. Go, and preach the Gospel; make disciples, and BE disciples. Whether we are called to fight, to provide help and support, or even to wait in silence, we need to seek God’s wisdom, not our own.
  • God Loves Israel with an everlasting covenant–that does not mean that God does not love other nations and peoples, but it should cause us to remember that His covenant is with the descendants of Abraham and Isaac– not because they are holier or more worthy of His love, but because God chose them to be an example of His Mercy and His Wrath.
  • God is omnipresent– He is WITH all those who are suffering during this time. He is not willing that any should perish, not willing that any should succumb to hatred and destruction. Yet He is willing to allow for free will and giving people a chance to repent and turn from the path of violence and death. And, if such horrors rise up “over here,” God will still be the same God, the same all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful, and all-gracious God He is now, and always has been.
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