Dear Goldie,

I am getting quite disappointed with God. He never answers my prayers. I have been praying for many months for Him to save my husband by making him to come to church and  listen to my pastor’s talks. But my husband refused to come. Why is God not answering my prayer?  Give up.

Dear Give Up,

Your desire for the salvation of your husband is commendable as God desires no one to perish but all to come to repentance.  So you are praying according to God’s will and He hears you and will answer because He promised “If you ask anything in my Name I will answer”.

Why is your husband still refusing to go to church so he can be saved by listening to your pastor’s sermons? Are you asking why is God not following your instructions and do what you think is best?

Let’s consider the time when Jesus healed a paralytic lowered down through the roof because of the crowd in the house. (Mark 2:1-12) Imagine the trouble the friends took to bring him, carrying him all the way up the roof, opening up the roof, lowering him down carefully so as not to drop him…. mission accomplished, whew! But imagine their surprise and disappointment  and probably even anger, when Jesus instead of performing healing,  brought up the subject of his sin – how embarrassing!

What can we learn from this incident about prayer not answered? They came to Jesus for healing.  But Jesus did something totally unexpected.  He dealt with what was really the problem – sin. Eventually not only did the paralytic receive physical healing, he was healed emotionally and spiritually by having his sin forgiven. Jesus understood that sick people needed restoration  in body, soul and spirit and He did a thorough job.

So what can we learn about prayer from this?

Do we need to tell God what we think is the way He should solve our problem? Do we give Him instructions and then when He did not follow our instructions we think He is not answering our prayer.  Remember He may answer in ways very different from what we asked or wanted.  We must not forget He is God and His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We need to trust that He knows best and will act in our best interest.

So dear ‘Give Up’, please do not give up praying for your husband. Trust God, be patient and do not instruct Him. If you will rest your prayer with Him He will do exceedingly abundantly above what you ask or think according to the riches in Christ Jesus.

On the other hand, do you think God is delaying because He wants  you to learn some precious lessons?  He may want to teach you to do what He said about “wives be submissive to your husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your lives…” 1 Pet.3:1,2 . So pray that God will help you to be a wife whose godly behaviour will win your husband to Him. Maybe your wordless behaviour will be more effective than your pastor’s sermons.

God always has good reasons for what He does. Trust His motives and actions and find out what He intends for you to learn while waiting for Him to answer.

Goldie