Does God Always Answer Prayer? - Chapter 21

Man: The Dwelling Place of God ^ | A.W. Tozer

[metmom]

CONTRARY TO POPULAR OPINION, the cultivation of a psychology of uncritical belief is not an unqualified good, and if carried too far it may be a positive evil. The whole world has been booby-trapped by the devil, and the deadliest trap of all is the religious one. Error never looks so innocent as when it is found in the sanctuary.

One field where harmless-looking but deadly traps appear in great profusion is the field of prayer. There are more sweet notions about prayer than could be contained in a large book, all of them wrong and all highly injurious to the souls of men.

I think of one such false notion that is found often in pleasant places consorting smilingly with other notions of unquestionable orthodoxy. It is that God always answers prayer.

This error appears among the saints as a kind of all-purpose philosophic therapy to prevent any disappointed Christian from suffering too great a shock when it becomes evident to him that his prayer expectations are not being fulfilled. It is explained that God always answers prayer, either by saying Yes or by saying No, or by substituting something else for the desired favor.

Now, it would be hard to invent a neater trick than this to save face for the petitioner whose requests have been rejected for non-obedience. Thus when a prayer is not answered he has but to smile brightly and explain, "God said No." It is all so very comfortable. His wobbly faith is saved from confusion and his conscience is permitted to lie undisturbed. But I wonder if it is honest.

To receive an answer to prayer as the Bible uses the term and as Christians have understood it historically, two elements must be present: (1) A clear-cut request made to God for a specific favor. (2) A clear-cut granting of that favor by God in answer to the request. There must be no semantic twisting, no changing of labels, no altering of the map during the journey to help the embarrassed tourist to find himself.

When we go to God with a request that He modify the existing situation for us, that is, that He answer prayer, there are two conditions that we must meet: (1) We must pray in the will of God and (2) we must be on what old-fashioned Christians often call "praying ground"; that is, we must be living lives pleasing to God.

It is futile to beg God to act contrary to His revealed purposes. To pray with confidence the petitioner must be certain that his request falls within the broad will of God for His people.

The second condition is also vitally important. God has not placed Himself under obligation to honor the requests of worldly, carnal or disobedient Christians. He hears and answers the prayers only of those who walk in His way. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight . . . . If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (I John 3:21, 22; John 15:7).

God wants us to pray and He wants to answer our prayers, but He makes our use of prayer as a privilege to commingle with His use of prayer as a discipline. To receive answers to prayer we must meet God's terms. If we neglect His commandments our petitions will not be honored. He will alter situations only at the request of obedient and humble souls.

The God-always-answers-prayer sophistry leaves the praying man without discipline. By the exercise of this bit of smooth casuistry he ignores the necessity to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, and actually takes God's flat refusal to answer his prayer as the very answer itself. Of course such a man will not grow in holiness; he will never learn how to wrestle and wait; he will never know correction; he will not hear the voice of God calling him forward; he will never arrive at the place where he is morally and spiritually fit to have his prayers answered. His wrong philosophy has ruined him.

That is why I turn aside to expose the bit of bad theology upon which his bad philosophy is founded. The man who accepts it never knows where he stands; he never knows whether or not he has true faith, for if his request is not granted he avoids the implication by the simple dodge of declaring that God switched the whole thing around and gave him something else. He will not allow himself to shoot at a target, so he cannot tell how good or how bad a marksman he is.

Of certain persons James says plainly: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." From that brief sentence we may learn that God refuses some requests because they who make them are not morally worthy to receive the answer. But this means nothing to the one who has been seduced into the belief that God always answers prayer. When such a man asks and receives not he passes his hand over the hat and comes up with the answer in some other form. One thing he clings to with great tenacity: God never turns anyone away, but invariably grants every request.

The truth is that God always answers the prayer that accords with His will as revealed in the Scriptures, provided the one who prays is obedient and trustful. Further than this we dare not go.

[metmom]

God has to be good.

Being all powerful, if He wasn’t all good, He would be all evil.

And being all evil, He would be incapable of any good, and would obliterate anything that wasn’t Himself. He wouldn’t be able to tolerate any challenge to Himself and so would eliminate it.

Everything would implode on itself.

He is also the ONLY explanation for what there’s ANY good at all in this world filled with sin and corruption.

It occurred to me that people are asking the wrong question when they ask if God is good, why is there evil in the world.

Considering the level of evil, why is there any good at all and where did it come from?

There’s only one answer to that.

[metmom]

If He is so good, why doesn’t He do something?

I hear you and I think that just about everyone wrestles with that question.

And pats answers and platitudes don't cut it.

[metmom]

God bless you, smvoice.

We see through a glass darkly and do not fully comprehend what we have in Christ that we are presently in possession of.

It’s easy to trust God when things are going well.

Our faith is strengthened and grows when we trust Him when things aren’t going so well.

The health, wealth, and prosperity teaching has really polluted our thinking and concept of God. We have come to have entitlement mentality, thinking that God owes us for whatever reason, because we really aren’t so bad after all.

[21twelve]

“What He has given us is in heaven. Where we are blessed with all SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS in heavenly places.”

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“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth [such as wealth, health, easy times, etc.], where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”

****************

We were just learning (again) about the various reasons why bad things happen. Most of the time it is just natural consequences of a fallen world (”moths and vermin”), often it is because of evil in people, including ourselves (”thieves”), and sometimes it is God trying to either correct us, or to push us on to bigger and better things.

But regardless of the cause, God can use it to His good.

I’m not so sure I believe the saying “God never gives us more than we can handle” (as most of the time God ISN’T “giving” it to us.) But I like the thing I saw on my wife’s facebook.

“They say God never gives us more than we can handle.”
.
.
.
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He must think I’m a real Badass!

[Elsie]

Does God Always Answer Prayer?

Cowboy Poetry

by Bill Jones

 

 

 

Jake, the rancher, went one day
to fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty
and the clouds rolled gray and dense.

As he pounded the last staples in
and gathered tools to go,
The temperature had fallen,
the wind and snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup,
he felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition,
he knew it wouldn't start.

So Jake did what most of us
would do if we had been there.
He humbly bowed his balding head
and sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key for the last time,
he softly cursed his luck.
They found him three days later,
frozen stiff in that old truck.

Now Jake had been around in life
and done his share of roaming.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked --
it looked just like Wyoming!

Of all the saints in Heaven,
his favorite was St. Peter.
(Now, this line ain't needed
but it helps with rhyme and meter)

So they set and talked a minute or two,
or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keeping' score --
in Heaven time is free.

"I've always heard," Jake said to Pete,
"that God will answer prayer,
But one time I asked for help,
well, he just plain wasn't there."

"Does God answer prayers of some,
and ignore the prayers of others?
That don't seem exactly square --
I know all men are brothers."

"Or does he randomly reply,
without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day,
the weather or the season."

"Now I ain't trying to act smart,
it's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me --
what the heck's the deal?!"

Peter listened very patiently
and when Jake was done,
There were smiles of recognition,
and he said, "So, you're the one!!"

"That day your truck, it wouldn't start,
and you sent your prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time,
with hundreds of us trying."

"A thousand angels rushed,
to check the status of your file,
But you know, Jake, we hadn't heard
from you in quite a long while."

"And though all prayers are answered,
and God ain't got no quota,
He didn't recognize your voice,
and started a truck in Minnesota."

[Elsie]

Ruined a lot of my planned good times, but probably saved me from jail and death.

Sounds like you had a GOOD upbringing!

[Elsie]

I've run into a couple of cases like this at our church; too.

All I can tell you is that His ways are not OUR ways.

And the potter and clay thing; too.

[Elsie]

AMEN!

[easternsky]

Never the Less not My will but Thine be done

[smvoice]

God bless you also, mm. I don't think we can even BEGIN to comprehend what God has in store for us. And why would He promise us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places? What good, some would ask, to have it in heaven when it may be needed here NOW, on earth?

"That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."(Eph. 2:7). It's not about NOW. It's about the AGES TO COME.

[terycarl]

Now...my question is : why didn’t God answer the many prayers lifted on behalf of this man? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

No-one understands fully what Christ wills...dead children...malformed babies....weather disasters...it's really hard to understand what He has in mind......on the other hand, it is not ours to judge....God is God and we are just here....the world is a big place and eternity is a long,long time....it is for us to accept, not necessarily understand.....

[terycarl]

Ruined a lot of my planned good times, but probably saved me from jail and death. Sounds like you had a GOOD upbringing!

VERY GOOD...I cheated a little, but who didn't....my sons are MARVELOUS SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, my grandkids who are of age are magnificent....Emily is a state finalist in gymnastics!!!!!!!...God is great and God is good....have I had any bad times, you bet, but that's the breaks of the game...life is surprisingly short....I'm nowhere near done enjoying it, but the end is catching up fast!!!!

[ShasheMac]

When Jesus was on the cross, the two thieves hurled insults at him and he ignored them. The moment one of the thieves realized who Jesus truly was and asked to be remembered, Jesus immediately turned to him and answered him.

[metmom]

God will ALWAYS answer the prayer of repentance and confession for salvation.

What Tozer is talking about here is seems, is those who claim to name the name of Christ, live in a state of deliberate sin, and think that God is answering their prayers.

[trebb]

I thought His answers were; Yes, No, If you insist....

[Elsie]

I hear ya; Brother!

All these things we see thru that glass darkly will be explained fully.

We are BOTH gonna be surprised at some of the things we thought!

[Elsie]

Oooooh!

[CynicalBear]

I must confess that I am no Tozer fan and this chapter would stand as an example of why.

>>(2) we must be on what old-fashioned Christians often call "praying ground"; that is, we must be living lives pleasing to God.<<

Really? Not good enough to go to God in prayer?

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

>>Of certain persons James says plainly: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." From that brief sentence we may learn that God refuses some requests because they who make them are not morally worthy to receive the answer.<<

Does anyone find that last statement by Tozer troubling? "Morally worthy"? So I have to be "morally worthy" before God will answer my prayers?

It seems to me that this chapter would eliminate most if not all prayer for those who understand the depravity of man. I just find this chapter seriously troubling.

[Smokin' Joe]

Sure He does! Just sometimes, the answer is “No.”.

[Smokin' Joe]

He has a sense of humor because sometimes I get what I want, say like patience and then I’m given an opportunity to practice it.

Yep. Sometimes the answer comes by way of OJT (On the Job Training).