Trust

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I have been tasked with the question, Why does God not answer prayer? And I take it that this question came up from someone who has been deeply disappointed, someone who is feeling hurt, despondent, even angry and enraged.

To grapple with the question of why God does not always answer our prayers, I have come to ask myself, when does God answer prayers? Scripture tells us, if two or more are gathered together in the name of Jesus, God hears us. God tells us to bring all our burdens and petitions to Him. He reminds us over and over again to pray to Him, to trust in Him, to seek first His kingdom and all the things we seek will be given to us.

When it comes to prayer, God has given us an example of a righteous prayer. His main desire seems to be having communion with us, to spend time with us, to have us pray and have His Holy Spirit respond and guide us in our daily walk.

God reminds us that He tests the heart, that what is most important to Him is our motives. He judges the heart. And in so doing He wants us to be more like Jesus each day. What is most important to God is our heart and our character. He will do what He can and must in order for us to be sanctified. Not glorified, for that is an honour only bestowed on God, but sanctified, made holy, made pure, stripped of our sinful nature and fully surrendered to the will of God.

Communion with God is relationship with God. It is a two-way street. We pray. He guides and inspires and rebukes and corrects and motivates, all through the Holy Spirit. And once we are in tune with Him, in step with Him, we may come to think that we can simply pray and not only will He hear us but obey us. At this stage we need to remind ourselves that we are not God. We pray and often times God hears us and answers our prayers, and other times we pray and God hears us and does not answer our prayers.

Does that mean we give up praying? Does that mean we give up communion with our Heavenly Father? Does that mean God is no longer real? Or that He has forsaken us? Absolutely not, for He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He has not changed. We need to trust in His will and His way. Trust. It is for the relationship with Jesus that we are born and have our meaning, not for what He provides. It is not about what He can give us, but about what He has already given us - freedom, love and sacrifice.

What more do we need? What more do we want? Has He not already given us everything that we need to live and thrive, through the blood of Jesus Christ?

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