Month: April 2024

Unanswered Prayer?

Last night I had a dream. It was a recurring one of sorts, in which I am leading worship but am unprepared for it. I don’t have my robes, haven’t picked what hymns to sing, haven’t written a sermon – you get the idea. A pastor’s nightmare! Especially when the congregation slips away while I’m trying to get myself together.

Except, in this dream, I actually knew what I was going to preach. The sermon formed fully in my mind, so when I suddenly awoke from my dream I had a smile on my face. I knew what my next blog would be!

In my sermon, I would begin by telling you that like you, I have times that I am disappointed with God. Not that I would want any other God, but that there are times when my prayers – even fervent ones, go unanswered. I pray that someone I know will be healed of some dread disease, but they get worse, until they die. Or some handicap gets worse, crippling the person. Or even that some newborn suffers birth defects and faces multiple surgeries to lead a somewhat normal life. Or an eagerly anticipated child is stillborn.

There were times I was sure our prayers would be answered – when multiple people prayed, when we anointed the sick person with oil (as per James 5:14-15-  “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.”) Once,  the person went into remission, only to die soon after.

So, we complain to God  “Why don’t you do what we ask! We don’t ask for much! Just this one healing!” We join with the complaints of the psalmist and cry:

Psalm 56:1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me.

Psalm 3:1-2 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”

Psalm 6:6-7 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.

Psalm 13:1  How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalm 69:1-3 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.  I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

Yes, these (and many other psalms) come to mind when God doesn’t answer our prayers as we want.  But even when psalms cry out to complaints to God, they usually end with declarations like: “salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people!” (Psalm 3); “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” (Psalm 13); and “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” (Psalm 69). So, how do all these complaints to God end us praising him anyway?

What do the psalmists know about God that we need to keep in mind?

  1. God is God. He is the one in charge, and he does everything according to his will. You can not make God do anything. He can not be tempted, bullied, controlled, or bargained with. James 1:13 says, “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” and Ephesians 1:11 says, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
  2. Even the lifespan of everyone is set by God: Psalm 90 says we are to “number our days,” and Psalm 39:4 “Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” Job 14:6 declares, “Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.” And Jesus reminded us in Matthew 6:27, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?“
  3. God sees the end of things from the beginning. He knows how everything will end, and how changes would effect everything. Isaiah 46:10, says God “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” We see what we want, but God sees the result of our getting what we want. What looks good to us, may in God’s eyes be the worst that could happen to us.
  4. God has an eternal perspective. God may, unknown to you, use your suffering to reach other people with his gospel. The Christian martyr, Telemachus, died while trying to stop a gladiator fight, and led to the emperor outlawing future gladiatorial contests. Father Damien, a missionary to the lepers on Molokai, failed in his mission until he caught leprosy, then saw his mission succeed.
  5. God may already be putting things in motion to answer our prayer without our knowing it. He doesn’t need to reveal all he is doing; we don’t need to see or approve all his efforts. Until we see the final results, we are to be patient and have faith.
  6. God disciplines those he loves. Sometimes, the harsh outcomes we are experiencing comes directly from God as a blessing in disguise. This apparent contradiction is revealed in Deuteronomy 8:5: “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” Also, Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Hebrews 12:11 sums up the benefit of the Lord’s discipline: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.“
  7. Only God has the power to do what we ask for. He is omnipotent. We look to him as the grantor and author of all our needs. Like the hymn, “I sing the mighty power of God who fill the earth with food”* he provides all our needs. He can creates something from nothing, as Romans 4:17 says, he “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” He knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8), and gives us good things instead of bad: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?” (Luke 11:11).

So we keep praying, making our needs known to God, submitting ourselves prayerfully to him, whether or  not we see immediate answers to our prayers. Because he is our God, the source of our life and our salvation. To him only go our prayers. From him only come the answers! And that, is no dream!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: James 4:1-11.

* Isaac Watts, I Sing the Mighty Power of God, pub. 1715

Total Eclipse of the Son

Last weekend, Karen and I flew to Dallas, Texas to be in the totality zone of  this year’s total eclipse of the sun. We weren’t so sure it would work out, given weather forecasts of clouds and possible storms for the Dallas area. Indeed, when we arrived there Sunday evening, it was overcast with clouds. But on Monday, the day of the eclipse, the sky cleared and we were blessed with a warm (but not hot), sunny day with light, cool breezes. On top of that, we had a great viewing venue at a cousin of mine’s church grounds. Our relatives and we had an unobstructed view, and enjoyed snacks provided by the church to all attendees: Sun Chips and Moon Pies. It was a perfect day, ending with a great dinner out with the family at a local restaurant. This is one of the pictures of the eclipse at totality*:

To celebrate the event, I wore a t-shirt given me for the occasion by friend Dave. The shirt summed up the experience: “Traveled Miles for Seconds of Darkness Worth Every Penny.”

At the end of that wonderful day, my cousin sat down with us, and becoming very serious, told us the news of the diagnosis they had just received just days earlier, that her husband had advanced melanoma cancer, and if untreated, had about six months to live. They had kept the news to themselves all day so as not to spoil our eclipse!

The next day, my cousin, her husband, Karen, and I toured a local creation museum (ICR Discovery Center**) in Dallas, which is a Christian ministry that researches and advocates the connection of true science to what the Bible teaches about the creation. My cousin and her husband are strong Christians, which is a major factor in how they are dealing with the devastating diagnosis. We are joining them and our churches in praying for his healing and their peace.

When I thought about their faith and the sureness of all our hope in Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for us now and for all eternity, I wondered as I often have at the difference it makes in having Christ when we face difficulties and tragedies in life. My cousin and her husband have Christ and it will make a huge difference for their coming journey, wherever it leads. But what about those who don’t have the promises of Christ? What about those who don’t have the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to work in their spirits to face all that life brings?

You might say that those without Christ are suffering from “A total eclipse of the Son.”

Not knowing Christ’s love, they face life on their own. They have only a few fallible or fickle people to turn to when troubles happen, and facing the end of life they have nothing sure to anticipate. No “better place” to go to, no eternal life or fellowship with God.

Unfortunately, our society, once founded on the Christian faith (Harvard was originally a seminary for training Christian pastors!), has done all it can to block out the Son of God from our lives and thoughts. Consider:

  1. Renaming of time periods from B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini = Year of our Lord), to B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). Why should we date everything from the most important event in all history?
  2. Complete omission of any reference to the biblical account of creation in our schools or public life. Only secular explanations are allowed, even when the evidence supports creation. (Hence the need for creation organizations such as the one we visited.) An example of what happens when you go counter to the narrative: the California Superintendent of Schools tried to shut down the Institute for Creation Research for not teaching evolution, even after an accreditation  committee approved the Institute. (Which is why they moved from San Diego to Dallas!)
  3. Separation of church and state used to mean non-interference of government in religion, now it means the government stamping religion out of the public life. Example: The state of Washington was giving out college scholarships for any kind of degree – except for a Christian student applying for seminary studies. And the courts upheld the denial, saying such a grant would be the state supporting a religion.
  4. Most Hollywood TV shows and movies mock religious people as ignorant hicks, or as charlatan preachers, as violent racists, or as criminals wearing crosses. One example was the first episode of a new show on British security services, where the villain was a pro-life American who was going to bomb an abortion clinic. Watch carefully the next show you see for similar themes!
  5. And need I say anything about shows celebrating “the true meaning of Christmas” without even mentioning Jesus?
  6. The FBI was calling devout Catholics terror threats, and placed undercover agents in churches to spy on them. The FBI called conservative Catholics, “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics.”
  7. The LA Times published an article about the growing godlessness in America, and said, “This increasing godlessness in America is actually a good thing, to be welcomed and embraced.”***
  8. Our Secretary of State called for a cease-fire in Israel and quoted the Quran (Surah 5:32) rather than Jesus’ words about peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).
  9. In 2022, the Justice Department prosecuted a record 26 pro-life advocates. Meanwhile, last year, nearly 100 attacks against pregnancy resource centers and churches went unpunished.
  10. The arrest of pro-life activist Mark Houck while at home with his wife and children. A SWAT team burst in with automatic weapons drawn and arrested him in front of his children.His crime was praying in front of an abortion clinic and defending his son from an attack. Charges were later dropped.

I could go on, but you get the point. Not only is Christ excluded from public life, society is aggressively counter to Christian faith and his Church, and has tried in many ways to suppress, ostracize, and (ironically) demonize it.

But for us who believe in Jesus Christ, and the words of Scripture that give testimony to him, we see such events as the solar eclipse just one more reason to glorify our Creator. Hear what God’s Word says about creation:

  1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
  2. “God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:16-18).
  3. “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” (Genesis 2:4).
  4. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”  (Psalm 8:3-4).
  5. “Through him [the Word = Christ] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3).
  6.  “For in him [the Son] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17).
  7. “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”   (Hebrews 3:4).
  8. “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”  (Jeremiah 32:17).
  9.  “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”  (Psalm 121:1-2).
  10.  “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Psalm 33:6).

In a way, all of Scripture is built around the fact that God created all things, including us, whom he made in his image, whom he gave the breath of life, and for whom he sent his own Son to redeem from the curse of sin and death. It’s amazing to realize that the greatest of all miracles, beyond even the stars, sun, and moon (and their eclipses!), is our redemption and new life in Christ.

And for my cousin and her husband, there remains the following words from Psalm 124:8, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Amen!

Now may our Creator Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 1; Psalm 8; Colossians 1:15-23

*Photo of this eclipse by Brian R.

**See the website at https://discoverycenter.icr.org

*** LA Times, by Phil Zuckerman,