Village Shepherd

Perhaps one of the problems of those who are on the fringes of the church, that is those who call themselves Christians, who wish to be associated with the church and who believe in God but who are not deeply committed, is that their prayers are rarely answered.

They may for instance, pray to win the lottery, but it doesn't happen. When something awful happens like a serious illness, naturally they pray for recovery, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Perhaps the loved one dies. They may pray for their children to be always at the top of the class, but their children may have other ideas.

Perhaps we have all experienced that sort of non-answer to prayer. Perhaps we can all remember desperately pleading with God to produce some particular result in some particular situation. And perhaps we can all remember that despite the desperate pleading, sometimes nothing happens.

But Christians have ways of dealing with this situation. We might tell ourselves that God says "no" and has his own reasons for saying "no", reasons which we are unable to identify because we are unable to see the big picture. Thus we can still retain our faith in God despite not receiving the answer we require from our prayers.

Or we might blame ourselves for praying with the wrong words so that God is unable to hear us. That saves us from having to face the fact that maybe God doesn't answer prayer.

Or we might convince ourselves that a door is closing because God wishes to open a new door for us, a door which we can't yet imagine.

In highly stressful situations which strike at the very heart of our being, it's difficult to face the fact that maybe God won't answer our prayer in the ways which we desire. Because if God is not going to do what we ask him to, especially in situations where we have nowhere else to turn, what's the point of prayer? If prayer can't be guaranteed to solve the situation as we wish it to be solved, why bother to pray?

If my partner or my child or my best friend is seriously ill, but I can't guarantee that prayer will instantly enable healing, why bother to be a Christian? Why bother to pray for healing if the person might die anyway?

Clearly this was a problem in the early church, for James addressed it in his letter. He said, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

If we look upon prayer as existing in order to answer our desires whatever those desires might be, ometimes we're going to be doomed to disappointment. It will be something like Old Mother Hubbard going to the cupboard and discovering that it's bare. The vast storehouse of riches that we believe God has in his power and that we expect to come our way because we're Christians, won't necessarily materialize. Of course, sometimes prayers will be answered exactly as we wish them to be answered. But sometimes they won't. And we have no way of predicting when our prayers will be answered as we wish and when they won't.

Christianity is a religion of certainties, but not a certainty that prayer will be answered exactly as we wish, when we wish. So perhaps there's another reason for prayer. Perhaps the prime reason for prayer is to communicate with God and to allow God to communicate with us.

Once we begin to view prayer not as the magical answer to all our desires but as the means of meeting with God and growing into an intimate relationship with God, all these problems over God's failure to answer prayer become resolved.

We begin to pray not in order to get something out of God, but in order to share precious moments with God. Prayer's reward is within the praying rather than some material benefit to be gained as a result of the prayer. As our relationship with God deepens, so our prayer becomes richer and richer and more and more rewarding.

And once we begin to plumb the depths of the relationship with God, then amazing things often happen. Strangely, these amazing things quite often happen very quickly with new Christians. Perhaps this is because they simply believe as little children believe and so are able to receive all that God has waiting for them. But sadly, these amazing things seldom happen for Christians on the fringes of the Church or on the fringes of a relationship with God. It's as though all the years of reluctant churchgoing form a sort of baggage that prevents people from really seeing God as God is and from really getting to know God in any form of intimate relationship. Prayer is seen as something dreary to be muttered as quickly as possible before getting into bed at night, and when prayer fails to produce the required results, it's quickly dropped. It's then a very short step to claiming that God doesn't exist and that prayer doesn't work.

If prayer is to be real, it must move beyond such childishness. If prayer is to be real, it must move beyond a shopping list of things we require from God. If prayer is to be real, it must move from talk into silence, at least some of the time. If prayer is to be real, it must give God space to respond. If prayer is to be real, it must allow God to respond as God wishes to respond, not as we wish him to respond. And it must accept that whatever God's response might be, it will be in our best interests because God loves us.

This sort of prayer is mature prayer which requires practice. It isn't easy to feel God's presence. Sometimes prayer is dry and boring. Sometimes it feels like talking to yourself with no one at the other end. But at other times it can produce experiences of ecstasy, spiritual highs in the presence of God himself.

Prayer is worth the effort, for through prayer, we draw near to God.

"You ask and do not receive," said James. But then he added, "Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you." If you want your prayers to be answered, work at your prayer until it becomes mature prayer which brings its own rewards. Then you'll really experience the presence of God, and the answers will come thick and fast.