Beneath the Surface

Why Pray?

It seems like a question that is already answered. There is a multitude of scriptures that tell us why we should pray. Yet, some of you reading this have either given up on prayer, or when you pray you don’t really believe you are going to get answers.

Am I right?

I have been there myself, frustrated at times that God seems to take forever in answering. Then, I began to lose confidence in prayer. Then my prayers have become half-hearted, or I pray in frustration rather than in confidence. Underneath, in this kind of situation, you can become subtlety miffed at God.

Can you identify?

So what is wrong if things just seem to be stuck, if it seems you are not getting answers to prayer and your frustration prevails?

I can think of a few things that might be holding things up for you. I remember one time in my office, I asked God something like, “What’s the hold up? Why aren’t you doing the things you promised me?

He answered quite clearly, “Have you done what I’ve asked you to do?”

I hadn’t, and I knew it. There were a couple things I had procrastinated on for a long time, that came to mind.

So, we have to realize that our relationship with God is a two-way street. He blesses us and answers our prayers, but he also requires obedience from us. If you are holding out on Him in the area of obedience, then He may be withholding answers to prayer because He’s trying to get your attention.  

That’s one reason. Another is that we can’t draw our own blueprint for what our Christian walk will be. We can’t boss God around. We can’t say, “I’m going to do this and this and this. Now God, I want you to follow my plans, walk behind me and bless what I do.

That’s totally backwards.

God decides what your Christian walk will be.

Though we can reason with God and work things out through conversation, we can’t tell Him what He’s going to do for us according to our own terms.

At one point some years ago, I was asked to take a large Sunday School class for one Sunday. My topic was, “What is the thing God has asked you to do that you haven’t done?”

Many of us carry around something God asked us to do for a long time. We don’t want to do it, and we just keep pushing it to the back burner. Maybe then we launch out on things that God has not authored, trying to get them to work, trying to get God to bless them.

You see, it’s an insult to God, because you have put yourself in the driver’s seat. The Bible pattern is the opposite.

We are servants.

We are supposed to be ever listening for what God is telling us to do.

When we have done them, we shouldn’t puff out our chest and say, “Look at me, everyone. Look what I did for the Lord.”

No, the Bible teaching is that, when we have done what God asked, we should consider ourselves “unprofitable servants.”

What does that mean?

If we obey God, that is not something to crow about or try to bring attention to ourselves as if we are some super Christian. Obeying God in what He asks is just the minimum. It is Christianity 101.

When I was about 20 years old, I launched out with some friends in starting a church in a rough area of Minneapolis. At times, it went very well, but there were some pretty pointed obstacles and problems that arose, and after a year or so, the effort waned and the church failed.

So, for the rest of my life, I resisted being a pastor. I said to a friend once, “I will never be a pastor!”

Well God, in effect, said, “We’ll see about that.” Then, the church I grew up in, the Waskish Baptist Church, lost their pastor. Lorraine and I were living in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at the time, three hours away. We told them we could do one service a month, then we said we could do two a month. Then, one Sunday, the Lord said to Lorraine, “If they need you, you should go.”

So, here we are, pastoring full-time and I feel like I have found my niche. I feel fully at home, and comfortable in this position.

The point of that story is that I resisted God most of my life as to being a pastor. Now, that I am a pastor, it seems that many channels of blessing have been unplugged, so to speak.

We see answers to prayer right and left, and there has been a new groundswell of people praying for us, encouraging us, and lending financial support.  

So, there you have it. Sometimes, if you are not getting answers to prayer, maybe you have been saying “No” to God as to something He’s asked you to do. You have been resisting Him for so long in that area, you hardly know that you are resisting Him.

I would encourage you to search your heart to find if you are being disobedient in any way. You might be amazed as to what you find.

Photograph designed and taken by Lorraine