Difficult Questions for Christians Series - Part 1

Google search "Difficult Questions Christians Can't Answer" and you get 71,300,000 results. Needless to say there are many questions out there that skeptics and even Christians have about the Christian faith. Does that mean they can't be answered? No, it doesn't. Does it mean the skeptic, and possibly the Christian, will like the answer? No, it doesn't. With so many difficult questions where would someone start to try and get some answers? Over the next 5 weeks I'll attempt to answer 5 of the thousands of difficult questions posed by skeptics and Christians alike. Remember a few things though as you read. 1. This is a short answer to a difficult question that has probably plagued the human heart for thousands of years. 2. God's Word is the ultimate authority with answers, not a fallible pastor. 3. The Bible doesn't give us the answers to every question we have. It tells us what we need to know, not necessarily what we want to know. With that being said, let's jump into our first question in the series.

Why doesn't prayer work, when the Bible promises that it will?

I don't know the context of the question being asked, but we can assume that someone prayed, asked God to do something, and God didn't answer the prayer in the way the person asked for it to be answered. This person would probably claim that John 14:14 ("You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.") says their prayer must be answered. There are a few ways to answer this question that help lead us to an overall answer.

Prayer isn't a magic spell that gives us everything we want.
I could pray right now "God, I want to fly like Superman. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen." Does that mean I will fly like Superman? For many reasons the answer is no. We can ask for anything in Jesus' name but that doesn't mean God will necessarily grant it. Scriptures like 1 John 5:14-15 clarify Jesus remarks so that we better know how to pray. Those verses say, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him." We have to pray according to God's will when seeking an answer. Jesus showed us in the Garden of Gethsemane that it is okay to tell God what our will is but that we must submit to His will (Matthew 26:36-44). The Christian faith is about submitting to God's will for our life rather than living according to our own will and desires. Why wouldn't the answers to our prayers be subject to the same expectations?

Answered prayers are designed to bring glory to God.
When you look at the context of John 14:14 mentioned above, we see that Jesus is telling us that our answered prayers are designed to bring glory to God. Verse 13 says, "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." God answers all prayers. Even when we don't understand the answer, God is still answering our prayers. As a youth pastor I used to tell my Youth, "God answers all prayers. He answers them with Yes, No, and sometimes Wait." God's answer to our prayers, regardless of what the answer is, seeks to bring glory to God. Because His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) we may not understand or agree with His answers, but His answers to our prayers bring Him glory and seek to fulfill His will.

God is still answering prayers even when His answer is "No".
In the movie Bruce Almighty, we get a glimpse of what it would be like if everyone received a "Yes" to every prayer they prayed. Chaos ensues and the lottery winners each get about a $1.50. The movie gives us great insight into what happens when we get everything we want. Like a loving parent, God has to sometimes tell us "No." When He does, it's not that He doesn't love us. It's not that He doesn't want the best for us. It's because answering "Yes" would go against what He has planned for us. Why doesn't God heal the person dying of cancer when we desperately ask in Jesus' name? I don't know. But He does know and part of living a life of faith means trusting God even when we can't understand why He's told us "No."

I hope this brief look at "Why doesn't prayer work, when the Bible promises that it will?" will help strengthen your faith in God the next time you have a difficult prayer to lift up to God. As always, I'm open to comments and questions, either here on the blog or via Social Media. If this question brings to mind another difficult question about faith, then by all means ask it.


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