Thank God for Unanswered Prayer – Part 1

This week, Michael shared that if you look at yourself you'll be depressed; if you look at others you'll be distressed; if you look around you, you'll be stressed; but if you look at Jesus, you'll be blessed.  This is the lesson from Acts 8.  When Jesus’ disciple Stephen was being stoned to death, he saw Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of the throne of God. Despite trials and tribulations, peace is available at the foot of the cross. 

If you're works-based, you'll stumble and fall. Men and women struggle with fear and failure. If we put ourselves under the law of “do's and do nots”, that law will reveal our weaknesses. However, grace defeats the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit of life in Christ.

Romans 8:3-4 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

There is always good news and bad news in this life. However, with “God news” there is neither good nor bad, it's just news. According to Isaiah 55, God's thoughts are much higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways. When we pray, the answer is often "no."  Father knows best. Like the Garth Brooks country song says, "Thank God for unanswered prayers."

According to Matthew 26:36-39, Jesus prayed to his Heavenly Father in the garden of Gethsemane, and his Father's answer was "no." Then Jesus *came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and *said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” The cup was the cup of the wrath of God to take upon himself the sin of the world. This was the cup of sin and death on behalf of all mankind.  

Sometimes we need to go through our own Gethsemane's in order to find the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Prayer is not aligning God's heart with my heart. Rather, prayer is aligning my heart with God's heart. Three times, God said no to Jesus' prayer, "nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."

Let’s continue Michael’s message on unanswered prayer in the next post.

In Christ, Brian