Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God's voice is its most essential part. Listening to God's voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine.
- Andrew Murray
Psalms in the Night…
With so many wonderful Biblical promises and powerful examples of God's interaction with mankind, see Psalms of Delight, Psalms in the Night are a way of exploring and sharing some of the difficult and challenging thoughts, feelings and experiences God's people encounter while endeavoring to fully enjoy His presence and power, protection and provision. In ever more genuine and meaningful ways. For themselves and their children, family and friends.
Psalms in the Night are written in concert with Psalms of Delight. Both series contain Modern Psalms meant to comfort and inspire those seeking the Omni-God revealed in Scripture.
Unanswered Prayer Summary
It's a vicious cycle. One well documented in Scripture. God blesses His people. Over time they take Him and His gifts for granted. Entitlement leads to sin. Sin grieves God and restricts answers to prayer.
Unanswered prayer creates further unbelief and rebellion. Caught in a downward spiral, things go from bad to worse, making judgment in this life and eternity all but inevitable, Unless desperate faith and prayer can find a way to breakthrough. An unlikely remedy if we are simultaneously insensitive too or even offending God. Knowingly or not.
Unanswered Prayer
Modern Psalm in the Night 18
As You know, Saturday's prayer day. Started while watering my dying lawn around 5 a.m. Then it was on to 6 a.m. prayer at a mega church. Three of us showed up again as usual, but then it's only been eight years. Then off to the park for some writing about prayer. I'll finish up at 7 p.m. with the Praying Parents prayer meeting I'm trying to jump start at my house. Last Saturday we had a record breaking attendance of nine.
As a whole, not a bad for the Sabbath and I'm not even Messianic or 7th Day Adventist.
After over a thousand public prayer meetings and ten times as many personal sessions I've still got lots to pray about. Yet nothing we haven't discussed ad infinitum. Still, with so many requests outstanding I keep trying, hoping to break through before I break down. From psalms of worship and awe to lament and complaint, through every mode of prayer I've been prayer wrestling You for decades with limited success at best.
I'd had and still have much to say on this subject. Convinced that "without prayer we don't have one" what choice is there but to keep seeking You? I'm trusting in You advice to keep "asking, seeking and knocking." Like Mary, I'm hoping to turn "no" or "not yet" into "yes!" I've studied many of the conditions You place on answered prayer. While daunting to say the least, I banking on mercy triumphing over judgment and love covering a multitude of sins. I'm trying not to take Your gifts for granted, to remain thankful for the crazy blessing You bestow, granting First World nations as it were the answers to the prayers of all generations.
Studying the scripture, I remember the emphasis the Bible places on seeking You diligently. After 70,000 hours of professionally and personally studying and serving You, I feel I've done so even in the face resistance. I've payed at least a small price for for my faith. I'm hoping my endurance and commitment to this point counts for something. Of course You know all this, but it seems important to mention it from time to time. Like the Persistent Widow in Your parable on prayer, I mean to take Your advice and give You "no rest day and night." But not because I want to. Don't get me wrong, as if You could. I enjoy spending time seeking You. It's just, with Heaven to gain and Hell to loose, I'd enjoy finding You even more! So much is at stake. So many individuals and families in distress and such great global need. Not to mention the joy of being filled with You. What could be better than experiencing what I've only read about, the very Glory of God!
I bring all this up because I'm concerned. If all my searching for You has yielded so few tangible results, what's to become of 99% of Christians who've invested much less? Even with good explanations for Your silence and distance, the net effect's a spiral into unbelief and rebellion, which in turn grieves Your Spirit and further validates Satan's accusations against us.
Simple Suggestion
So here's my idea. Hear and answer more prayer! I'm not talking about sunshine and good parking spaces. I don't mean the blessings You shower on "the just and the unjust." Nor am I asking for goose pimples and warm fuzzys. I'm asking for genuine bonafide m.i.r.a.c.l.e.s. like healing the sick and the rest of the gifts of the Spirit. Thank You so much for clearly and repeatedly revealing Your will in these matters in the New Testament. We're desperate to see it realized in our lives. Please grant us the ability to experience and demonstrate the power of Your continual presence, provision and protection. Mind blowing, in your face, supernatural stuff. Direct and timely answers to prayer clearly attributed to You, like in the Gospels and Book of Acts. The kind of answered prayer fitting Your own descriptions:
- "At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy." John 16:23-24
- "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20
- "But Jesus was matter-of-fact: "Yes—and if you embrace this kingdom life and don't doubt God, you'll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you'll tell, 'Go jump in the lake,' and it will jump. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God." Matthew 21:21-22 MSG
- "Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!" Ephesians 3:19-20 MSG
You have every right to be angry with us. We have no right to ask You for more when we've so misused what we've been given. Without even noticing, we've fallen into the perfect pit, dug by an ancient and malevolent Enemy. Yet as damning as this is, it's exactly my point! Clearly we are condemned in our sins, particularly my generation and the next in Western Nations and beyond. We are totally without Excuse. Yet, O God, even our behavior is not without Explanation! For it is written that the Devil who accuses us first tempted and deceived the very angels! God, You know better than any that our enemies are too great for us. Invisible and terrible in intellect, it's no contest. Thousands, millions even billions of years old, compared with them we were born yesterday and die tomorrow. Dazed and confused, this unseen war's left us shellshocked. What chance do we stand against such foes?
Of course, "if God be for us who can be against us?" But what if in devilish cunning our Adversary has used sin to separate us from You? Aborting six times the Earth's population in Jesus' day alone has impacted Your church in unbelievable ways! Add to this our the litany of sins being rehearsed by the Devil day and night in the Supreme Court of Heaven and it's no wonder prayer so often goes unanswered. Yet what can we do but cry out to You. "In wrath have mercy." Remember, "You have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." "You are not willing that any should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of repentance, truth and salvation."
You're our Creator and Savior. We are but dust. Save us. "Rend the Heavens and come down!" Father, "Your will be done on Earth today as it is in Heaven!" "Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from sin; above, about and with. From all evil, the Evil one, the Evil him! "For Yours is the Kingdom, the Glory and the Power Forever!"
Please answer prayer! You could start with those who please You most. Doing that would both encourage Your people to pray and good doctrine and deeds! Give those who wait on You wings of eagles to turn our downward spiral into soaring with You in the heavens! Restore the remnant of Your people and answer their prayers on behalf of their brothers. Revive Your church that we might become the salt and light the world is dying to find. Teach us to successfully approach You. Be a "lamp to our feet and light on our path." Though we be as apathetic, deceived and self absorbed as Laodicea, give us the gift of repentance and their wonderful reward, "to him who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with me on my throne, as I overcame and sat down on my Father's throne."
On national TV this week I saw a young Christian woman in the midst of loss, dance to a song about pain, accentuated by unanswered prayer. The song was simple and beautifully performed. I offer it in hope that it's words and melody may haunt You as they do me.
Your Hands by J.J. Heller
I have unanswered prayers, I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways, That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away
I am trying to understand, How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie, Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
When my world is shaking, Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands
When You walked upon the Earth, You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry, One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right
When my world is shaking, Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your hands
Your hands, Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world, Are holding me, they hold me still
When my world is shaking, Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking, I never leave You when...
When my world is shaking, Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking, I never leave...
I never leave Your hands
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