CHAPTER 2

WHY DO MY PRAYERS GO UNANSWERED?

Read Matthew 21:22

Let’s look at this verse as if it is a hyperbole instead of taking it literally.

One of the features of a hyperbole, is that it’s not logically possible, so the hearer would know that it is a figure of speech. Let’s look at this verse as if it is a hyperbole instead of taking it literally.

When read in the context of the times, the hearers of Jesus would probably have understood that Jesus was using an exaggeration.

Otherwise they could have just prayed for the Romans to leave and they would have been gone.

Otherwise, they could have prayed that all their problems, challenges and illnesses would be gone, and it would have happened.

If you take these verses literally, then you might be wondering why prayer does not work the way we think it should work, or that we don’t have enough faith.

One of our problems is that is that we often just read the words in the Bible. The question is how to read these words.

Literal vs. Metaphorical (ex. Hyperbole)Theological vs. HistoricalFaith vs. Reason

When Jesus spoke these words, do you think He meant that we would have a world where we could pray for food and it appears, pray for money and we would have it instantly, pray for health and we would instantly be made well.

If that’s not the way you experience the world, then that’s probably not the way He intended for it to be interpreted.

Unanswered Prayers in the New Testament

Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh?

Let’s go back and review God’s will based on Leslie Weatherhead’s book.

The ultimate will of God. Nothing defeats God in His ultimate will.

The intentional will of God which is His "ideal purpose”.

The circumstantial will of God. This is sort of a plan B when things are messed up by evil.

Mankind is spiritually separated from God, possibly because of sin. God’s ultimate will is that mankind be reconciled with Him.

Did God send Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross so that we might be reconciled with Him (God)?

Read or quote John 3:16

Does this verse which is early in John say anything about death on the cross?

I think this verse shows God’s intentional will.

Using their free will, man prevents God’s intent for Jesus to be carried out and kill Jesus on the cross.

This is an example of the circumstantial will of God where He stays on the sidelines and let’s man exercise his free will.

Since God’s ultimate will cannot be denied He uses the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins and offers a different way for mankind to be reconciled to him.

We don’t know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Paul had faith and prayed for deliverance from this problem.

The answer he received was that God’s grace was enough and the God’s power was perfected in Paul’s weakness.

How would you like to have that as an answer if you were Paul?

Read Luke 22:42

What was the cup Jesus was referring to?

In the Bible, the cup is symbolic of divine blessings as well as cursings

Read Psalm 23:1-5 (notice verse 5)

Here we see the cup in terms of blessings.

Read Isaiah 51:17

Here we see the cup as it pertains to God’s anger or wrath.

There is a cup that is reserved for the wicked. It is a dreadful cup, one that no one would want to drink, yet it was a cup that we ALL would have had to drink, had not Jesus drank it for us.

Read Psalms 75:7

Dregs contain the least value of anything. Originally it described the left over sediment in wine. It tends to make the last drink bitter.

When taking the last drink out of the communion cup, the drinker must finish it, dregs and all before it can be refilled and passed onto the next person.

Did God remove the cup from Jesus?

If it were not for Jesus WE would all be facing the wrath of God. In drinking the cup of God's wrath, Jesus not only took our sins away, He opened the door for our future to be spent with Him in the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus took on our sins, He knew He would feel the separation from God for that short time that was probably a big part of the cup He did not want to experience.

So picture Jesus drinking from this cup of God’s wrath and drinking it down to the very bottom including the dregs.

Then He passes this empty cup along to be refilled with the wine of the New Covenant, His blood.

When we take communion and drink the wine or grape juice, we remember the sacrifice of Christ and the blood He shed for us

Although God did not answer these prayers as asked, neither did He abandon them.

God worked through the situations to make something good come out of them.

Contemporary examples of when prayers were not answered.

In 1976, 12 year old Hector Pieterson left home to join protests against apertheid in Soweto.

Hector’s mother prayed every day for hector’s safety and well being.

Picture from Soweto March

Hector was killed when police opened fire on the marchers. His friend Mbuyisa Makhubo carried his body

Hector became the face of the evil of apartheid and the photo was the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa. Bellow is the hector Pieterson memorial.

Hector’s friend, Mbuyisa Makhubo was harassed by the security services, and was forced to flee South Africa after the picture was released.

His mother received a letter from him from Nigeria in 1978, but never heard from him again.

A memorial to hector’s friend Mbuyisa Makhubo.

Hardship, challenges, suffering, and tragedy often lead to the development of character and compassion.

Do you think God brings tragedy into our lives so that these things will happen and make us a better person.

That answer is found in Romans 8:28