Why are prayers not answered?

This past Sunday we pondered the problem of unanswered prayer. The sermon can be found here.

To many atheists the explanation for unanswered prayer is simple. There is no God. But what about answered prayers? Well that it is just coincidence. Has to be. If there is no God there can be no answered prayers. End of story.

As a theist I have to ask … ‘How many prayers have to be answered before it becomes more than coincidence?’ If even one single prayer in the whole history of the universe turns out to have been more than a coincidence; where does that leave arguments about the non-existence of a force that answers prayer?

Fact is that over the years, in ways mundane and moments that have graced my life with an awesome sense of wonder, God has answered prayers. The simple fact that I am where I am, doing what I do, is difficult for myself to understand without relating it to the way God has guided my life.

An atheist will suggest that there are other forces at work that have led me to my current work. That I am befuddled and brain-washed and they will offer a whole host of other explanations. They have to. The only other conclusion would be that they had got it wrong.

I also would assert that biblically speaking ‘no’ and ‘not now’ are considered equally valid answers to prayer as ‘yes’, and that negative answers need also to be balanced into the equation.

Of course when Jesus spoke of prayer He kept throwing that word ‘faith’ into the mix. Not just any sort of faith, but a faith that believes that God has our absolute best in mind, has a purpose for our lives and whose Holy Spirit is able to lead us and guide us through the many perplexing situations of our lives.

The sort of faith that when we don’t understand continues to ask ‘Not my will, but Your will be done’. A faith that includes present relationship, past experience and future hope.

Nobody can prove faith. You can’t set up laboratory experiments to measure it. It resists calculations. It is not a formula. It lacks physical dimensions. It defies defining. It is hardly surprising that Jesus speaks of it in relation to prayer!

So let us pray! “Lord, I don’t always understand how prayer works. But I do understand that I need You more than my words can express. Help me to be comfortable with mystery and be trusting that Your way is best. Amen.”