Theological Thursday --- Your Prayers Have Been Answered!

Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you (John 15:7)

That verse is quoted quite often (especially by the televangelist), but unfortunately it leaves out the key component of what the verse says prior to this promise which is:

IF you remain in me AND my words remain in you THEN ask whatever...

The promise of this verse is not that when we are connected to God we get whatever we want, but rather when we are connected to God our heart and desires begin to match God's heart and desires and we have more discernment in what we should be praying and asking for. I would be embarrassed to tell you some of the things I prayed for 15 years ago as a new Christian that were completely self-centered and far from what God desired for me (and thankfully many of those weren't fulfilled in the way I wanted!).

With that said, the point of this thread is that God does answer prayers! No matter what you pray for, God will respond in one of 4 ways. I will list each of the 4 ways, where you can find them in Scripture, and also how each has played out in my own life. So here goes:

1) NO --- What you have asked is not in God's will and His desires for you and your life...and despite a response contrary to what we had hoped for, He can and will give us peace if we turn to Him and will eventually show us why...and many times with blessings that result are far beyond what we could have imagined. Biblically, Peter asked that Jesus not be condemned to death (Matthew 16:22-23) to which he got a harsh response from Jesus and this desire of Peter's was not answered and Jesus was put to death...and as a result salvation came to Peter (and all of us!) which wouldn't have happened otherwise. In my own life my prayers now are more geared towards being used by God and following His will, but I do remember asking God to completely take away Jen's cancer without making her suffer through surgery, chemo, etc (which He certainly could have done!)...and although the healing part was definitely answered, she had to go through a lot. But as a result, we both of us grew in amazing ways that we wouldn't have otherwise.

2) SLOW --- What you are asking is God's desire for you, but it will come about in His timing and not yours. Biblically, David asked that a temple be built for God (1 Chronicles 28). David's prayer was met many years later when it was built by His son Solomon. Although David wanted to build it, because Solomon was known far beyond his kingdom due his great wisdom the temple and the gifts that were brought to Solomon would have made the temple far more glorious than David could have imagined. In my own life, I began to pray for a wife around the age of 24. It took 6 years (ok, so it's not that slow), and Jen was definitely worth the wait!

3) GROW --- What you are asking is God's desire for you, but you need to grow in your faith and maturity before it comes about. Biblically, we again see this in the life of David. God's promise that he would someday be a king took a large detour as he spent many years running from Saul. This time was a time of growth and maturity from his life as a lowly shepherd to preparation for him to be king (and his maturity shows when he had Saul nailed and left alone "God's anointed" in 1 Samuel 24:4). In my own life, I began to pray for the opportunity to go into full-time ministry and seminary when I first started teaching at age 23. Thankfully the next 7 years was a huge growing period that prepared me for this time and I was able to gain a lot more out of the experiences I've had, and also ended up in the right place at the right time.

4) GO --- What you ask God for is both His desire as well as within His perfect timing. Biblically, King Hezekiah (one of the few faithful kings) became very ill and was at the point of death and prayed that God would heal him...which God immediately answered and gave him another 15 years of life (Isaiah 38). In my own life God has answered prayers to allow me to teach (as I lead a class of 40 at church) and evangelize (to kids at the detention center every Sunday) and it is awesome to wonder how many prayers of protection, health, etc upon my family and friends are being answered on a daily basis!

So there you have it...all your prayers will fall into one of those categories and all of them will have one of those responses from God (NO, SLOW, GROW, GO). And in all things, know that His mind and will for us are far above anything we can even imagine, and despite whether or not the response we get is what our personal desire(s) were, He is worthy to be praised.