“’UNANSWERED’ PRAYER”
Midweek Lenten Worship IV
March 18, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (ESV)
Through the years, in conversations with friends and acquaintances of a more fundamentalist persuasion, they have often made some mention of a matter that they had prayed about and yet it remained unresolved. Their explanation for this has usually gone something like this: “God hasn’t seen fit to answer my prayers yet.” Christians often struggle with the reality that, even though the promise of God’s Word is that the Lord hears and answers every prayer offered in the name of Jesus, many times we pray about something and don’t receive what we prayed for. This causes some people to doubt and many more to conclude that there must have been something lacking in their prayer. Perhaps they didn’t pray hard enough or often enough, or maybe they didn’t have enough “prayer partners” praying with them, or it could be that they didn’t have enough faith, or there may be some secret unconfessed sin that is preventing their prayer from being answered. It is sad to see sincere Christians struggling over such questions.
Not only is it sad; it is also unnecessary. God has promised us that He will indeed answer our prayers, but He has not promised that He will say yes to everything that we desire, nor has He promised that He will answer us as quickly as we think He should. On the contrary, He has promised that He will answer our prayers in His own time and in His own way. When I think about our prayers I am sometimes reminded of a demanding child who asks one of his parents for something, and then after the parent gives a clear and firm refusal to his request, the child insists that the parent never answered him. The parent then has to say: “Maybe you don’t particularly like the answer that I gave you, but I gave you an answer.” In this evening’s text the apostle Paul, speaking from his own experience, explains to us why it is that sometimes our prayers seem to go unanswered. So that we might better comprehend this, we will examine what Paul tells us about his prayer and the Lord’s answer.
The subject of the apostle’s prayer is something that has become a cliché for any kind of annoyance in life: “a thorn . . . in the flesh.” Paul doesn’t tell us precisely what this “thorn” is, nor do any of the other New Testament writers, so speculation about it has abounded for twenty centuries. The way Paul describes it leads us to believe that it was probably some non-life threatening malady of a physical nature, although the word translated “messenger” here is the Greek word aggelos, which could also be translated “angel,” leading some to conclude that when the apostle describes it as “a messenger of Satan to harass me,” he is referring to a demon. But most interpreters stick to the idea of a physical issue. Speculation has ranged from Paul having poor eyesight or an unsightly birthmark on his face to the theory that he was just plain ugly. We aren’t told more for the simple reason that we don’t really need to know any more.
More important than what Paul’s “thorn” was is the fact that the apostle prayed about it repeatedly. He tells us: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.” Chances are that he prayed a lot more times than that. The point is that Paul was persistent in prayer. He didn’t give up as we so often do--not after once or twice without receiving what he asked for. He showed great patience in prayer, bringing the same petition before the Lord repeatedly, as Jesus had done in the garden of Gethsemane (of which we will hear more next week). And, as we can tell from what he goes on to say, Paul was listening for the Lord’s answer to his prayer. He wanted to know what the outcome would be and he was open to receive whatever the Lord might send his way.
And what was the Lord’s answer to Paul’s prayer? The apostle tells us: “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’” The Lord is here reminding Paul of something that we so often forget. When we look at our lives we tend to devote so much attention to what is wrong that we fail to take note of what is right. We fret so much over the things that we are lacking that we fail to take note of what we have. When we consider everything in our lives, both good and bad, what could possibly be of more importance that God’s grace--His redeeming grace toward sinners like us, manifested in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ? Everything else in our lives pales when we have the assurance that our sin is forgiven, that we are reconciled to God our Father, and that resurrection and everlasting life await us because of the perfect life that Christ lived in our place and the atoning suffering and death that He endured in our place. Our biggest “thorn” of all--our sin, together with all of its consequences--has been dealt with and laid to rest once and for all in the cross of Jesus Christ.
The Lord also gives Paul a reason for his “thorn . . . in the flesh”: “My power is made perfect in weakness.” When everything is going well for us--when we think that we “have it made,” so to speak--we neither notice nor desire the power of God. We don’t think that we need it. It’s only when our stubborn attitude of self sufficiency is broken by our hardships and weaknesses that we are aware of our need of God and His power. It’s not that we don’t believe; it’s just a part of our human nature. But even under those circumstances we do believe because when we’re in trouble we know where to turn, as Paul did. The awareness of our weakness and need makes us receptive to the strength that God gives us in the Gospel of His Son. The Holy Spirit enabled Paul to understand and even appreciate his difficulty, for later he says: “Therefore I will boast all the more of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10). The Spirit of God can and will do the same for us.
I’m sure that most of you have heard the old story about the man who was trapped in his house during a flood. He refused the assistance of two police boats and a helicopter, insisting all the while that because he was man of great faith, the Lord would deliver him. When the floodwaters rose above the roof of his house the man drowned. As he stood before the Lord he asked why the Lord did not save him, according to His promise. The Lord, of course, replied: “I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else did you want?” The Lord always listens to and answers the prayers of His people offered in the name of Christ, but He doesn’t always give the answer that we desire or expect. He has answered our greatest prayer and our greatest need by giving us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Having that, no “thorn” can ever harm us.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.