Friends' Favorites - Answered Prayers

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT

An old friend of mine sent an article to me, with a note that he thought I’d be interested in the writings of the particular author. The article began by mentioning that one of the author’s readers told him she would pray for him. It then proceeded to be an heretical diatribe about prayer and my heavenly Father. The author’s viewpoint was that both are a waste of time. God forgive him…

There was a time in my life I would have gone into full battle mode and charged in with Scriptures flailing and been caught up in vain arguments for days, but nowadays, I don’t have the time or energy for useless battles. I don’t know if my old friend is nearing the end of his life and now questions his own agnostic view of life or what. I have presented the Gospel to him two or three times, but he has always rejected it - albeit respectfully - but rejected it nonetheless. He and the author in question have bought a common lie and both use it as a reason to not believe in God. They call it unanswered prayers. Why pray to a God who won’t answer your prayers?

Have you ever noticed that satan loves to swoop in with questions like that to cause doubt in people’s lives? We've all attended funerals of friends and loved ones who died before they had a chance to be old. I know for certain there were many fervent prayers prayed asking for total healing, and yet God chose to take them Home. Some view that as unanswered prayer. That may seem like fact, but it’s certainly not the Truth.

I don't believe there is any such thing as unanswered prayer. The Truth of the matter is that our prayers ARE answered - ALL of them. They just aren't always answered with the answer we want… 

Sometimes the answer is no.

Prayer:

Father,

          Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so Your ways are higher than our ways and Your thoughts higher than our thoughts. Give us revelation, Father. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen