“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” – Numbers 23:19
Why don’t we see the things we pray for come to fruition?
Why do we never see the signs, miracles, and wonders that we know God is capable of, occurring?
Perhaps most importantly, why aren’t we more concerned about the previous two questions?
There are a number of things that can affect our prayers and their effectiveness. The Bible mentions several issues that negatively impact our petitions to God. Mark 11:25 reads, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” So we see that unforgiveness and resentment can render our prayers ineffective.
Psalm 66:18 reads, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” Here we see that when we embrace or ignore sin in our life, prayers can go unanswered. To take that supposition a step further, Solomon writes in Provers 28:9, “One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” So to purposely turn away from sound doctrine and teaching and ignore the words of God results in our prayers being disregarded.
Even marital conflicts can stifle your prayer life! We husbands need to listen and pay attention! In I Peter 3:7, Peter writes, “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” [A quick public service announcement: “the weaker vessel” in this verse is translated from the Greek as meaning weaker in body mass AND was used in that time period to describe the effect of that “weakness”. Meaning that a woman in that culture was less capable of making a living on her own without family support. So to all those men trying to claim some sort of superiority because of this scripture: shame on you!]
We see there are numerous things that can hinder our prayers, but the older I get and more life I live, I have become convinced that there is one reason above all of the others. We as believers know that God is capable of mighty works. We also know according to His word that He desires to show Himself mighty on our behalf. II Chronicles 16:9 reads, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” So why do we not see His might and power?
Damaged Faith.
I would love to give you the spectator’s version of how to fix it, but unfortunately, I am a participant. How does our faith get damaged? Life. There is a reason we’re instructed to have child-like faith. In every area of our Christian walk we are urged by scripture to mature, grow, and develop. However, when it comes to faith, we are instructed to receive like a child. Luke 18:17 reads, “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” We know that we can only receive the kingdom of God, or our salvation, through faith. So why is a child’s faith so much better? While scripture doesn’t go into detail, I believe that faith is most alive and pure when demonstrated by children. The trust a child has, especially in his father, is simple and unadulterated. If a child hears his father say it, then it is fact. How precious is that type of faith? It is this type of trust in our Heavenly Father that moves God to action.
If we’ve been in this Christian journey for very long, we know this in our head. We can rattle off scriptures and promises and claim to believe every one of them. And make no mistake, we should! God is faithful. However, having the knowledge in our heads is entirely different from having that revelation in our spirits. I believe that many of us have lived enough life to have seen too many things go wrong. We’ve seen too many situations turn out differently from how we believed they should go. We’ve experienced too much heartbreak and seen too much suffering to put the full power of our faith behind our words. Faithless words are powerless words. We need all of that head knowledge to move to our hearts! We say things like “God has never failed me” and “God has never let us down”, but in our heart of hearts, do we fully believe this? How can we look at all of the tragedy, suffering, and unexplainable evil and see God’s perfection?
Let me be clear, I am not calling God into question. I’m simply telling you about some of my personal struggles. I am just being real with you. I wrestle with damaged faith because of healings that I prayed for and didn’t see happen. I wrestle with damaged faith because of situations that needed a miracle but never received it. Sometimes, much further down the road, I see why those things didn’t happen and it all makes so much sense. Other times, I am certain I won’t get an acceptable answer until I stand before God after my life is completed. However, at the time it’s happening, the apparent lack of answer or even acknowledgement from God left my faith damaged.
As we mature and grow in Christianity, we do come to understand certain truths. For instance, in Isaiah 55:8-9, the prophet writes, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Our wisdom means nothing to an eternal and sovereign God. An unbeliever would take a look at that scripture and think “yes, how convenient. A perfect way to justify God not answering prayer.” The flip side of that particular coin, of course, is if everything happened the way we think it is supposed to, then where is there any need for faith? There are certain immutable facts that scripture makes clear, but how those things come to pass is often beyond our understanding. As parents we see the damage that our kids’ choices can bring about and we counteract those choices with rules, or boundaries. They don’t understand it, but we see the bigger picture. Our heavenly Father is no different. He sees so much more than I ever will. However, that doesn’t solve the root problem. My faith has been weakened.
I guess it’s at this point I should reveal the spoiler that I don’t have the easy $19.99 fix for this crisis. I am struggling. My family is in a season that I don’t understand. It is heavy beyond anything I have experienced. We either need to see a major shift in circumstances, or a major shift in our perspective. I want all of this head knowledge to move into my spirit. I want my expectancy to be visceral and alive when I’m praying. But I find myself repeating words that contain doubt and lack the power that true faith enables. This article is more “you’re not alone if your faith is lacking” than it is “here’s how to fix it.” I don’t know the answer, but I do know the one that can give us the answer. My prayers have shifted. I still bring my petitions to my Savior, but I now have an additional request. Teach me God how to work past doubt and bring my faith up to a level that allows you to operate fully in my life. Give me discernment and help me to exercise my faith in a way that will glorify you. I am reminded of the man who brought his son to Jesus to have an unclean spirit cast out of him. In Mark 9:23 the author writes, “Jesus said to him, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord I believe; help my unbelief!’” I am this man. God, I believe, but help my unbelief.