Below is a sermon my Papaw wrote in the 1960s. I bet when he wrote this sermon he had no earthly idea that this thought-provoking piece, from him, would be the very thing to begin the healing process for his grandchildren in the untimely death of his own son. But it was. And it did. True healing began (for me) after this sermon was discovered in one of my dads chest odrawers. On a day like today, when we are all crushed at the news that Rachel Bradshaw lost her beloved young husband unexpectedly in a terrible accident two nights ago, we are just a little more aware of how life can deal us a blow that is so unimaginable...so devastating.... that the only sure thing (for those involved) can do is to simply put one foot in front of the other. ....Just to simply concentrate on taking one breath at a time....for if they dont, they might feel as though they could die of a broken heart at any given moment. Now, I would never pretend to know the utter and sheer pain this child is going through. From what I understand, her husband Rob, was the love of her life and apparently she loved to profess that special love on her on facebook page. My heart literally aches and hurts for her. My family and I are devastated and crushed like the rest of the world who grew up supporting and loving her daddy, Terry. I wish I had words of healing. But, quite frankly, I am not equipped in that area. All I can do is pray, pray and pray some more for Rachel and all of their friends and family. Here is my grandfathers sermon on Unanswered Prayers in its entirety. My hope is that the thoughts from my grandfather can somehow bring a little healing (or at least a different way of thinking) to those of us uneasy with the unanswered prayers of our lives: ********************************************************************************************** A sermon written by my grandfather: *****WHY DIDNT GOD ANSWER YOUR PRAYER?***** On every hand today, there seems to be a renewed interest in prayer...and a rediscovery of its power. Everywhere prayer groups are being organized....retreats where prayer is emphasized are growing in their appeal. In the city of Shreveport, there is a businessmens prayer group which meets regularly down town during the lunch hour....here is one of our own college students telling of a prayer group he has organized in his dormitory. Sometime ago during a religious emphasis week on a college campus the students were given the opportunity of choosing the subject of the first lecture and by and overwhelming majority they chose prayer. So, it seems to me that there is a renewed interest in prayer....and in many instances we are making new discoveries of the power of prayer. It is an encouraging picture and I wish that the matter ended with such an encouraging report....but there is another side to the picture. If some people, because of their happy experiences in prayer have found a new faith, their are a great many others, because of their unhappy experiences in prayer, have lost their faith. Did you see the picture Demetrius and the Gladi.... pure fiction....but one early scene portrays the experience of a great many people today. ((Demetrius in cell....sees his sweetheart brutally treated by other gladiators....powerless to interfere....he prays with great intensity, God, save her!!....but he sees her taken away apparently dead....he feels God has forsaken him...prayer unanswered.....so he turns his back on God)). It often happens in life; we pray....sometimes in desperation....God seems to be our only hope.....we recall our Lords words, Ask and it shall be given to you....but our prayer is not granted....that which we feared came to pass....and we say, God didnt answer my prayer..... It is a place where a great many lose their faith....this place of unanswered prayer. However, let it be said that the problem of what we call unanswered prayer is not new...one finds it in the Bible itself. For instance; we find Moses praying that he might enter the Promised Land....but he dies before he has that opportunity. Or we find the Psalmist crying out, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Or Paul; praying repeatedly that some burden be taken from his life....yet it was never lifted. Jesus, himself, faced the problem of unanswered prayer....in the Garden of Geth. he prays, Father let this cup pass from me....he prayed with such intensity that the perspiration dropped from his forehead....but in spite of this request, Judas goes on to betray Him and He endures the cross. And so I doubt if there is a single person here this morning that doesnt have his own story to tell about unanswered prayer. Most of us would like more light....more understanding concerning the problem of unanswered prayer. Now there are some easy answers.....we have heard them all.....but they are not really answers....they are really evasions of the problem. For instance; some would say, if your prayer is not answered, it is simply because you do not have enough faith.....well, I just cant go along. Here is a letter a mother wrote sometime ago to an editor of a magazine: Dear Sir, My father was minister who taught me of the wonderful power of faith. He told me that if you prayed for anything hard enough it would be so. I believed him. When my own son, a fine 21 year-old lad, went to war, I felt certain he would come back because I was following him with my prayers. I prayed until I was numb. Faith, I believe, would protect him. He believed too. But now, I have learned that his is dead. He was killed just like the boys who had no faith, or even were contemptuous of religion. What can I believe now? What can I hold to? I feel I was betrayed by my faith. It got me nowhere. I must know why. I know the stock answers. People have already told me. They say that it was Gods will. They say that I didnt have faith enough. Rather, I think I had too much faith. I must have an answer before I can face the world again. Do you, sir, know any answer. I ask you sincerely and in desperation. How many of you have stood where that mother stands.....basically, her problem is ours....and when our prayers are not answered....and somebody tells us, You didnt have enough faith...many of us might reply, Maybe I had too much faith! I prayed until I was numb! I think the facts of life clearly indicate that just anything is not possible....and that person who goes to another in the midst of great trouble and promises anything is possible if you will just pray with enough faith does irreparable harm. Another familiar evasion is to say that we ought not to let prayer be just petition...that prayer is also adoration....confession....thanksgiving....consecration. It is true that prayer is all of this and more...but that is not relevant replay to the problem of unanswered prayer. It is a poor parent who refuses to hear the petition of his children.....and somehow God would cease to have a great deal of meaning for me if I could not make known my petitions to Him. And I rather suspect that these folk who talk of prayer being adoration...confession and thanksgiving somehow get their wants and needs in somehow. Preacher in a church in impoverished area....always writing the Bishop asking for something....or presenting some need....making some appeal for help. Bishop finally got tired of repeated requests and wrote the preacher saying, I am tired of these letters of appeal and requests from you.. I do not want any more of them. No more appeals and requests for help from you. ....about three weeks later the Bishop received a letter from this preacher....it said, Dear Bishop; This is not a request.....This is not an appeal. It is a report. I have not pants. (this made me laugh when I read it.) Well, he got his request in ...even in the form of a report, didnt he...and so these folk who sanctimoniously talk of prayer being only adoration...confession.....thanksgiving....have a way of no doubt of making known their requests too, to God. Frankly, if petition is not an honorable form of prayer, then Paul was wrong...and Jesus was wrong.....but my heart and mind tell me that they were not wrong....as a child o God, we have a right to make known our desires...our wants....to God. There is still another way in which the problem of unanswered prayer is circumvented....that is, we are told that God always answers prayer...but that sometimes he says, No...and sometimes He answers Yes...and sometimes the answer is Wait. Now....there is a degree of truth in this....true; even a negative answer is an answer...but EVEN IF WE GRANT THE TRUTH OF SUH AN EXPLANATION IT STILL LEAVES THE PROBLEM OF UNANSWERED PRAYER IN OUR HAND......following that line of reasoning, we are still left with the questions, Why does God say, No? so many times? Why when we pray in desperation when He is our ony hope....why does He often say, No? Suppose we face the problem of unanswered prayer in this fashion: Lets begin as realistically as we can by facing this fact: THAT THERE ARE SOME PRAYERS WHICH CANNOT AND MUST NOT AND WILL NOT BE ANSWERED. Sometimes the difficulty is on Gods side....and sometimes the difficulty is on our side. That is to say that sometimes the difficulty is on Gods side because God is limited by His own faithfulness. There are some prayers in which he cannot...must not...and will not answer because He is faithful. Faithfully, for instance, to an orderly and dependable universe. In our best moments, that is the kind of universe we want....one in which harvest time follows planting...summer follow spring...day follows night....we want God to be faithful to upholding a dependable and orderly universe. Yet, there are those times....all of us have known them....perhaps more often than we care to admit....in which we have asked God to do something for us....and which if He did would meant the suspension of some universal law of life. Can you imagine what a bedlam of confusion and disorder the world would be inn if God answered every prayer about the weather.. if God were to answer every whim and fancy we have. No, God cannot answer some prayers...He must not...He will not,....if it means suspending certain universal laws, He has of dealing with mankind. GOD IS FAITHFUL..AND FOR THAT WE CAN BE THANKFUL but because of His faithfulness, there are some prayers which must go unanswered. Another difficulty on Gods side is that He is faithful in keeping this world of ours a school of the living. Growth in this school of life may be slow and it may be painful but God is not going to exempt us form it. He wants us to become sons and daughters of God...He wants us to produce something great in our souls. And no matter how desperately we may pray for some wayward loved one if he will not head the spirit of God in his heart....if he closes his life to God....God is not going to take away his freedom He has given Him and force him into the Kingdom. Once again, because God is faithful in upholding the freedom He has given to every person...some prayers cannot be...must not...and will not be answered. You see, God faced the choice of making the way easy for men....or making man great.....HE CHOSE THE LATTER WAY. He isnt primarily interested in easy way...but in great men....not in your comfort....security....health.....even happiness. BUT IN PRODUCING SOMETHING GREAT IN YOUR SOUL AND MINE WORTHY OF PERPETUALITY BEYOND THE GRAVE. And for that reason He cannot....He must not....He will not answer some prayers. BECAUSE GOD, YOU SEE, ON HIS SIDE IS FAITHFUL. Now sometimes, as stated, the difficulty is on mans side: Or perhaps it should be stated this way....more of the difficulty is on our side than it is on Gods side. Some prayers cannot....must not....will not be answered because of some difficulty on Gods side but because of some difficulty on ours. For instance: Sometimes God cant answer our prayers because We are meant to be workers together with God...He needs us to work with Him for the things for which we pray. A farmer may pray for a harvest....but until he writes that prayer in the field with his plow, it cannot be answered. We may pray to be delivered from malaria or some other disease or infection...but until we go into the laboratory and discover the treatment and understand and observe the laws of health our prayers cannot be answered. There are some things we, ourselves, must do before God can answer some of our prayers. Sometimes the difficulty is not so much indolence on our part as evasion of the prerequisites of answered prayer. It is the principle expressed by Jesus when He said, If you do not forgive men their trespasses against you, neither can your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. In other words, some prayers have a pre-requisite to be fulfilled....met by us....before they can be answered....and sometimes we evade these pre-requisites and then wonder if God cares when such prayers go unanswered. And does not this need to be said in this connection: Sometimes we need to knock at the door until our hands run red...until we are made humble ...until we are prepared...proved...ready for some prayers to be answered. I think this is true; that God is not going to accept anything but our best...an until we make ourselves ready for the answers to some prayers, God cannot...He must not....He will not answer them. So sometimes, you see, we evade the preparation of ourselves to t he extent that we are not actually ready for what we pray: For instance, we pray, Thy Kingdom come ...but how many of us are ready for it? How many of us are honestly ready to extend the hand of brotherhood out across the world....across the neighborhood...or across the tracks or across the street? THY KINGDOM COME we pray it every Sunday....Dear God, Am I really ready for that prayer to be answered? Well, if Im not, you can be sure of this: GOD IS NOT....HE CANNOT....HE MUST NOT ANSWER THAT PRAYER. Somehow, you and I must prepare ourselves for the Kingdom for which we pray. So, you see, before God can answer some prayers, we must meet certain pre-requisites...we have a responsibility. And sometimes, we overlook this very important thing....in desperation, we cry out, God help me!.... and overlook the fact that in some instances if God is to help us we must also help ourselves....that we have a part to play if god is to answer some of our prayers. In facing this problem of unanswered prayer, then let us recognize these things: There are some prayers He cannot...must not....will not answer because of some difficulty on His side: That is, He is faithful...faithful in keeping this universe an orderly and dependable universe. Faithful to His plan that this life is a school in which we may achieve GREATNESS OF SOUL....and in which, He is faithfulto the freedom He has implanted in every human heart. And sometimes....more often than not....the difficulty is on our side.... we evade the pre-requisites of answered prayer....we fail to prepare for the very thing for which we pray. You can take these principles an make them applicable to the most personal kind of prayer or prayers we pray on behalf of the world..... and I thing they will help us in understanding the problem of unanswered prayer...and if we keep these principles in mind...we shall be able to pray more intelligently...and with greater satisfaction...and with greater results....greater effectiveness...and best of all: God will become all the Greater and all the more real to us. Otis Spinks (1960-something)
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 18:13:48 +0000
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