Have
faith in God.
"It is easy to
become a fatalist in reference to prayer. It is easier to regard
unanswered prayer as the will of God than to deliberately reason
out the causes of defeat." But should we be less honest in our
approach to this perplexing problem than a merchant to his adverse
balance sheet?
Perhaps our
reluctance to analyze our failures in prayer is rooted in a
mistaken solicitude for God's honour. God is more honoured when we
ruthlessly face our failure and diligently search for its cause
than when we piously ignore it.
The underlying
reason for every unanswered prayer is that in some way we
have asked amiss (James 4:3). Could it be that we have substituted
faith in prayer for faith in God?
We are nowhere
exhorted to have faith in prayer, but we are counselled: "Have
faith in God" (Mark 11:22). Faced with this problem the disciples
asked: "Why could not we ...?"
"Because of your
unbelief," replied the Master.
An analysis of
our prayers might afford the disconcerting discovery that many of
them are not the prayer of faith at all, only the prayer
of hope, or even of despair. We earnestly hope they will
answered, but have no unshakable assurance to that effect.
God has, however,
undertaken to answer only the prayer of faith. "Whatever you pray
for and ask, believe that you have got it, and you shall have
it" (Mark 11:24), Moffatt). Don't think the translator
has got his tenses wrong! It is we who have got our attitude
wrong!
Another prolific
cause of defeat in the prayer life is a secret sympathy with sin.
"If I regard" - cling to -"iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me."
Then let us
search out and rectify the causes of our unanswered
petitions.