heaven's tree book club

  The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.

This is what Sittser (2007) opens with in his prolog to his text on unanswered prayer. I have decided to take a break for now from the Wiersbe text to reflect upon this problem of unanswered prayer. I have waken up many times in the middle of the night these past few weeks in discomfort from my knee and ankle pain. I have never ceased to pray for healing and yet the situation remains the same but at times is worse. I am taking pain medication with no relief. I tentatively have a job interview this week and don't know if I can physically make it there. God, through this particular trial seems to be silent and distant. This seems like an appropriate time to wrestle with this problem of unanswered prayer. The dilemma is described thus: "The question is a vexation to me because prayer is the one discipline in the Christian faith that makes us feel entirely dependent on God and thus sets us up for profound disappointment when God doesn't respond to our needs and requests" (Sittser, 2007). That is the problem and the paradox. Prayer makes us totally depend on God. Yet, at times we feel profound disappointment when God does not appear to be trustworthy and kind. When we come to God, we have an expectation that God is who He says He is. When He is not then can we still trust Him. How we respond to unanswered prayer will profoundly impact our spiritual journey.

"Why does God remain distant, silent, and hard when we call on him? If God doesn't respond when we need him most, then why pray at all" (Sittser, 2007). These are worthy questions that require real and honest answers.

I begin with chapter one titled: ARE YOU LISTENING, GOD? Sittser opens with this quote:

If many remedies are prescribed for an illness, you can be certain that the illness has no cure.

A. P. Chekhov, from The Cherry Orchard

I found this quote to be rather flawed in the assertion it makes. There can be many possible remedies for a given illness. That does not invalidate each individual treatment option and it certainly does not invalidate the options as a whole. I do however resonate with the pessimism in the comment.

Sittser opens this chapter with the description of an epic. An epic is a story in a film or novel that takes an enormous amount of time and involves many characters. An epic involves some kind of great mission. "However happy the ending, an epic often has a great deal of darkness in it tragedy, suffering, betrayal, and terrible sacrifice. There are strange twists and turns that leave us breathless as we wonder whether the characters will complete their quest. If anything, struggle is necessary to the nature of the story itself. The success of the quest becomes all the more meaningful because of the disappointments the characters experience along the way. The resolution comes as a joyful relief in the face of what once appeared to be unconquerable" (Sittser, 2007 p. 25). He opens this chapter with this description because prayer is an epic. We are promised that God ultimately is in control and we know the ending, but along the way there are many challenges, and many setbacks. I pause here to realize how important it is to keep the big picture in mind and not become overwhelmed at the present moment. God's kingdom will come. God's will will be done. What is difficult is that it does not come right away. So many of us operate on microwave Theology. God's time table isn't that way.

Sittser goes on to say that it would not matter so much if we did not take prayer so seriously. Prayer is woven into our daily life from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed. We pray when we have difficulty. We pray to give thanks. We pray to express adoration and wonder at God. We ask for wisdom and strength. Sometimes we pray out of habit. One of the complexities of prayer is stated here: "Prayer seems to work, too, which only makes the problem of unanswered prayer more bewildering. At least some of our prayers are clearly answered, often in Aston Facing

danger or difficulty, opportunity or challenge, we feel compelled to pray, even if we're not sure there is a God out there to whom we are praying. I have witnessed many answers to prayer over the course of the last twenty-five years. I have seen a young man healed of cancer (though his prognosis was like a death sentence hanging over his head); I have watched churches come alive, marriages restored, and mental health problems overcome. We may pray out of habit or as a reflex; but we also pray because we get results--at least some of the time" (Sittser, 2007 p. 27-28). Many of us can testify to this reality. I too, have seen cancer patients cured of cancer when family and churches have prayed for healing. I have seen marriages restored, wayward children come home, adults give up harmful addictions. This whole thing of prayer would not be such a dilemma had prayer not been effective in our lives.   

Sittser then makes mention of the conventional answer that we often hear in church. God answers all prayer. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer. He says yes to some and no to others. This makes sense. We can understand why God would say no to a teenager who asks for a BMW. I can understand why God would say no to a man who asks God to bless his extramarital affair. There are however the genuine challenges that include health, crisis, and work. What about the prayer for loved ones to come to faith. Does God not desire for people to come to faith? It is this very issue Sittser makes mention next.

"Bob Mitchell, former president of Young Life and former vice president of World Vision, preached a sermon in our church recently in which he quoted from a letter he received almost fifty years ago, in May of 1955. The letter was written by Jim Elliot, who had recently moved to Ecuador, with his young wife and baby daughter, to pioneer a new missionary outreach to the Auca Indians. The Aucas lived in a remote area and were considered hostile to outsiders.

Elliot expressed gladness that "the gospel is creeping a little farther out into this big no-man's land of Amazonia." He also mentioned a mutual friend and partner in the missionary endeavor, Ed, who had already left to make contact with the tribe. Expressing both excitement and foreboding, Elliot charged Bob Mitchell to pray for them, especially for Ed. "There are rumors that the same tribe is scouting around there now, so don't forget to pray for Ed--that the Lord will keep him alive as well as make him effective in declaring the truth about Christ." (p. 29).

Bob, as well as many believers prayed for this missionary team. They prayed for their protectection. They prayed for their work. Those of us familiar to this story know what happened to these missionaries. They were murdered by the very people they came to serve leaving Elizabeth a young widow and single mother. Does God not desire the protection of His workers and the salvation of souls? God appeared silent when these missionaries were senselessly slaughtered.

Sittser includes more examples of this dilemma of how ministry leaders, appearing to be doing the right thing, pastoring a church, all of a sudden have challenging circumstances within their own church. Pete and Shirley served faithfully the church for forty years and were now in their sixties. However, difficulty came to them:

But a small group of people launched a campaign against them. People betrayed them and made false accusations against them. The church became divided, a hostile place, a cancerous community. Pete and Shirley cried out to God. They prayed constantly and asked others to do the same. They fasted and claimed the promises of God. They begged for protection, vindication, and deliverance. "We remembered the deliverance of Joseph from prison, David before Goliath, Elijah on Mount Carmel, Daniel in the lions' den, Peter in prison. Our God was the same God. He would fight for us." But it became clear after a long battle that there would be no reconciliation and peace. So they resigned. Their fare well was like a funeral. Their losses overwhelmed them community, friendships, financial security, reputation. What surprised and bewildered them most of all, how ever, was God's silence. "God did not answer our prayers. Heaven was strangely silent, cold, distant, as if made of brass. It felt as if we knocked and pounded on the door of heaven until our knuckles were raw and bleeding, and still there was only silence. Why pray when all you get is silence?" (p. 31)

Heaven is silent. God seems cold. Faithfulness to God's work seemed fruitless and without purpose. The sad thing is when we claim God's promises and see how God delivers others in the Bible and find God does not help us in our time of need. The phrase "deliver us from evil" in the Lord's prayer is an example of God's will but we find that God does not deliver us from evil. Where is God when it hurts. Sittser does get his point across, thirty pages into the book about the problem. However, nearly a fifth of the way through, the hope of God does not shine through. We are still dwelling on the issue of unanswered prayer. Granted this is only chapter one, but some encouragement right now would be desired. Sittser provides the example of Eddie, a refugee. He desires to become a pastor in Africa. He applies for grad school and the only thing left is securing a visa. He tries not once, not twice, but three times but gets denied. So it is with us. We have hopes, dreams, and desires, we pray for God's help, leading, and blessing. Our plans do not succeed and we are left lost, stuck, and wondering where is God when we need Him.

Such moments can cause us to reject the very faith we once professed. C. S. Lewis lost his beloved mother at age nine. He prayed fervently for her healing. This profound loss caused him to reject the faith he once had until later in life when he came back to faith. Unanswered prayer can truly impact us spiritually.

Sittser has a major interest in this issue of unanswered prayer. In 1991, he lost his four year old daughter, wife, and mother in a car accident. So, for Sittser, and for many of us, we wrestle with real life events, real questions, deep hurts and endless reflections of who God is and why sometimes God does not seem to care. On p. 35, during this tragic accident, Sittser had some questions such as

Why are you praying?

What good will it do?

Well-meaning people provide responses that often do more harm than good. Responses such as:

"I believe that you have been set aside for some significant mission."

"God's ways are higher than our ways."

"You didn't pray with enough faith."

"Perhaps you had unconfessed sin in your life."

"I guess your prayers were not in accordance with God's will."

However, we are faced with the promises from Jesus in the Gospels when He states:

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened)

Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do ever greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If we pray, God answers. Or so we are left to believe? We are left pondering what went wrong. Sittser's introspection caused him to wondering what went wrong. He proposes three answers. Something must be wrong with my motives. Something must be wrong with my faith. Or, I am using the wrong words.

"These explanations have merit; a grain of truth lies in all of them. Purity of motive is important and necessary. So is faith. So are the right words. I won't dispute any of this. Yet these explanations leave me cold, too, because I think they force needless introspection and lead to self-punishment. Does God only answer the prayers of perfect people, perfectly pronounced, uttered in perfect faith?" (p. 39).

Perfect faith. Perfect words. Perfect people. Something appears wrong here. I think when we face difficulties, then it leads us to answers that don't make much sense. This line of thinking is very self-inflicting and dangerous. On p. 40, Sittser begins to provide some rational response to irrational beliefs:

"Blaming ourselves contradicts the very reason we pray. We pray as fragile, broken people. It would strike me as impossibly demanding if we had to prove ourselves worthy of answered prayer by stellar performance, precise articulation, and unwavering faith." We pray because we are weak and God is strong. We pray because we are not perfect people with perfect faith. It would be a contradiction to be perfect and pray. We would have no need for God. But, we do need God.

"So what do we do if we know that we lack perfect faith? Calvin urges us to persist. Perfection is not required--only desire, persistence, and progress. "Although not freed of all hindrances, their efforts still please God and their petitions are approved, provided they endeavor and strive toward a goal not immediately attainable.''6

Jesus taught that just a little bit of faith--faith the size of a mustard seed--is all we need, which is his way of saying that quantity is not really the point. Only a little of faith is necessary so long as it is directed toward the right object, that is, toward God. In fact, faith is not really the main point. What matters is the one in whom we place our faith. Once we try to quantify faith, we misunderstand its nature. (p. 40).

I think sometimes we read portions of the gospels that say "your faith has made you well" and put such emphasis on the element of faith that we forget the person in who we place our faith. It is so encouraging that it is not about the quantity of faith, but the object of our faith. If only we have a mustard seed of faith. I have seen individuals pray to idols in their distress with no relief. Many people pray to different things in distress.

""Faith turns away from self and comes empty-handed to God. Faith doesn't believe in itself; it believes in God. It doesn't try to manufacture confidence in itself; instead, it turns to God. Faith implies that we bring nothing to God; it asks everything from God.

The worst thing we can do in the face of doubt is to stop praying, assuming--wrongly, I believe that only people with perfect faith can pray. We must dare to pray even as we doubt, just as the desperate father cried, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief" True faith is like a light that begins to flicker, however faintly, in the darkness of an experience that beckons us to pray even when we can hardly muster the faith to pray." (p. 41)

Prayer:

Father, as I come to the end of this chapter on unanswered prayer, I realize there are no quick answers to unanswered prayer. My prayer through this is that You would help my unbelief. Just as the father of the child impacted by demon possession prayed, help my unbelief. We often begin to have bad Theology when we face Your silence. The key from this chapter is to persist and not give up seeking You and turning to You when we feel like giving up. It's hard. My physical condition is not getting better even after seeking medical help. I have an interview on Thursday and don't even know if I can make it. I don't have the wisdom and power to handle this situation and so Father I turn to You for help and healing.