Ascetic X
Well-Known Member
We may pray fervently for something, trusting and praising God with all our might — but we do not receive what we prayed for.
If the thing we prayed for was extremely serious, and not getting what we prayed for leaves us devastated, disoriented, and depressed, our faith in God can be shaken.
Healing for a loved one who is dying is an example. When it’s your precious godly wife, the issue is enormously important and all consuming.
Our mind can be completely fixated on the fact that in the gospels, Jesus healed them all. We rest assured in His infinite love and His almighty healing power. We know that Jesus never told any sick, blind, or crippled person that He could not deliver them. Jesus never claimed that God was using their sickness or handicap to humble them or to teach them a lesson.
Since Jesus often said, “Your faith has made you whole” and “according to your faith, it shall be done unto you”, we seek to strengthen our believing.
James declared “let him ask in faith, nothing wavering”, so we aggressively reject every stray thought of worry, fear, or anxiety.
We are spiritually stubborn and totally devoted to trusting God. We are absolutely convinced that our loved one will receive a miracle divine healing. We rejoice in this certainty. Our heart is full of goodness and positive expectation. We can’t even remotely conceive of how our prayer will not be answered.
Life is wonderful.
When our loved one goes downhill and dies, we’re shocked and severely disappointed.
We get no answer to “Why God?”
Our whole world is rocked, our mind is reeling, our hope is gone.
We experience unimaginable misery. Nothing can cheer us up. No food tastes good anymore. Nothing satisfies. To move forward feels like groping through an ocean of mud. We don’t know who we are anymore. We start to sink in the quicksand of self-pity.
This is where faith is challenged and becomes difficult, but must still be maintained.
We may be bewildered at the unwanted result, but we cannot blame or be angry at God. We must persist in believing that God is love and He is in control.
We defiantly double down on our pure and radiant hope in God, walking by faith and not by sight. This hope is not based on immediate deliverance, but on a deeper trust in God's ultimate justice and perfect righteousness.
We can recall many times when God has answered our prayers in the past. The times when we did not get the answer we wanted are set aside as unknowable. We remain mute and without any opinion in our uncertainty about those situations. But we continue trusting in God and rejoicing in how He lovingly cares for us.
To love and serve God, in spite of mind-boggling crushing defeats, is something God honors.
Oswald Chambers, in his book Our Ultimate Refuge, states that when our prayer is not answered the way we wanted, and we cannot understand it, we should maintain a reverential silence. Some things are shrouded in mystery.
To continue living life, with gloomy uncertainty, intense melancholy, and unwanted woe, is heroic. To not let our grieving destroy us is a mighty, dignified application of a ferocious faith that cannot be ruined by catastrophic disasters.
Mind cannot handle it on its own. It defies logic. It makes no sense at all to keep loving, trusting, and praising God. You seem to have every reason to give up on God, stop attending church, avoid Christian radio programs, reject Christianity, and never read the Bible ever again.
But to force your soul to remain steady, in spite of heartbreaking tragedy, when your life now seems pointless, without purpose, and completely empty and bleak — this is the noble stance of the warrior. For this life is all about vicious armed conflict in the spiritual realm. It’s not a comedy, party, or parade of undisturbed happiness.
No matter what happens, no matter how you hurt, no matter how horrible life becomes — keep trusting and loving God. Even if your head falls off, let your lips proclaim His majesty and mercy.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Period. Hallelujah!
Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…
Daniel 3:17-18
If it happens, then our God is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king.
But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.
Hebrews 11:1
Amplified Bible
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].
If the thing we prayed for was extremely serious, and not getting what we prayed for leaves us devastated, disoriented, and depressed, our faith in God can be shaken.
Healing for a loved one who is dying is an example. When it’s your precious godly wife, the issue is enormously important and all consuming.
Our mind can be completely fixated on the fact that in the gospels, Jesus healed them all. We rest assured in His infinite love and His almighty healing power. We know that Jesus never told any sick, blind, or crippled person that He could not deliver them. Jesus never claimed that God was using their sickness or handicap to humble them or to teach them a lesson.
Since Jesus often said, “Your faith has made you whole” and “according to your faith, it shall be done unto you”, we seek to strengthen our believing.
James declared “let him ask in faith, nothing wavering”, so we aggressively reject every stray thought of worry, fear, or anxiety.
We are spiritually stubborn and totally devoted to trusting God. We are absolutely convinced that our loved one will receive a miracle divine healing. We rejoice in this certainty. Our heart is full of goodness and positive expectation. We can’t even remotely conceive of how our prayer will not be answered.
Life is wonderful.
When our loved one goes downhill and dies, we’re shocked and severely disappointed.
We get no answer to “Why God?”
Our whole world is rocked, our mind is reeling, our hope is gone.
We experience unimaginable misery. Nothing can cheer us up. No food tastes good anymore. Nothing satisfies. To move forward feels like groping through an ocean of mud. We don’t know who we are anymore. We start to sink in the quicksand of self-pity.
This is where faith is challenged and becomes difficult, but must still be maintained.
We may be bewildered at the unwanted result, but we cannot blame or be angry at God. We must persist in believing that God is love and He is in control.
We defiantly double down on our pure and radiant hope in God, walking by faith and not by sight. This hope is not based on immediate deliverance, but on a deeper trust in God's ultimate justice and perfect righteousness.
We can recall many times when God has answered our prayers in the past. The times when we did not get the answer we wanted are set aside as unknowable. We remain mute and without any opinion in our uncertainty about those situations. But we continue trusting in God and rejoicing in how He lovingly cares for us.
To love and serve God, in spite of mind-boggling crushing defeats, is something God honors.
Oswald Chambers, in his book Our Ultimate Refuge, states that when our prayer is not answered the way we wanted, and we cannot understand it, we should maintain a reverential silence. Some things are shrouded in mystery.
To continue living life, with gloomy uncertainty, intense melancholy, and unwanted woe, is heroic. To not let our grieving destroy us is a mighty, dignified application of a ferocious faith that cannot be ruined by catastrophic disasters.
Mind cannot handle it on its own. It defies logic. It makes no sense at all to keep loving, trusting, and praising God. You seem to have every reason to give up on God, stop attending church, avoid Christian radio programs, reject Christianity, and never read the Bible ever again.
But to force your soul to remain steady, in spite of heartbreaking tragedy, when your life now seems pointless, without purpose, and completely empty and bleak — this is the noble stance of the warrior. For this life is all about vicious armed conflict in the spiritual realm. It’s not a comedy, party, or parade of undisturbed happiness.
No matter what happens, no matter how you hurt, no matter how horrible life becomes — keep trusting and loving God. Even if your head falls off, let your lips proclaim His majesty and mercy.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Period. Hallelujah!
Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…
Daniel 3:17-18
If it happens, then our God is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king.
But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.
Hebrews 11:1
Amplified Bible
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].
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