“If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14)
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2nd Cor. 12:9)
It is not because you are asking amiss, not because you desire to consume it on your own lust, not because your prayer is as the tossing waves of the sea, it is simply because the Almighty has decided the answer to your prayer is “No.”
How do you then interpret the opening verse to this short letter? It is quite clear, ask anything, and the stipulations, as it were, have been met, there is no lust involved, you are not wavering in your belief, your faith in the offered prayer is as a mustard seed, you know He can do what you ask, you know without a shadow of a doubt the promises are true, that you can cast mountains and trees into the sea, if your faith is strong enough.
Yet He says no.
Not just how you will interpret “If ye shall ask anything in my name,” but how are you going to answer to those who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, whose love, devotion and obedience to Him whom we serve is unquestionable, what will your reply be to them when our Father in heaven says, “My grace is sufficient?”
Which in all truth my friends is just another way of saying “No.”
“It must not be in His will for you,” might be the best we can do. “Why not? There is no continuous sin in my life, I have faith that He can do what I ask, I am not wavering. How am I to believe His words of asking anything in His name when far too many times He has said no?”
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)
“Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Romans 9:18)
I am not asking for a million subscribers to these letters, you are not asking for your marriage to be healed for selfish reasons, for your child to live and not die because you would never get over the grief, we do what we are told to do, we ask in faith, unswerving faith, in His name for His glory. And He says “No, I am not going to grant your request, not in the form you ask me or in any form, the answer is no.”
Faith challenged in the extreme, and we are expected to say, “Thy will be done.”
Total submission, complete and total submission no matter the answer to our prayers, joy that is not altered when the answer is “my grace is sufficient,” the path He has set before us continued on in love when He says “No.”
If you want to witness doubts growing in the lives of those who only profess Him with their lips, watch them as their prayers go unanswered.
If you want to witness faith, faith that rests on the promises no matter the answer to those prayers of faith, look upon Lazarus at the rich man’s gate, hear the screams of those tortured and killed for His name, hear Job say, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
To hear David say, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?” (2nd Sam, 12:22)
Which shall it be then for you, asking anything in His name and doubting when the prayers go unanswered, or “Thy will be done.”
“It must not be in His will for me” is not going to cut it my friends, unanswered prayers will either lead to doubts of the promises, which will inevitably lead to a life of praying less, for the mind will say, “What’s the point, He has not been faithful, for He said if I had enough faith.”
Or it will lead to “My life is yours, do with me as you will, Thy will be done, not mine.”
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job 38:4)
We take unanswered prayers very personally, but we take our responsibilities of being a servant even greater. Can you continue to serve in all faith when the answers continue to be “No.”
