Tag: inspirational quote

Unanswered Prayer

On By Pam SmithIn ChristianityLeave a comment

Taken from my sermon this morning

We have been looking at asking God for things in prayer, whether it is for ourselves or others, and this week we are looking at what happens when those prayers go unanswered. The line from the Lord’s prayer we will be concentrating on is “Thy Will Be Done”.

We think that our prayers go unanswered, but in reality God says different things to us when we ask for things. He can answer one of three things; yes, no and wait a bit.  

It might help to think of God’s responses in terms of a traffic light – green for yes, red for no and red & amber for wait a bit.

I’m sure you will be able to relate to the ways that God responds to your prayers, and if you’re like me, you will probably find that it is really upsetting and even distressing to realise that what is our most heartfelt pleas to him have not been heard. And it’s even harder when we experience that and try to balance it with our desire to pray “thy will be done”.

How do we process those feelings? How do we accept that we sometimes get a red light, or a red and amber?

One of the things that might help us is knowing that Jesus had experiences where his prayers were not answered too, and so he knows exactly what it’s like when our prayers go unanswered.

Let me share three of the times when Jesus’ prayers were unanswered.

The first is the blind man at Bethsaida. Jesus healed the man’s sight, but only partially. The man said he could see people, but they were “like trees”, so Jesus went back and prayed again for complete healing.

The next example is in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus asked God “take this cup from me”. We’ll examine that a little later, but the third example is when Jesus was on the cross and he cried out, “why have you forsaken me?”

Each of these prayers were unanswered, and so Jesus truly does understand that not all our prayers are answered, at least, not in the way that we would like them to be.

So how do we deal with the outcome of unanswered prayer? How do we carry on when we feel that God is not there for us? How do we continue to pray if we don’t hear the answer we are wanting to hear?

Around 12 years ago I was desperately ill in hospital and was on the cusp of losing my job because I couldn’t give a date to return to work. I prayed to God to keep my job above all else – I couldn’t see how we would survive on just my husband’s wages, and it was one of the most frightening times of my life.

But I did lose my job, and I went into a period of darkness where I just wanted to withdraw from everything… including prayer for a while.

Gradually though I realised there was a way out of this, and I returned to prayer.

And as I prayed – mostly to reintroduce myself to God (as if he’d forgotten me…!) and through those prayers I heard his voice call me to serve him. And through a process of being vulnerable before God, being honest with him (including telling him how he’d let me down by not saving my job for me), but ultimately trusting that he had plans for me and this wasn’t the end of my story. It was a very bleak and lonely time, but gradually I came to realise that what I wanted – a job – wasn’t the same as what God wanted for me, because I did get better, and I grew in confidence when I started to study for my degree with the Open University. And as I grew in confidence I began to hear God’s call on my life, and I responded to it. To cut a long story short, I’m here today preaching to you as a deacon in the church which I wouldn’t be doing if God had answered my prayer and kept me in that job back then.

With the benefit of hindsight, all the darkness I went through had a purpose, and God was with me every step of the way through it all. I might not have been aware of it, or even appreciated it to be honest, because none of the hardship and suffering made sense at the time. It’s a similar experience to the disciples’ when they were witnesses to Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion. None of it made sense to them then, but it does to us today.

Throughout all of Jesus’ suffering God was with him, and it’s worth remembering that if God could sustain Jesus through his great suffering, then why would he abandon me to my lesser ones? He wouldn’t, and that the lesson throughout our experiences of seemingly unanswered prayers.

When we despair that God leaves our prayers unanswered, remember that it’s God’s world, it’s God’s war and it’s God’s will that are all at play here, not ours.

God’s world – there are laws of nature and science holding everything in order. It’s a very fine balance that works best for the majority for most of the time. Can you imagine a world where every prayer for sunshine was answered? All those brides on a June afternoon praying for sunshine, whilst at the same time all the gardeners and farmers are praying for rain. It doesn’t work does it? One of them are going to think God is not answering their prayer, but actually, all that’s happening is that the laws of nature are at work.   

It’s God’s war – some prayers are not answered because we exist in a spiritual battle zone. Evil exists in the world, and we as Christians become targets because we stand with Jesus for truth and justice. Whenever evil acts occur, they are not the will of God. The war will one day be won, but in the meantime, there will be pain.

And finally, it’s God’s will – think how big the universe and the cosmos are. At the last count, the Hubble telescope has counted over 100 billion galaxies. God has got a lot on his hands! We cannot possibly begin to understand what there is to, and so while I may pray for paid employment, or my sister in law to be healed from her paralysis, or my friend to recover from addiction and alcoholism, I cannot possibly know what’s in God’s mind for those people and those situations, and so sometimes the hardest prayer to pray is “not my will but yours”.

Unanswered prayer can be very difficult to endure, but as Garth Brooks says, just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t care; some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

Amen

The Fairy Tale of The Sadness

On By Pam SmithIn Blogging2 Comments

I read this story today and it absolutely struck a chord with me. It was written by Gestalt therapist Inge Wuthe and it invites us to reflect on the range of emotions that all go in to make us human.

Once there was a small woman walking along a dusty sidewalk. She probably was already quite old, but she was light-footed and her smile had the fresh brilliance like that of a reckless young girl. She stopped at a huddled figure and looked down. She could not recognise much.

The being which sat there in the dust, seemed almost without a body. It reminded her of a flannel blanket with the outlines of a human. The small woman bent down a little and asked: “Who are you?”

Two almost lifeless eyes tiredly looked up: “Me? I am the Sadness” whispered a low and stagnant voice so that it almost could not be heard.

“Oh, the Sadness!” the small woman shouted with a happy voice as if she was welcoming an old friend.

“You know me?” the Sadness asked suspiciously.

“Of course I know you! Often you have accompanied me along the way.”

“Yes, but … why don’t you run away from me? Aren’t you afraid of me?” Sadness said suspiciously.

“Why should I run away from you, dear? You know very well that you can catch anyone. But I wanted to ask you: Why do you look so discouraged?”

“I …. am sad,” the grey figure answered in a fragile voice.

The old woman sat down beside her. “So you are sad…” she said and nodded understandingly.” Go on, tell me what depresses you.”

The Sadness sighed deeply: Could it be that this time someone really wanted to listen to her? How often she had wished for that. “Oh. You know …” she hesitantly started, amazed, “it is just that nobody likes me. It is my destiny to go among people and remain with them for a certain time. But when I come to them they are scared. They are afraid of me and avoid me like the plague.”

The Sadness swallowed, “They have invented sentences with which they want to banish me. They say: Rubbish, life is fun. And their fake laughter leads to cramps in their stomachs and makes them short of breath. They say: Praised be that which makes us tough. And then they get a pain in their heart. They say: You have to pull yourself together. And they feel a cramp in their shoulders and in their backs. They say: Only weaklings cry. And with the build up of tears their heads almost explode. Or they numb themselves with drugs and alcohol so that they do not have to feel me.”

“Oh yes,” the old woman acknowledged, “I have met such people often”.

The Sadness settled down a little bit more into herself. “But I only want to help people. When I am close to them they can find themselves. I help them to build a nest to tend their wounds. Sad people have especially thin skins. Some sorrows get opened up again like badly healed wounds, which hurt a lot.

But only someone who allows Sadness and cries all their bottled up tears can really heal the wounds. But people do not want me to help them. Instead they put on a garish laughter over their scars. Or they arm themselves with thick armour made of bitterness.” The Sadness said nothing; her weeping was first weak, then stronger and finally desperate.

The small old woman encircled the sunken down figure in her comforting arms. How soft and tender she was, while she caressed the quivering bundle. “Just weep, my Sadness.” she whispered lovingly, “Rest a little bit, so that you can gain some strength again. From now on, you should not walk alone anymore. I will accompany you, so that the discouragement does not gain power.”

The Sadness stopped weeping. She sat up and looked astonished at her new companion. “But … but… Who are you?”

“Me?” the small old woman said grinning, and then she said, smiling easily like a little girl, “I am the Hope”.

Love and light,

Pamster x

Women

On By Pam SmithIn BloggingLeave a comment

In honour of International Women’s Day I thought I’d share this quote attributed to Amelia Earheart:

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity” – Amelia Earheart

To all women out there who are finding it difficult, listen, we have got you in our sights. We see you, we hear you, we will carry you when you need us to because frankly, we know that when it’s our turn, you’ll be right there for us too.

Here’s to strong women everywhere. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them, may we welcome them.