One night, while leading a jr. high discussion about prayer with our club 67 group, we were discussing why God sometimes doesn’t answer our prayers. How do we balance our belief in his sovereignty, and also our belief that prayer has a use, that prayer truly changes things? How do we reconcile the knowledge that we are promised that He hears our prayers and will answer them, but sometimes... He seems to leave us hanging? The youth had some awesome, fun, and very funny things to say. We started out by sharing how we imagined God answering prayers. I shared that I imagined God with all of our prayers in His head like thoughts and He had to listen very very closely to hear us, and the louder and more passionate we were, the more he might hear that prayer more clearly and respond. One of the girls in the group talked about her image that God was a factory manager, and all of our prayers came into the prayer factory in little jars. God would open them, read the papers of prayers inside, and then decide, yes or no. Another said that they saw Bruce Almighty and started imagining God’s prayer answering process as just a “yes” or “no” to a bunch of emails. We laughed a lot and decided that God’s mind must not work in the same way our’s does.

Prayer... It can be extremely frustrating. Lately, I have had more prayers not answered, or not answered yet, than answered. It is feels terrible to be honestly. I am over here like... “GOD!!! I ASKED NICELY!!!!” and He’s all.... “no comment.” Meanwhile I am going crazy. I don’t understand His timing, or the lack of answers that I’ve been given, or at least, that I’ve heard. I’ve been devastated by His silence, yet I still have hope because I know what I was promised. I have experienced His yes, and I remember His faithful hand, but that doesn’t make the silence less... loud.

 “All thing work together for good for those who love God.”

In my seminary classes, I hear people much older and more experienced than myself discuss these topics. “Can we change God’s mind?” our professor asked one day. The class erupted in argument. Most, other than myself, claiming you cannot change His mind. I listened to them carefully as they shouted over one another, “HE IS SOVEIRN!” “GOD’S WILL WILL BE DONE!” Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore, and I burst... “What is the point of praying then?!?!” I asked in frustration. They claimed that God just wants to be relational and let us ask, just to talk to us. He knows His answer before we ask and there is nothing we can do about it. I’m just not willing to accept this answer. I just can’t accept serving a God that invited us to ask for things just to humor us and fool us into thinking that we have a close enough relationship that He would actually give us what we want. This God, I see sitting in the clouds laughing, “silly mortals” He’d say. “Suuuuuuure, I’ll solve those family problem’s of your’s, just as soon as I bring little Billy’s bunny back to life... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” This is not my God, this is not by ABBA Father.

Scripture tells us to pray, and it tells us that God listens and answers.

Philipians 4:6 tells us “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

MAtthew 11:24 says: “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

1 Titus 2:8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

James 5:16: The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

These are only a few examples that lead me to believe that prayer changes things. Not only that, but evidence of miraculous, unexplainable miracles display that prayer changes things. It cannot be a coincidence that the very moment that someone lay hands on another in prayer that they are healed, or delivered from emotional bondage. Of course there is an extent to which it seems that our prays, our us willing something to happen, does not automatically make it so. This is something we all struggle with. Why is there no simple answer?

I know that God has plans for me, and He has a perfect will. I want those things to be done. I want God to order my steps, and I want what He wants to happen in my life. Even in the little details. But When I see someone I love in desperate need, I believe that God cares enough about my desires to give them to me if they line up with His ultimate purpose. I believe that our prayers can change God’s mind and can influence Him to answer our requests.

It’s hard to think that God’s yes and no can co-exist and this is something that we all struggle to explain. So back to those super awesome jr. highers... a 5th grade girl in the group gave an illustration that I really really liked. She said that maybe, (“maybe”, what a wise word.) God goes with us on this journey, and when we commit our lives to Him, we start on this path with us ang God in the car together. As we are driving along, we might want to go visit the beach. Only God know the way to our ultimate destination and some roads may be fine to go on, others may not. When we pray, God will tell us, yeah, we can go over there, that’s a great stop, or detour, or whatever. Then again, there are also times that we ask to go another place, and God says, “no... I love you, but this is the only way to our destination.” I just loved the analogy. It is so fun to think of our life as a road trip with God. When we surrender our lives to Him, we are surrendering our ultimate destination to His will. Along the way, when we pray, He will go with us to the beach, or through a beautiful forest. Yet, other times, He knows when a certain forest may hold a certain bear, that might eat us. Even if we think it looks wonderful and perfect, our submission to His will overpowers our desire to go to a place that would totally ruin His plan. The crazy thing is that we are driving, and we can still choose to not listen, to not see things God’s way, to mess up, go the wrong direction, or not see His way as the right one. His way may seem like a rough or boring road, but it’s the only way. This analogy is not perfect. But, I love it, and I love that it came from a 5th grader, more wise and thoughtful than many seminary students were willing to be when asked the very same question. She is genius, not because she has all the answers, but because she is searching for balance in the truth of God’s word. In many ways, faith is a mystery. There are things that we may not ever fully understand, but the evidence of my reasoning, my experience and the experiences of others, the scripture, and the long held tradition makes me confident that God is there. He hears our prayers. Sometimes they don’t seem answered. Maybe He seems silent, maybe we are not listening, maybe we have to wait for the yes, or maybe, He just knows what we need better than we do.

Lord, help us cynical people who have made up our minds to see your ways. Help us to understand the beauty of your mystery, and help us to rely on your promises, even when our perspectives are skewed. May we experience the fullness of all that you are.