I am still reading, "Prayer...Does it Make a Difference" by Phillip Yancey. Today's reading really had me spinning. The chapter is "Unanswered Prayer: Living with the Mystery." I guess I keep reading, expecting to somehow find the answers to all of my questions about prayer, and I have many! This quote really put things into perspective:

"C.S. Lewis observes: The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of couse He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them. Invariable "success" in prayer would not prove the Christian doctrine at all. It would prove something much more like magic."

If only the chapter ended there! I can certainly accept that God is sovereign and has the best interest of all of His children in mind when He chooses how to answer each prayer. Of this I have never had any doubt. I have only wondered, "If God already knows what's best, why ask?"

Mr. Yancey goes on, however, to quote several promises in the Bible about prayer:

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt...you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatevr you ask for in prayer."

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

"You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it."

Then he goes on: "These represent just a sampling of the New Testament's sweeping claims made in plain language. Some preachers seize on these passages as a kind of club, flogging the church for not taking them literally and faulting believers for having too little faith. But how to account for the unanswered prayers of Jesus and Paul? And how can we reconcile the lavish promises with the actual experience of so many sincere Christians who struggle with unansweed prayer?"

He answers this question with several possibilities. 1. These promises were specific to the disciples, not to all Christians. 2. Each of these have a qualifier, "whatever you ask in my name." "If you remain in me and my words remain in you." Maybe we are not alligned with God when we make our petitions. 3. We don't wait long enough for the answers. Many requests will have to wait until all things are completed. 4. God works through people. "To pray, 'God, please help my neighbor cope with her financial problems, ' or 'God, do something about the homeless downtown' is the approach of a theist, not a Christian. god has chosen to express love and grace in the world through those of us who embody Christ. Sometimes, instead of asking, we should be doing, and thereby become answers to our own prayers.

Finally, he concludes that sometimes we don't get the answer we are looking for, becuase we don't persist in asking. "John Calvin said, 'We must repeat the same supplication not twice or three times onnly, but as often as we have need, a hundred and a thousand times... We must never be weary in waiting for God's help."

For me, that would be just about impossible. I would find that kind of petitioning to be insulting to God. When my kids beg me, "Please, Mommy, Please!" a million times, I get angry. I expect them to accept my first answer. Why would God want me to keep asking? I know that there are many examples in scripture of such pleading, and often, it works out for the person petitioning. But what about the Israelites, who begged for a King? Look what they got! God gave in to their persistent pleas, giving them what they asked for, not what was best for them. I am afraid for God to give me whatever I ask for. I need what He knows to be best, not what I think is best, from my limited view of my life and circumstances.