Draw Close to God in Our Unanswered Prayer

I hope that, and I would expect that all of us listening to hear consider prayer to be an important part of our lives. In fact, prayer is a part of a lot of people's lives, whether they're Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu. Not just Christians, obviously. Pray. Frankly, even people who only nominally believe in God, when they're in some great difficulty, may actually pray. It is a very human response to difficulty. And a lot of times, if we just step back from the highest level and we think about prayer and what people say, a lot of times a prayer might go something like this. Oh God, bless me. That's what we say. Keep me healthy. You can fill in the blank after that, right? Protect me at work. Help me earn more money. Protect my family from harm, right? We have these desires, these wants, these needs, however you want to call them. And I'd like to ask you to start by turning over to Matthew, sorry, to John 14. John 14, verse 12. And we read here a promise in John 14, verse 12 to 14, a promise that Christ made to those who would follow Him. It's been read many times. Perhaps you've read it. Perhaps you've kind of contemplated this scripture and what it means for our prayers. John 14, verse 12. That seems pretty unequivocal. It seems pretty clear. And based on this passage, you probably know, we conclude our prayers by asking those things in Jesus' name. This is where this comes from. We ask it by His authority, by His power, by His promises, by His sacrifice. We are Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, and we ask these things in His name. And so we ask God to hear our prayers. And for our elder brother, Jesus Christ, to intercede on our behalf, and we move forward in faith that these things will be answered.

But what happens if it turns out that we don't hear an answer, or our prayer is not answered? Now we're going to get into what that means here. What do we do?

Has God not honored the promise that's right here in John 14 that's clear as can be? And you might say, well, look, I've been in God's church for many years, and I know my prayers shouldn't be self-centered. I know that. Yeah, you know, maybe I get a little self-centered in my prayers. But, you know, by and large, I understand that's not what I'm supposed to do. And I know that my prayers should be pleasing to God. And I understand that I may not get the answer I was expecting. And hopefully that's a mature answer that we would have to sort of this issue. But even, frankly, with that attitude like that, mature and wise as it might be, each of us faces different moments in our lives where we really feel like God is not answering our prayers. Let's just be honest, okay? We can be very academic about, well, we know this, but we're feeling it in our hearts. We're really feeling it in our soul. And we wonder, where's God? And why has He allowed certain things to happen in our lives? We may wish for healing. We may wish for relief from a trial. And these things don't come.

On my, not this last trip, but right before, right after the feast, I had the pleasure of going to Cote d'Ivoire. And seeing a man that I remember from several years ago, his name is Armand, or Armand. He, Armand, had attended and began attending church years ago and got into some difficulty, and he sort of fell away. And he went through a very difficult period in his life for a number of years, and then he came back. And when he came back to church, he was on fire for God's truth. He wanted to just be involved in everything and anything. And in fact, we had a special evening where there, during the feast, they invited the entire village to come for an evening, and we helped provide, I think I shared the story, we helped provide some funds, so they bought a cow, and they slaughtered the cow, and they barbecued it, right? And they brought in some singers, some praise singers, who would sing in the local language. And then the deacon there gave a sermon two hours long, on the Holy Day Sabbath, everything. We had more than 400 people there, and Armand was, he was the emcee, and he was just stirring people up and sharing his enthusiasm. And I saw Armand, and enjoyed being with him. And the day after I left Cote d'Ivoire, I received a WhatsApp message informing me that he had died. Just like that, suddenly. Just man in his mid-40s. He had five children, and he had been suffering, apparently, from an undiagnosed illness, and he had gone into the hospital, and literally a few hours later just died. And I just asked myself, why does God allow this? Why does this happen?

You know, we live in prosperity here in the United States, and our brothers and sisters in countries around the world, like Cote d'Ivoire, live with political instability, lack of medical care, absence of economic opportunities. And, as I've shared before, the life expectancy in these countries is much less than what we have. And my heart aches, and I just wonder, God, why do these things happen? Many of us are familiar with the author, C.J. C.J. No, not C.J. C.S. C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis, a very famous theologian, British theologian, writer. He struggled with this kind of question, and he actually wrote a book entitled, Learning to Die. I don't know if people have read that book. It's a book on the reflection of the difficult period in his life after he lost his wife to bone cancer. And after his wife's death, he writes the following, and I'm going to quote from this book, Learning to Die. He says, It's not that I'm, I think, in great danger of ceasing to believe in God. That resonates with me. I don't think I'm in danger of ceasing to believe that God exists or he has a plan. The real danger is coming to believe such terrible things about him. The conclusion I dread is not, After all, there is no God, but this is how God really is. If you've been in a difficult situation, or if you are in one right now, and if you're willing to be honest with yourself, if we're willing to be honest here as a body of believers about how we feel when a loved one has been ill for a long time or a family member dies, then we, I think, can have an open and honest discussion about what it means to deal with unanswered prayers. And so this sermon is my feeble attempt to talk openly about this and share some thoughts, share some scriptures.

The Bible is rich, actually, with examples of prayers that are answered, but not in the expected way. And sometimes those answers are no. And sometimes those answers are not now. And sometimes there is no answer.

Answers, as it were, in the form of silence. And sometimes there is silence, and then years later you realize what the answer was. And I hope that as we read through these biblical passages, you'll be able to find your life situation in them, and you'll be strengthened if you've been discouraged. I've learned from these examples, and I hope you will too. And like I said, I hope by just being honest about it, we can deal with those times when it seems that God may not be hearing us, and as we'll talk about in a moment, but He is. So I'll skip to the end. He is. He is hearing us. So I don't want you to get drugged down into a deep hole. He is hearing us. But it just may not be in the same way that we think about. The title of my message today is, Draw Close to God in Our Unanswered Prayer.

You might put unanswered in the quotations. We're going to define that as we go through, but I think that might get the point across. Draw close to God in our unanswered prayer. And there's three points I want to go through. Is it really possible for a prayer to go unanswered?

Is it really possible for a prayer to go unanswered? Number two, are unanswered prayers due to a lack of faith? Is it due to a lack of faith? And three, how can we live with a prayer whose answer is a no or not now? How can we live with a prayer whose answer is no or not now? So let's start with the first point. Is it really possible for a prayer to go unanswered?

The answer to this question is yes and no. So there's a little nuance here. Let's look over at 1 Samuel 28 and verse 5 to 6. 1 Samuel 28 verse 5 to 6.

And we will see directly from the pages of the Bible an answer to this question. 1 Samuel 28 verses 5 to 6, When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. He was in trouble. He was going to die. That's essentially what's going on. My army is going to be destroyed. I'm going to be destroyed. This is the end. And verse 6, There it is, right there. No answer. The Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim, which is the breastplate here, or by the prophets.

So this makes it pretty clear that God did not answer Saul. Let's go over to 1 Samuel 14 verse 37.

1 Samuel 14 verse 37.

It says, So Saul asked counsel of God, 1 Samuel 14 verse 37, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you deliver them into the hand of Israel? You wanted to know. God, what's the answer? But he did not answer him that day. Okay. Well, there's a little clarification. He didn't answer him at the time. So we have two examples here where God did not answer the prayer. One seems pretty clear-cut. He just chose not to answer. The other one's like, I'm not going to answer right now. Now often when we think of an answered prayer, we think of a prayer for which we don't receive the thing we asked for.

But let's look at one other example here. 2 Samuel 12 verse 15.

So this is perhaps an answered prayer but not the answer we wanted or in this case what David wanted. 2 Samuel 12 verse 15. I think we know the story here.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and she became pregnant. He then has Bathsheba's husband killed and later the prophet Nathan confronts David and we see that God allows this child to be born and the child falls very ill. And this is David's reaction, verse 15. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became very ill. David therefore pleaded with God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground but he would not nor did he eat food with them.

And then on the seventh day, he came to pass but the child died. So David prayed, he even fasted, for his son to be spared and the answer was no. A clear, resounding no. You can do anything you want. You can pray, you can fast, you can ask me, but my answer to this prayer is no.

Technically, I guess you could say that's an answer, but it's not the answer we wanted. On the other hand, the Bible does reveal that when we pray, we need to know that God will answer us. So let's not take this out of context. These are examples that we see here, as I'm describing with Saul and David, as Christians under the New Covenant. As some have quoted before, we have better promises. I think we can look at that. Look at James 1, verse 5-8, and let's see what James says to the church that was dispersed abroad, to the Despora here, James 1, verse 5 and 8. I think we can take this to heart. James 1, 5-8 says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives it all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Ask and it will be given. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable, in all his ways.

So based on my studies and based on what I've seen here, I think this is a more relevant instruction for us today in God's church than looking at Samuel or Saul or David at that time. I think this is a clear instruction for us. I think we have the promise of John 14 about asking things in Jesus' name.

David had sinned grievously. Saul had begun to take things onto himself, and his pride had gotten the best of him. And hopefully, as New Covenant Christians, when we understand these promises, we can pray in Christ's name, we can commit our lives to him, we can trust that God is there and he cares about us. And so therefore we pray, it says here, with faith. We have faith. Let him ask in faith with no doubting. And I think we understand the definition of faith.

It's right here. I'm just going to turn a page back, or two pages back, in my Bible. You can turn with me there as well. And you can read this, the definition of faith, Hebrews 11, verse 1. I like that you say the Jedi Christian. Was that the term he used? That's good. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Verse 2 is interesting. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

That's, I think, something for us to think about. By it the members of the Seattle congregation obtained a good testimony. Our faith rests on the assurance that the things we hope for, whether in prayer or in our vision of the future, will come to pass. Our faith rests on a demonstration of God's power that cannot be measured scientifically, in some cases. In some cases it can, actually. It's kind of amazing.

But anyway, in some cases. But it is demonstrated to us nonetheless. Hopefully we're convinced that whatever the outcome, our prayers are answered. It just might not be the answer we want. It might not be when we want, but they will be answered.

And so is there such a thing as unanswered prayer? Yes. We read that. We read a few passages. But I believe for us today, we can understand and have assurance that God always hears us. He always hears us. Even if the answer is not what we want. So let's go to the second point. Our unanswered prayers, now that we've defined that a little bit, let's say, are prayers that are answered in a way that we don't like. Due to a lack of faith. Is it due to a lack of faith? Well, as with the first question, I think the answer is yes and no.

So we were in James 1. Now let's go to James 5. James 5, verse 14 to 15. I'm sorry, I'm giving you a lot of nuance here. I hope you're following me. We'd like to have like, you know, cut and dried answers. Well, John 14 is a cut and dried answer. Whatever you ask in my name, I will give you. That's pretty cut and dried. It just may not be exactly the way you thought that it was best.

James 5, verse 14 to 15. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. And then if we continue then, in verse 16, it says, Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. Pray for one another, it says. And then at the end, it says, The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So, the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. I don't think we can ignore the opposite here. I don't think we can ignore that. While some prayers are very effective, others may be less effective. I think we have to just see what it says in front of us.

If the prayer of faith saves the sick person, a prayer not made with faith may not save the sick person. Even if we don't like to think that our prayers may be ineffective, we have to face the fact that God is probably working with us on a spiritual level, even if our prayers are less effective than maybe what he'd like or we'd like.

Maybe we're going through a difficult time. Maybe we're not as close to God as we should be. He wants us to grow in faith towards Him. And sometimes, sometimes, God gets our attention by allowing difficulties in our lives to bring us closer to Him.

And in that process, we grow in faith as we patiently wait for God to intervene.

I personally know people who, when I've asked them to pray for a given situation, I feel like God hears their prayers.

Frankly, more than mine.

They intercede on my behalf, and I am so thankful for them. Of course, Jesus Christ is the ultimate intercession in that sense, of course.

And so, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, am I praying effectively? Is my faith in God and what He's doing in my life, where it needs to be right now? Can I do better? Or maybe we look back and say, I remember when I prayed that time, I prayed. I prayed so fervently. I really felt like God was listening. We can have those impressions. Now, of course, God is always listening. We said that. He's always going to answer. We ask that in Jesus Christ's name. He's going to answer. But perhaps a strengthening of faith is helpful. Let's look over at 1 John 3 verse 21.

1 John 3 verse 21.

And sometimes by suffering, we follow Christ's example. We can draw closer to God. 1 John 3 verse 21. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence towards God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandment. So we here have a solid description of a believer who lives and walks in faith and understands how his or her life should align with God's will. That's very powerful. It involves commandment keeping. It involves belief. It involves being in community, having love one for another. This is a description of a person who has a powerful prayer life. I hope this is a description of me. I hope it's a description of you. I hope this is something we can aspire to because when we are in this relationship with God, when we are in this space, our prayers are very powerful. And when we're not in that space, they can be less powerful. That doesn't mean God is not merciful. That does not mean God is not necessarily, you know, He may still answer a less faithful, less fervent, less in a great space prayer because in His mercy, He has a plan for what He's going to do with us.

But the fact is, we see a picture here. But we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Our prayers are not about getting rich, at least they shouldn't be, about having a trouble-free life. That's not what this is about. They're about growing into the image of Jesus Christ and becoming one with our Heavenly Father, about respecting His commandments, about trusting in the head of the church, Jesus Christ, about showing love for our brother. You know, I'm going to just interrupt for a second and ask my wife, can I get a Kleenex here? I've got... I had a little bit of a... My wife's like, are you going to give the sermon last night? She's like, are you going to give the sermon? You're not feeling very well. And I'm like, I can do this. So, thank you. You're going to rest with me. If you don't have anything you can get from the... from the restroom. There we go. All right, perfect.

Let's go back to James. James 4 verse 3. We have a contrast here. Oh, someone's going to save the day. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right.

This is my second sermon of the day. I got up early, so I'm a little tired. All right. So, we saw... She saved the day. She got me something. Thank you. James 4 verse 3. We have a contrast here in terms of prayer. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. There's another type of prayer. Less effective, right? Clearly, this is a less effective prayer than the type of prayer we read a moment ago. So, to be heard, we can't ask for the wrong thing that is for our own benefit. Sometimes we're so frustrated by a situation in our lives and disturbed by God's lack of response that we start to think differently. We can become so convinced of our own truth, our own way of thinking and so forth, and we wonder where God is. And as C.S. Lewis wrote, we may wonder what kind of God will allow such a thing to happen in our lives. Well, personally, I've been through this at the beginning of my career. And maybe some of you men can appreciate that. A lot of the men are gone here today, but some of us are here. I felt that I wasn't getting promoted because people couldn't see the benefits that I brought to the company.

I felt like I wasn't noticed. It was frustrating for me. And I prayed about it, and I said, God, why aren't you answering my prayers? I'm not being recognized for the things that I'm bringing here. And really, only later did I begin to understand that I was really the problem at work. This is not a spiritual thing. This is just, you know, we have our work, right? We go to work in the morning, we make contributions, we work with people, and sometimes things work for us. They work out. Sometimes they don't work out at work. And I realized later I was the problem. My self-perception was wrong. My personal, professional thinking, oh, now I'm really being rescued. Thank you. Thank you, very good. Thank you. My personal and professional sort of, you know, self-perception was off. And God helped me see that about myself. And then I realized, oh, maybe my prayers were being answered. I would just kept doing the things I wanted to do my way. God, why aren't you hearing my prayers? You know, I'm doing it this way and you're not hearing me. And I was like, oh, actually, I need to make some changes. I have to make some changes. So are unanswered prayers due to a lack of faith? The answer is yes, because sometimes we might just be so focused on something we're going to do or got to do. We got to have it this way. And why is this working? Sometimes we might be asking the wrong things. And the answer is sometimes it depends. We can truly believe that God will give us an answer, and God in His mercy gives us that answer. So we have to evaluate our individual circumstances.

My final point is here, how can we live with a prayer whose answer is no or not now? And I think this is one of the most difficult situations for a Christian to go through. We may find ourselves in a situation where we just have not seen God reveal that answer to us about why things have turned out the way they have in our lives. We may not yet understand what's happening with it, and we're just asking God day after day, and it isn't happening.

Whatever the reason we think we're getting a no or not now answer, there's a biblical story that can help. There's a biblical story that can help, but there is a trap in this story. So we're going to read the story together. It's in Luke 18, verse 1-8.

And again, I think there's a trap here, but there's a lesson. Luke 18, 1-8. A lot of times people will go to this story, and they'll think about their prayers. In my Bible it says, the parable of the persistent widow. Now let's read this. It's just eight verses. We'll read this together, and then let's think about this parable here.

Okay. All right. This is what we're talking about today. Pray and don't lose heart, because maybe the answer isn't coming the way we think. So, verse 2. There was a certain city, there was in a certain city, a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterwards he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, Lest her continual coming she wary me. And then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.

Verse 7. And shall God not avenge his own elect, Who cry out day and night to him, Though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? So we read this story, and we deduce that the key to unanswered prayer is perseverance. Right? Just keep praying.

And we can read that last line in verse 8 and conclude that we simply need to ask more often, and have more faith, and just keep going. Just like that widow. We're just going to fatigue God into giving us an answer. And I think we can fall into a trap of saying that unanswered prayers depend on the intensity of our prayer, or the number of times that we pray, or the number of people who are praying about our given situation. And if we do this, we can become very demanding of God.

Right? Come on, God. Come through for me now. Right? I'm praying. Intense. My friends are praying. And we can become very demanding. Is this really the point of the parable, I guess is my question. Should we keep praying until we force God to answer us? Well, there's an interesting thing. Jacob wrestled with God, right? That's reasonable. He wrestled with God, and God finally touched the hip and broke his hip, or injured his hip, and gave him a blessing and so forth.

So I don't want to diminish that. I think there is something to this parable about wrestling with God. And I hope that you wrestle with God. Abraham negotiated with God, right? You know, if there's 50 people, or 40 people, or 30... So there is something to this. There is something to this. And so I think at the face value, yes, we need to be persistent.

We need to be perseverant. We need to wrestle with God. We need to negotiate with God. We need to, you know, take all those examples. But I think there's also some context to this parable. I think this verse is understood also as an extension of the parable that Jesus told at the end of chapter 17 about the coming of his kingdom.

And that parable describes the coming of God's kingdom in verse 20. And it goes all the way down to verse 37. And the point of that is that God is going to bring justice to his people. He's going to take care of his people. He's going to protect his people. We wait patiently on God. Look at again verse 7 of chapter 18. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him?

Yes! The answer is yes. He is going to avenge us. He's going to protect us in the coming of his kingdom with all the difficulties that are ahead. That's what is immediately proceeding here, right? Where it talks about, you know, in that day, he who is on the housetop and his goods are in the house, let him not come down. There's going to be difficulties ahead. And he's going to avenge his people. He's going to take care of us. He's going to guide us. As we wait patiently for God's true justice with regard to this present world, God is going to avenge us at the return of Jesus Christ.

And in the meantime, we have to face the unjust judges of this world and the people who do not fear God. And we pray, and we never give up, regardless of the difficulties that we face. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 7, verse 8 and 9. You don't have to turn there. He says, whoever asks, receives, and whoever seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Which of you will give a stone to his son if he asks him for bread?

Right? God is not an unjust judge. He's not some person that just wants us to constantly be besieging him that way. He's a loving father. He cares for us. He wants us to succeed and be happy and healthy and so forth. He just wants that relationship with us.

God is not an unjust judge to be pestered. He's a loving father. And he wants to give us the desires of his heart. So, yes, we have to be perseverant. But I think also in the context of chapter 17, it shows that God is going to avenge. He is going to protect us, even in the face of difficult circumstances or unjust judges of this world. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7 and see a very well-known...

perhaps many of you have contemplated this scripture... 2 Corinthians 12, 7 to 9. This is a well-known, quote-unquote, unanswered prayer by the Apostle Paul. And I think it describes well the feeling that he has and that we have sometimes, and gives us an example that we can learn from. 2 Corinthians 12, 7 to 9. Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, that is to say God had worked with him greatly. And Paul's like, you know, maybe this was to help keep me humble.

A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. I'm going to stop there in the middle of verse 9, because I think there's some really important points. So in this sense, God said no to Paul. He made it clear there was something important in this trial, something that God wanted Paul to learn. And we can read that first part pretty quickly. It was a difficult trial. Now, I'm sure many of you have had a splinter in your finger before, right?

You know, or thorn in the flesh, right? That's what's a thorn in the flesh. There's a famous story, perhaps you've already heard of this story. There was a man who went to the dentist, and he was complaining of a toothache. He went to the dentist, and he said, man, my tooth is really aches, and I've been having headaches. I just don't know what's going on.

So he went to the dentist, and so the dentist looked at him, and his teeth looked okay. Let's do an x-ray. So they did an x-ray, and the man had a nail in his brain.

You've heard that story? How many people heard this story? It's a completely true story. The man had a nail in his brain. He worked on a construction site. You know these nail guns? Boom, boom, boom, right? Well, it kind of got a little... You know, those things get a little loose, right? You've got to pay attention. Those things will... Well, anyway, he shot a nail into his head. And, amazingly, he didn't realize it. Those things can be thin, and they're a little long. He didn't realize it. You know, it went in just a little bit of blood. Probably just, you know, like, what was that, right?

And it didn't hit anything, but then after a while, you know, his tooth started aching, because it hit a nerve, and he's got a headache, and he's wondering what's going on with this thing. The man had a nail in his brain. So when you... when I think about a thorn in the flesh, I think nail in the brain.

Okay? Don't think about a little slivering. Think... you've got a nail in your head. And this hurts. How did it get there? Can you get this thing out of my head, please? So, yeah, so they had to operate, and he survived. They were able to pull this nail gun nail out of his head. This is what Paul is dealing with. This is what we're dealing with many times. It just is terribly painful. And we want it to stop. God, would you please stop this pain? And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Trust me. Trust me. There's something you need to learn.

Trust me. There's something that's bigger that you can't see right now. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Just like when we fast and we're weak, physically, there's a spiritual strength that comes from that fasting. Likewise, as we are suffering physically from something, there is a spiritual strength that comes from this that God is allowing.

Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That's an attitude. That's hard. That's very hard. God, I am so glad this is happening to me because I know that I am drawing closer to you. I know that I'm going to be a better person because of this. I'm going to be a better husband. I'm going to be a better part of your church.

Thank you, God, for this terrible, awful pain that I have in my head because I have a nail in my brain. That's very hard.

Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses... That's a lot of things for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul learned these things from this trial. And I think this is a powerful example for us.

Sometimes a period of waiting for God's answer to our prayers can deepen and strengthen our trust in Him. We learn to wait on Him. We draw close to Him in our unanswered prayer. Psalm 13 shows that David understood that sometimes in his waiting he needed to draw close to God and learn about God's grace. We won't go there. We will go to Psalm 35 in a second.

But let me end with this point where I began in John 14.

Because sometimes I think we missed the most important part about that. Let's look back over to John 14, verse 13, because again, that's such a touchstone, Scripture, when it comes to our prayers. John 14, verse 13. Perhaps you picked up on it when we read it the first time. John 14, verse 13. And whatever you ask in my name, I will do. Sometimes we want to put the period right there in that sentence. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, period. But there's a comma. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If God hears and answers our prayers, it's so that His name may be glorified in Jesus Christ. That's the larger picture. And I think David understood these things. We'll go over in Psalm 35, verse 17. Psalm 35. The Psalms, of course, are a source of support and strength during times of difficulty. Psalm 35.

I think David understood this. Verse 17.

Lord, how long will You look on?

You know, you're just going to sit there and just let this go on? You're just going to sit there on the sidelines and just let me go through this? Rescue me from their destructions. My precious life from the lions.

It's a little bit of bless me, protect me, help me, right? A little self-centered, but, you know, He's in trouble. But verse 18. I will give You thanks in the great congregation. I will praise You among many people.

I will praise You among many people.

Let them not rejoice over me, who are wrongfully my enemies, nor let them wink with the eye, who hate me without a cause. For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful matters against those who are quiet in the land. They also open their mouth wide against me and said, Aha! Oh, our eyes have seen it. He's describing a terrible trial that He's going through, but He says, I'm going to give You praise. I'm going to let You take care of that. I know it's for Your glory and honor and purpose. We need to ask ourselves whether we're asking for our will, or whether we're asking for God's will, whether we're asking to glorify God or simply to resolve a personal problem.

Our prayers should be to give glory to God, and the answer should be focused on that. You know, I wish some things were different in my life. I think, if we're honest, we'd say that. I've talked to people like, Do you have any regrets? No, I don't have any regrets. Okay, fair enough. I can respect that. But sometimes if we just step back, we, yeah, I kind of wish this didn't have had turned out that way.

You know, I wish my dad had not died when I was so young. I wish my mother was still alive. Right? That's the way it is. I accept that. You know, when I listen to stories of people living in developing countries like Cote d'Ivoire, I hear a lot of frustration. And sometimes anger, frankly. Why did this happen? When a loved one dies in their forties, like I said, remember one of the, on one of the trips, the young man in the congregation is in his early thirties. I think he's 31 or 32. He leads songs. I really saw it in the church. He was kidnapped. He was kidnapped. It's a very dangerous intersection. And whenever we go through there, you know, we always check. Door's locked. Everything put away. You know, is the traffic bad? Can we get through there quickly? And he had to get off and change transport. And he got hit on the head, pushed in the back of the van, and off he went. And, you know, they were going to ransom him. And he had the presence of mind to somehow press his phone, such that he called his dad, and his dad was hearing the whole thing. And they kind of knew where he was. And then miraculously, they opened the door at another time when they were kind of running, and he managed to just roll out onto the road and escape. You know? This is, God, why did you allow this? Right? He, you know, he got hit on the head pretty bad, and then, you know, rolling out of the van, that kind of hurt, too. But he was safe. He was safe. Now, here in the United States and in the developed world, we deal with different issues. We live longer, but sometimes that means we deal with chronic illnesses in a way that other people don't. We deal with health problems that come up. And sometimes we can't get the care we need, too. And we ask ourselves the same questions. God, why is this happening?

How can we live with a prayer whose answer is no or not now? Well, we seek God's grace and glory, and wait for Him to avenge us, as He promised. And in that process, we often come to see the larger meaning and purpose of what God desires for us. That's how we deal, I think, with prayer whose answer sometimes is no or not now. So to conclude, I'd like to mention what I think is the ultimate unanswered prayer. The ultimate example of how to understand why sometimes things happen the way they do. I'd like to invite you to turn to Matthew 26 in verse 36, and we're going to read Christ's own words as He confronted His own death and the reality of the terrible suffering that God has done in the past. And I think in this passage, we see the true humanity of Jesus Christ. We see truly Him as a human being, just like us, wondering what's going on, although He knew the ultimate plan, and He knew the ultimate plan. But He still knew what was going to happen to Him, and He was not pleased about it. Matthew 26, verse 36. I want to read the passage from the complete Jewish Bible as I think it captures the very human emotions that are conveyed here. The King James Version, the New King James, I think, is very technically accurate. And if you have that, you can read that. I think the complete Jewish Bible, this particular translation, gets across a little bit more of the passion of it. Matthew 26, verse 36. Then Yeshua went with His tammidim to a place called Gethsemane, and said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. And I think the complete Jewish Bible, this particular translation, Sit here while I go over there and pray. And He took with Him Kepha and Zabadi's two sons.

Grief and anguish came over Him. Grief and anguish, a profound grief, and pain like many of us have felt. You know, Jesus knows what it's like to grieve. He knows what it's like to have a terrible pain and dread and anguish. And He said to them, My heart is so filled with sadness that I could die. That's the translation from the complete Jewish Bible. I think it's so powerful. My heart is so filled with sadness that I could die. Here is our model. Here's our example. He's been there. He knows what it's like to feel so sad. He just wants it to end. Look at verse 39. Going on a little farther, He fell. Some translations say He fell down. It's an interesting sort of way of thinking about it. You know, you have this feeling that you just can't take it. You can hardly hold yourself up. He fell on His face, praying, My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me.

Yet not what I want, but what you want.

Jesus sought what God wanted, not what He wanted. Let us seek what God wants in our lives through our prayers, not what we want. Let's follow in the footsteps of our God and not the path of what our heart tells us we deserve.

Let us draw close to God in our unanswered prayer.