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A FORMER work colleague of mine has just lost her son following complications from a serious operation. Countless Salvationists and Christians from other churches had petitioned the Lord for his healing over the last two months, but God’s answer was not what we had hoped for.

The question inevitably arises: if God doesn’t act according to our prayers and petitions, should we just give up? Of course not! The moment we start down this route, we confuse our theology. God is sovereign, not us. He is the one who knows the beginning from the end, and even when we persist in prayer like this, we must still accept his answer, even – and especially – when it is not the answer we would like.

Everything in Scripture reminds us that God is working for our good all the time. And as the sovereign One, he knows what is good for us. There is a British TV programme in which experts assess antiques for their possible value and the public are invited to bring their valuables for consideration. In each episode, there is a segment called ‘Basic, Better and Best’ in which the presenter is shown three items by an expert and they are required to determine which of them is the most and least expensive. Despite consulting with the people gathered around, the presenter rarely gets the valuations right. And so it is with us, prayer and God’s will. It is hard to know the mind of God – to determine what is good, better and best in his eyes – so we must trust him, even when we cannot see clearly.

We don’t give up and we keep praying that our loving God will reveal to us more of his purpose, so that in our prayers we align ourselves to his will.

KING Farouk of Egypt was immensely rich and lived in fabulous luxury while most of his people lived in grinding poverty. His European shopping sprees were legendary, although he sometimes withheld payment for years. Despite his colossal wealth he seemed to have no concern for the poor.

Paul Getty II had an enormous fortune. Just the interest on his investments would have made a lottery winner green with envy. Yet Getty lived a lonely life, distrusting everyone and everything. When he died, his will ensured that his executors bought priceless works of art for his private collection for a tiny number of people to view. This prevented other less funded public galleries from having the opportunity to exhibit them.

William Morris began work in a small bicycle shop in Oxford, England. He ended his life as Lord Nuffield, head of the motor industry in Britain. He was a millionaire who used his wealth to save thousands of lives through the medical institutions he founded and the work that he made possible.

What was the difference between these three rich men? One was a Christian – guess which one?

Jesus made several references to money and its use, including a warning not to let it replace trust in God. That includes the use of our resources. Money, in general, is amoral, neither right nor wrong; everything depends on the motivation for getting it and what we spend it on. It is easy to become devoted to money-making, using up irreplaceable time and expending our energy and brain power on getting it.

But even more important is whether our hope and goal in life is based on money or on God. The love of money can lead people away from faith in God. A person’s life should consist not just of possessions, nor reliance on money. May Christ help us get the right perspective and may our true being brim over in helpful words and useful deeds.

‘STANDING on a railway footbridge next to a 20-stone stranger, you see a runaway trolley heading towards a group of five men who are preoccupied while working on the track. Because of other noises they wouldn’t hear you shouting. However, if you pushed the large man off the bridge immediately, his bulk would stop the trolley below ploughing into the men. Five lives would be saved, but the stranger would probably be killed. What do you do?’ asks Professor Joshua Greene of Harvard University.9

He then relocates the situation so that you are now at the railway control centre and can divert the runaway trolley to a track where only one man is working. Again, five would be saved, but one will be killed. Do you press the switch?

According to Greene, the majority of people say they wouldn’t push the large man off the bridge, but they would press the switch. What are the factors involved in making this moral judgement, and does the sense of the rights of others influence our choice? Why does pushing the man feel more ‘wrong’ than deciding to switch railway points resulting in a single worker being killed? Could it be that the more direct the infliction of harm, the more repugnant it feels?

One could further complicate Greene’s dilemma by suggesting that one of the people in danger is a relative or close friend. How would that influence our decision?

Greene, in his book Moral Tribes, considers frontal and lower lobe brain activity, emotional reactions and cognitive control, and a range of philosophical arguments in an attempt to understand our sense of right and wrong. He concludes that choices should be for the greatest advantage of everyone involved.

As we read in today’s Scripture, Jesus gave us similar advice. He gives us a daily challenge to be considerate of others. Pause and think – if we wouldn’t like a particular course of action to happen to us, we probably should do what we can to prevent others experiencing what we might have gone through.

WHILE sitting at a hospital bedside, the man was asked to pray – and therein lay his dilemma. The family member lying in the bed was desperately ill, the prognosis was poor at best, the illness had already had a debilitating impact on the quality of the person’s life, and the man wanted to pray intelligently and sensibly into the situation. Should he pray for healing and full restoration to his relative’s old powers, or should he pray that they be allowed to rest in peace?

Many of us have been the person asked to pray into such a scenario, and although the circumstances might have been very different, the same predicament confronted us. What should we pray for? If we merely pray for God’s will to be done, are we opting out of our spiritual responsibility? If we pray for healing, are we raising hopes that might soon be dashed on the rocks of death and bereavement? And if we pray for them to be allowed to die, are we failing to take faith in our hands and claim the impossible from God?

Paul, in writing to the Romans, helpfully addresses this by reminding us that we often don’t know what to pray for. It’s actually not just in the critical moments – there are other occasions when knowing what to pray is hard and challenging. We come to God and open our hearts to him. We tell him as much as we can – our hopes and fears – and then we admit that we don’t know what is best. But then we affirm our love and trust in the Holy Spirit, who will represent the things said and not said, and interpret them to the throne room of the King.

REFLECT

‘It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart.’ Mahatma Gandhi

YESTERDAY, we considered what might be seen as unanswered prayer. As we go a little deeper today, we see the words of Jesus and his reminder that if an earthly father wants to give good gifts to his son, how much more God wants to give good things.

To use Jesus’ illustration, there are times when a straight ‘yes’ answer to our prayers and petitions would actually bring us the snake rather than the fish. That would neither be good for us nor helpful. And so our Lord, in his infinite knowledge, gives us something different from our request. It is often painful to receive, and it challenges our trust in God.

Difficult as it is to accept, God is the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, and he does know what is best for us and what we can carry. When he withholds his response to our prayers, and when his answer conflicts with our desire, he does not do so to cause us pain. A loving God has the capacity to provide a loving answer to our prayers, even when it is not what we long for.

Jesus reminds us that God wants us to keep on asking, seeking and knocking on the door of Heaven, even when our prayers don’t seem to be answered. He is Creator of the universe, but he is also our loving Father who wants to give good gifts to his children. We must not confuse the fish with the snake. If earthly fathers want to give good things to their children, God desires this so much more, even when our prayers seem to go unanswered.

REFLECT

‘Our heavenly Father is far too wise and loves us far too much to give us everything we ask for.’ Mark Batterson