THANK GOD FOR UNANSWERED PRAYERS

Psalms 106:15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

Indulgence is so often equated with love. We think that we show love to a child when we pamper him with things. In the same way, we equate God’s love for us with the measure of answered prayers.

Answered prayer is no proof of God’s favor. When traveling in the Sinai desert, God provided the children of Israel with a food correspondent to their lifestyle. Due to the heat and lack of refrigeration, meat would have been unhealthy. But the people were unthankful for this health diet coming from the heart of the great Dietitian, and they sniffed at angels’ food (Psalms 78:25). They desired meat and God gave them so much of it that it made them sick (Numbers 11:32.).

It is the reality of our nature that we do not appreciate the good that God does to us in spite of ourselves, until He’s allowed us a taste of the bad we so much desire. When we retrace our lives with the wisdom afforded by the years, we sometimes realize how we have pushed for certain things and frustrated ourselves in our own efforts to make them happen, only to be left with ashes between our teeth and bitterness in our hearts. When we are so stubborn, God may allow us to learn our lesson by letting us have our own way and then reap the results.

Let us therefore make sure that we are yielded to God in all things. That we pray intelligently, importunately if need be, but that when all is said and done, we also leave things in his hands in the complete trust that he knows best.

Colossians 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;