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When Prayers Go Unanswered
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As a Christian, I have had the blessing of seeing many prayers answered. Prayers for healing for friends and family, for restoration, for financial security, for wisdom and so many other things. I know I have seen things that can only be described as miracles happen in the lives of others as a direct result of prayer. It is integral to my faith to pray for myself and others in all kinds of situations. When I pray, I have the confidence found in specific Scripture that God will hear and answer my prayer.
So what happens when those prayers closest to the heart go unanswered? On Mothers' Day, my father passed away. He was only 63 years old. Over the past several months, I have watched as emphysema wrung the breath from his lungs and the life from his body. His skin hung from his skeletal frame, blotched purple from the prednizone and flaking in chunks from his feet. His last days were a blur of morphine and three hour stretches on the toilet because his system was too stressed, too fatigued to eliminate properly. I experienced not only the deep ache of watching him suffer, but something akin to horror as my son lifted him from the bed to help change his diaper the day before my daddy died. All the while I found myself praying for everything from a miracle, to any release for my suffering parent.
If there is nothing when we pass from this life, then at least his death was cessation of his struggle. For that reason alone, I know I will eventually come to a place of peace about my loss. But faith is a harder question. You see, my dad was a Jehovah's Witness and I am a nondenominational Christian. For the two of us, eternity is fundamentally different and the rules don't dovetail into that usual mix of sorrow tempered with hope. He died without converting me. He died without me knowing if he accepted Christ as his Savior. Like a warning shot across the prow of my ship - the circumstances of my earthly fathers passing leaves me shaken regarding my Heavenly Father. And there is absolutely nothing I can do to know the truth....
So what do you do when your prayers go unanswered? Do you get angry at God? Do you pray more? Do you give up? Do you vacillate between all three? Or do you do what Christians are encouraged to do? Do you grab your Bible and read it? Do you turn to friends who will speak peace and life into your situation? So many questions saturated with this ache now mill in my mind.
Peace.
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