The Problem with Answered Prayer

Have you considered that answered prayers may be your problem?

I was grousing to God about my trials the other day and he answered me through a classic devotional I read every morning called “Streams in the Desert.” It was compiled by a missionary’s wife in the early part of the last century as her husband lay dying for seven years. Perhaps this excerpt will speak to your situation as well: (See below)
We do not know what we ought to pray for…” (Romans 8:26)

Much that bothers us in our Christian experience are really answers to prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who bug us the most, "because...suffering produces perseverance" (Romans 5:3).

We pray for unselfishness and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking of others and giving up our lives for them (Philippians 2: 3-18)

We pray for strength and humility, and "a messenger of Satan" (2 Corinthians 12:7) is sent to torment us.

Or we are asked to do something we think is beneath us, or we are unjustly accused, and no one listens to our defense. We then lie on the ground pleading with God to remove that thorn. But he says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (1 Corinthians 12:9)

We pray, "Increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5) and money disappears, our kids get sick or disobedient, or some unknown trial comes along where we must exercise faith like never before.

We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to be harsh or irritable.

We pray for quietness and immediately, every nerve is tested to the limit so that we may learn that the only peace we have in in Jesus (John 14:27).

We pray to be more loving and God sends us obnoxious, irritating people, letting them say unkind things that cut to the heart. He does this because "love is patient, love is kind...it is not rude...it is not easily angered...It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 7-8)

Yes, we pray to be like Jesus and God's answer is: "I have tested you in the fiery furnace of affliction" (Isaiah 48:10); "Will your courage endure or your hands be strong?" (Ezekiel 22:14); "Can you drink the cup?" (Matthew 20:22)

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance and every trial, as straight from the hands of a loving Father, and that every one of our problems is lovingly and divinely appointed by Him. (
Here's the latest image of my daughter with her beau, Zach. Ain't they purdy? Everyone asks how are my girls. Thanks to your prayers, they are doing well!!! (And yes, I'm tired of waiting, if you know what I mean....)
This informative and fun teaching from Matthew 6 will encourage you to keep praying and not give up! Never give up! Never, never, never give up praying!

Corrie ten Boom: "Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A person is powerful on their knees."

John Wesley: “Prayer is where the action is."
The Praying Church
By Charles Spurgeon

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray. (Luke 18:1)

Jesus has sent His Church into the world on the same errand upon which He Himself came, and this mission includes intercession. What if I say that the Church is the world's priest? Creation is dumb, but the Church finds a mouth for it. It is the Church's high privilege to pray with acceptance. The door of grace is always open for her petitions, and they never return empty-handed. The curtain was torn for her; the blood was sprinkled upon the altar for her; God constantly invites her to bring her requests. Will she refuse the privilege that angels might envy? Is she not the bride of Christ? Can she not approach her King at any hour? Will she allow the precious privilege to be unused?

The Church always needs to pray. There are always some among her who are declining or falling into open sin. There are lambs to be prayed for, that they may be carried in Christ's bosom; the strong, lest they grow presumptuous; and the weak, lest they become despairing. If we kept up prayer-meetings twenty-four hours a day all the days in the year, we might never be without a special subject for supplication.

Is there ever a time when no one is sick or poor or afflicted or wavering? Is there ever a time when we do not seek the conversion of relatives, the reclaiming of backsliders, or the salvation of the lost? With congregations constantly gathering, with ministers always preaching, with millions of sinners lying dead in trespasses and sins—in a country over which the darkness of religious formalism is certainly descending—in a world full of idols, cruelties, devils—if the Church does not pray, how will she excuse her neglect of the commission of her loving Lord? Let the Church be constant in supplication; let every private believer give himself to the ministry of prayer. (From his devotional, “Morning and Evening”)
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