EB Confused About Prayer
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I’m Confused About Prayer? by John W. Cowart Cowart Communications Jacksonville, Florida I’m Confused About Prayer? by John W. Cowart Previously published as: Why Don’t I get What I Pray For? InterVarsity Press, 1993 © 2005 by John W. Cowart www.cowart.info ISBN 1-4116-2434-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2005922523 Cover Art & Book Design by Donald Z. Cowart http://www.rdex.net Cowart Communications Jacksonville, Florida A Lulu Press Book For Gin When I prayed 35 years ago to get over loving you, I'm so glad that God did not answer my prayer. --- John There is one way of overcoming our ghostly enemies: spiritual mirth and a perpetual bearing of God in our minds. --- St. Anthony This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, The Lord who formed it and established it -- The Lord is His name: Call to me And I will answer you And tell you Great and unsearchable things You do not know. --- Jeremiah 33: 2-3 Table Of Contents INTRODUCTION WHY DON'T I GET WHAT I PRAY FOR?...............1 CHAPTER TWO MULES, OXEN AND SKUNKS...........................19 CHAPTER THREE Does God Have The Clout To Do What We Ask? 33 CHAPTER FIVE PRAYER: WHAT IT AIN'T PRAYER: WHAT IT IS......................................56 CHAPTER SIX SWEET PRAYERS TO AN ANGRY GOD...............71 CHAPTER SEVEN MAYBE GOD JUST DOESN'T CARE....................81 CHAPTER EIGHT WHAT HAVE I DONE THAT'S SO AWFUL?.........99 CHAPTER NINE WHAT AM I DOING NOW THAT'S SO AWFUL?.114 CHAPTER TEN MOUNTAIN GET OUT OF MY WAY! I GOT FAITH -- SORT OF...............................129 CHAPTER ELEVEN CONFLICTING PRAYERS................................143 CHAPTER TWELVE WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?..............................156 CHAPTER THIRTEEN MY PRAYER VS GOD'S WILL..........................171 CHAPTER FOURTEEN HURRY UP AND WAITE.................................183 CHAPTER FIFTEEN HEARING A LITTLE VOICE.............................197 CHAPTER SIXTEEN UNANSWERED PRAYER AND THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD........................206 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN PERFECT PRAYER........................................219 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................226 INTRODUCTION WHY DON'T I GET WHAT I PRAY FOR? f a fisherman, who believes God answers Iprayer, goes fishing early one morning and prays real hard all day to catch a fish, but he does not even get a nibble -- what does that mean? Once, while interviewing some children for a newspaper article on kids' views of God, I posed this question to the group. The question did not faze the 7-year-old theologians. “It's because the fish prayed harder,” answered one little girl blithely. Even children know some prayer “works” immediately; some doesn't. One Saturday morning recently, my son Donald, who was 17, prayed for a new computer. Within two hours, a man we hardly knew came to our door with several big boxes filled with computer, monitor, printer, mouse and loads of software -- a free gift for Donald! That same morning, I once again had prayed for something I've been praying for every day over the past 13 years -- Zilch. I have prayed for scads of things without hearing so much as a whisper from heaven. I am the World's Foremost Authority on unanswered prayer. 1 I’m Confused About Prayer? Oddly enough, other Christians contend for my title; it seems that many -- are you among them? -- pray for things they often don't get. Why, when a prayer is answered, it's so unusual that we stand up in church and testify! Jets And Sailing Ships Sometimes I wish I could think about prayer in terms of moving from point A to points B, C, D and E in logical order to arrive at a neat conclusion. In that case, I could write a book called Five Easy Steps For Getting Prayers Answered. But prayer does not work that way for me. When I think that one of my prayers is not answered, I hurt. The lack of an answer confuses me. I feel lost and bewildered. I get scared. I want spiritual things to go from point A to point E, easy as one, two, three -- but they don't. Sometimes prayer seems to be a journey through strange and frightening terrain rather than an arrival. But, taken as a whole, the journey resembles a vacation excursion with fun, laughter, interesting companions, beautiful vistas and shady rest stops more than it resembles trudging through a desert. Here's what I mean: On TV during the Iraq war, I saw jet pilots fly 500 miles to a particular place and practically knock on the front door of a specific building... Knock. Knock. Who's There? Ka. Ka, who? 2 Why Don’t I Get What I Pray For? Ka-Boom! About the time the war was going on, I was reading the diary of Christopher Columbus. In those pages, I saw that the admiral pointed his ship toward where he thought land might be and then blundered all over the ocean till he arrived at a destination. I noticed that both the jet pilot and the sailing ship captain did eventually get to where they needed to be. In thinking, I'm much closer to the old time sailor than to the jet pilot, so please bear with me if my book seems at times to drift off course when it comes to prayer. I nose into backwaters and investigate tiny inlets and sometimes I do get stuck on sandbars that more logical, hi-tech Christians may sail right on past -- but I often see footprints on those sandbars. I'm not the first Christian to run aground here. And still others who follow may get stuck in these odd places too, so I hope this book will act as a shoal marker if nothing else. Our Questions Arise From Pain Thinking about the question “Why doesn't God answer my prayer?” is not an idle intellectual exercise. The people I've heard ask this question have been people in pain, people who were confused, people who even felt betrayed by God, people who find that they can't live by bumper- sticker slogans promising easy answers... people who have felt the same as me. As I write this book, I'm aware of the pain raised by the questions I examine. And I'm aware 3 I’m Confused About Prayer? that I have no easy answers to present. I'm no jet pilot; I don't think my book will get you to a specific door in a particular building with a spiritual bang... but I hope that by thinking through the question of unanswered prayers together, you and I will at least get within sight of land... and from there we'll see a lighthouse and even find a safe harbor. Many Christians question why prayer only sometimes works as we expect it to. Is something wrong with my faith, my sins, my breath? This book will consider such questions. We will look at unanswered prayer from three interwoven perspectives: biblical, historical and personal. Among the things the book will discuss are: Is anybody out there to hear our prayers? Where is God when I want him? Is God too weak to perform what I ask? Does God care enough to answer? What sin have I committed that makes him too mad to answer? Of course the big question is “Has Cowart bit off more than he can chew in addressing such a deep subject”? Maybe so; after all, I have been praying about this book for a long time. We Are Not Alone When We Question. Ancient tradition says that the apostle John prayed so much that calluses grew on his knees. My name is John and I'm a Christian too, but no calluses grow on my knees. My calluses are elsewhere; as a professional writer, I sit and type 4 Why Don’t I Get What I Pray For? a lot, so naturally my calluses are on my ...fingers. But I do pray. Sometimes, I pray silently or out loud right off the top of my head. Sometimes, I read my prayers from a book. Sometimes, I pray continuously for hours on end. Usually, I lead my family in prayer after supper each night -- unless there's something good on tv. Occasionally, I enjoy a private devotional quiet time every single day -- till the mood leaves me. Every once in a while, I get peeved at God and refuse to pray at all for weeks at a time. Am I the only Christian in town who follows such an erratic pattern of prayer? Or am I typical? Occasionally, I do get exactly what I pray for. Most of the time, I don't. Why not? That question bothers me. It has bothered many other Christians I've known too. Madge prayed to keep her breast. She lost it to cancer. Joan prayed for her son to live. He died. Bill and Petula prayed to become a foreign missionaries; every mission board they applied to turned down their application. St. Paul prayed for God to remove his thorn in the flesh; it stayed. 5 I’m Confused About Prayer? Tina prayed for Dick to marry her. At the same time, Dick was praying about marrying Jean, and Jean was praying for Martin to marry her. No body in that little Christian prayer circle got what they prayed for! Everyone of these Christians were decent, up- right people. Every one of their prayers was for something good, wholesome and honorable. None of their prayers seems at odds with Holy Scripture. In some of these cases, two or three of us did agree to make the request in Jesus' name and we did ask for God's will to be done.