Question from a reader:
Part of this article suggests there is glory in suffering like Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb—not us! Jesus gave us His body and blood—not the other way around. If God makes a promise, He should keep it and when He doesn't, it shouldn't surprise anyone, including Jesus, that it creates unbelief. When a child is made a promise by his father or mother, and that promise is not kept, the child will come to distrust that parent—and rightly so. The fact is that there is no good explanation as to why God does not answer the prayers of His children.
Answer from Doreen Button, EPM staff:
I’m not sure which portion of the article speaks to “glory in suffering like Jesus.” Are you referring to “But when He answers no, we should recognize that He desires to demonstrate His greater glory”? If so, the point is that God knows every ripple effect, large and small, from every action we take. We can’t know even a tiny percentage of that effect, so we must “bend our knees and trust His sovereign grace” when things happen differently than we have requested.
And to address the rest of your comment, I agree that no good parent knowingly breaks a promise—a parent who does so deserves the label of untrustworthy. We, as God’s children, with our tiny and finite minds, sometimes don’t clearly understand what His promises are. We like to cherry-pick verses that look like promises and act like vending machines we can plug a prayer into and out pops the fulfillment of our current desire.
If our desire for answered prayer is stronger than our desire for God’s will, it’s unlikely God will grant our request—He utterly and always opposes idolatry (putting anything above Him in our affections or looking to anyone other than Him for our needs). Psalm 37:4 isn’t a promise; it’s a principle. If we get upset because “the desires of our heart” haven’t been met, that’s a big clue that our delight is in the smooth running of our own personal kingdom, and not in God Himself.
God always answers His children’s prayers; He does not always answer with a “yes.” Jesus got only a “yes” to the part of His prayer that His Father’s will be done. He didn’t get a “yes” to having that bitter cup of suffering removed. And I am forever grateful!
No good parent answers yes to all their children’s requests. But we delight in positively answering those requests which we know will do the most, ultimate good for our children. And so does God!
