A child's prayer unanswered? - Could there be a reason.. Posted: Mar 11th, 2018 - 8:02 pm In Reply to: Ask and it will be given? - Not in my case
When I was about 6 or 7 years of age, I prayed to God to please help my dad stop drinking. I was a nervous wreck of a kid because of so much conflict in the house between my parents with all that going on around me. Years passed, along with a whole lot of misery because my dad just did not want to quit drinking, no matter what it was doing to his family and his health. But, I didn't blame God, though I did wonder through the years why a child's prayer of that nature would go unanswered. It took a while for me to finally understand why... My dad was a work in progress, as we all are. I believe that we all come to our own personal crossroads in life when we really have to make the choice about which road to take. God won't make that personal choice for us - He's given us all free will. Thankfully, the choice my dad made about 15 years later (from the time I prayed for him as a child) was to follow Christ. He never had the desire to drink again from that moment on. It was a miracle to see this man transform before my very eyes and furthermore to know that he was sharing his story with many of his once drinking buddies and leading them also to Christ. I believe God worked through him to reach others who needed to hear the good news of redemption from someone who had once been in their shoes.
So I now understand that if God had intervened back when I was a child in answer to my prayer, then perhaps there never would have been this story to tell today. I don't believe in coincidence. I know that the people my dad witnessed to were meant to hear his story at precisely the time and precisely the place they crossed paths so that they could be given the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation. Many did joyfully. For that I am so very thankful and can live with the not so happy childhood because I now see the greater good that came of those difficult years prior. I suppose I could have held a lifetime grudge against God for not answering my prayer for my dad when I was a child and gone on instead to believe that God only answers other people's prayers and so why even pray? But that's just not where I ever wanted to be in my thinking - it seemed like just too empty a place to be. A lot rides on the decisions we make in life. I believe if we harbor resentment against God or feel rejected by Him and then decide to just exclude Him from our lives and go it alone, then there will be no sense of purpose, no peace, no comfort, no joy, no hope. This journey is all about God's love and the awesome plan of life He has in place for all of us.
If you think your prayers are going unanswered, maybe it's just for a time. It could be something awesome is being worked out behind the scenes surrounding your life or in the people you care deeply about and it's all still moving forward into place, or maybe it's you who is the work in progress? Maybe He's waiting for you to be spiritually prepared to receive the blessing of your prayers answered so that you will then go and tell others about what He has done for you...
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