[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 11/Feb/2024]
A close relative of mine is going through a very difficult time. It has involved a lot of prayer and fasting on their part and growing despondency as the situation did not appear to be getting any better. There were times when doubts and confusion set in and she asked “does God not care? Surely He sees what I am going through…”.
She recently sent me a message saying that she had a prompting to pray and after an hour of doing this, she said she ended up telling God that she felt He wasn’t answering her prayers. She then got a phone call. It was from her daughter. She had been on public transport in Nigeria, heading home, when it became clear that the mini-bus driver and a couple of other passengers were up to no good. Kidnapping is rife in parts of the country, and she feared the worst. They then got caught up in a traffic jam and she managed to persuade them to drop her, saying she needed to deliver medication to an ailing relative. It turned out that she was within minutes of her house, and she ran the remaining distance and got home safely. When my sister heard this, she said “God, I was accusing you of not answering my prayers. I had no idea that you were answering the most important ones”.
You may be going through a testing period at the moment, and it might seem that your prayers are hitting a brick wall and can’t get through. I would like to reassure you that God may not grant our wants, but He will meet all our needs.
Christ’s death on the cross was for people like me, people who did not realise that what they needed the most was a way to be reconciled with God, people who did not realise what it would cost Him to make this happen.
Paul the apostle, tries to bring things home to us when in his letter to the Romans, he says about God, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things”.[1] In essence, if God would do that for you, what can there be that you need that He won’t provide for you?
So, however difficult things may seem, don’t stop praying. God’s got your back.
I often quote from songs in my articles in ‘Yours’, and the one that comes to mind are lines from ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’,[2] which say:
Oh what peace we often forfeit,
Oh what needless pains we bear,
All because we do not carry,
Everything to God in prayer.
Resources:
[1] Romans 8 v32 [NIVUK]
[2] Joseph Scriven (1855)
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Last week’s reflection: The God Who Sees by Dennis Ginter
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola