Stones for Supper

"Prayer," said Charles Spurgeon, "is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence."

If we're honest, though, most of us can think of times when we prayed and God didn't appear to exercise his muscles at all. A few years ago a TV movie called "Pray TV" portrayed a dishonest, egocentric television evangelist. To make the movie realistic, the producers flashed a fictitious toll-free 800 phone number on the screen and told viewers to call if they had prayer requests to share. The next day, AT & T reported that 15,000 people called the fictitious number, thinking it was real! How disheartening it must have been to call with a prayer request, only to hear a recorded message saying, "We're sorry, your call cannot be completed. This is not a working number."

Has there ever been a time when you dialed Heaven but nobody answered the phone? Did you pray for something earnestly and persistently — something you genuinely believed to be within God's will — but things didn't turn out the way you hoped? Have you ever wondered whether God pays attention to your cries?

Speaking about prayer, C. S. Lewis observed, "We can bear to be refused, but not to be ignored."

If prayer has ever left you feeling disappointed, you're in good company. Moses pleaded with the Lord to allow him to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land, but God said, "No, that is enough. Do not speak to me anymore about this matter" (Deuteronomy 3:23-26). Amid terrible suffering, Job searched for the Lord in every direction — east, west, north, and south — but could catch no glimpse of God (Job 23:8, 9).

Mary and Martha sent word that their brother Lazarus was sick, but Jesus delayed coming to their aid, and when he finally arrived Martha complained, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21). Three times the apostle Paul begged the Lord to remove his "thorn in the flesh," but the thorn remained (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Good Gifts

How does all of this fit with the analogy Jesus presented in his Sermon on the Mount? "Which of you," Jesus asked, "if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:9-11).

Jesus' illustration teaches us several important truths about prayer.

Prayer springs from a family-style relationship with God. Prayer isn't rubbing Aladdin's lamp and making a wish. It's not inserting coins into a heavenly vending machine and ordering what we want. It's not spiritual manipulation, twisting the arm of a reluctant deity. It's a child conversing with a caring and capable Father. Even when we feel that God isn't listening, he hears and he cares.

God may not always give us exactly what we request, but he will not mock us for asking. A loving dad doesn't give his children stone stew and snake soup for supper, and neither does God. Our heavenly Father wants what is best for his children, and he will give us good gifts whether his answer is "yes," "no," "wait," or simply "I'm here."

God's gifts are better "than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). Moses didn't enter the Promised Land, but he still got to see it, and then he passed into a far greater place when he died. Eventually the Lord made Job twice as prosperous as he had been before. When the time was right, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. And while Paul's thorn in the flesh remained, the Lord told him, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

There's always a bit of mystery and unpredictability about a personal relationship. Could it be that having a relationship with God based on love and trust is even better than getting the things we want? Sometimes, as P. T. Forsyth wrote, "we do not see the answer, but we trust the Answerer."