When Heaven Stays too Silent
Do you feel your prayers miss Heaven, or that Heaven's ears are deaf? This is most common. It is the problem of persuading God.
Maybe the thought pops up - 'Heaven is avoiding me'?
Maybe you too imagine these scenes out of sight and in the skies:
First there was your prayer that dripped out from the angel's overful prayer goblet... (see Revelation 8:4)
then there was a prayer you shot heavenward, it likely collided with a meteor on the way, or....
finally that most desperate prayer you fired to the sky hitched a ride upon an overladen, wish burdened magic carpet unable to fly high...
BUT:
You DO know this - for some unseen reason your pleas upwards appear to bounce off earth's stratosphere.
None, NO - not one Christian has escaped the questions surrounding unanswered prayer, that wrestle with an apparently silent heaven.
Pain courses through the human spirit when Heaven's answers fail to flow through the mind.
Below are three prayer keys to ponder:
- It would be well with us, if we could learn early the futility of trying to obtain forbidden things by over persuading God. ~ A.W.Tozer
- God will never give you a competitor to Himself. It is not God's intention to provide a man with what could become a false refuge.
- Remember the prodigal son of Luke 15? He grabbed his inheritance early, then in an equally ill-considered haste lost it all. The son took what didn't belong to him before it should belong to him. This is the principle of premature receiving. That which is taken early is lost easily.
In considering the nature of prayer it is wise to note - God cannot be stampeded into meeting our desires ahead of an appointed season. Prematurity leads to loss and not gain. This God already knows. To answer such prayers in the affirmative today may well cause injury tomorrow.
Tozer's jarring thought may deliver little comfort, but sure does provide strong reason:
God is compelled to strip the man of everything that might serve as a false refuge, a secondary trust He must shut the man up to Himself only, or He must give him up to be a second-rate saint. ~ A.W. Tozer
Today's Soul Snippet:
"Church is for the sheep and not for the shepherd." ~ Michael Cartwright
Love this SoulSnack - PLEASE don't keep it to yourself? Would you like to subscribe for free SoulSnacks either weekly or each workday?
ENJOY another SoulSnack ~ The Battlefields of Unanswered Prayer