Imagine this: In your small group the leader asks for prayer requests. He asks one of your members. “Joe, how is your brother that we have been praying for the last few months?”
Joe looks down at the floor and in a barely audible voice says, “You can stop praying for him… he died. Joe takes a deep breath and continues:
“The phone call came in the middle of the night. He was gone. I guess we were wasting our time when we prayed. I have to wonder why we even bother to pray when we already know how the story will end. We always seem to made funeral arrangements rather than arrangements to bring the person home. Why?”
That’s the question that every small group leader wakes up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night dreaming someone might ask in their small group.
I we have all felt what Joe is feeling. God can do anything, sometimes miraculously heals people. But many times our God does not heal our loved ones physical illness.
Like so many people, I have struggled in those times with the question “why”. If you are like me, sometimes my prayers can be “prescription” prayers.
It is as if we expect God to be a Holy Pharmacist. I prescribe, and God is to fill it – to answer when I ask for divine intervention, for healing, for release from emotional or physical pain. Often those prescriptions do not get filled as we have requested.
So here is my answer to the question. The answer is… I don’t have an answer. I know what you are thinking, “I’m going to start reading Marty’s blog. Marty will know.” I’ve got bad news, Marty doesn’t know either.
Nobody knows (not even Rick Warren) and I will tell you why. God is eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent (and a whole bunch of other words I can only write because my spell check is working). He is beyond our puny brain’s (no offense) ability to fully comprehend.
But we need to remember that because God is love, He always has our best interests at heart. Even if His answer is not what we want to hear, we must remember that we will never understand the complete will of God in every situation.
So, if you are wrestling with this big question of “why,” remember Proverbs 3:5:
‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.”
