Many times when we are undergoing some sort of trials or suffering, physically, mentally, spiritually or financially, due to any reason, when we pray, no answers are forthcoming. The natural reaction or the thoughts start about there being some shortcoming in our prayers or relationship with God. We start fasting prayers and after a while, ask others also to pray for us. When nothing changes visibly, the feelings of being neglected and ignored by everyone including God also start affecting us. But the love of God and His care is definitely constant and we somehow feel being out of that.
Why do doubts fill our minds? The first question that the serpent asked Eve was, ‘Has God indeed said’ (Genesis 3:1-3). This was to confuse her thought process to deny proper recollection of what she had heard from Adam about the prohibition from God. As a result, she added to God’s command, the words, ‘nor shall you touch it, lest you die’. There was no doubt about death due to disobedience, for God had clearly said, ‘you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:17). As per Jewish legend, the snake pushed the woman into the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for he was aware of the truth. He could then persuade her to eat, for she was still alive after touching the Tree.
The most common way that the devil uses against a believer is by creating a parallel narrative about faith and God’s Word. We commonly hear the proverb, ‘God helps those who help themselves’, and presume this to be from the Scripture, but it is not true. We are covered by grace and not by works and our efforts aligned to God’s Word and will, bear fruit. God speaks to us through various means and one of them is a vision. When we see this vision and it is aligned to God’s Word also, we start praying and preparing for the fulfilment of that. Also, we submit our plans to God, seeking His approval and then the guidance, strength and resources to execute that. Along the way we keep praying for the success of the efforts.
Anything that we do will always have an effect on our own and others’ lives. The greater the impact on others, the more is the likelihood of hindrances. Prophet Jeremiah declared the coming judgement on the people of Judah but the false prophets countered him with their lies. After their defeat and captivity, Jeremiah wrote to those in Babylon, ‘thus says the LORD God: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place’ (Jeremiah 29:10). Prophet Daniel calculated the period of exile of the Israelites in Babylon for the seventy years as prophesied and started a fasting prayer for twenty-one days, for its fulfilment of the promise at the decreed right time.
Angel Gabriel came to him and said, ‘Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words’ (Daniel 10:12-13). And then he told him about the reason for the delay, ‘But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael; one of the chief princes came to help me’. God hears and answers our prayers immediately, but the delays are from the devil and certain other reasons. Apostle Paul has identified our opposition to be from, ‘spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6:12). The devil has organised his forces with commanders at various levels in the world, with a specific head for each country. The ‘prince of Persia’ is the demonic head over that country and opposed Gabriel in the spiritual realm from bringing the answer to Daniel.
Our prayers are heard by a loving God but the delay in the answer reaching us may be due to the forces of darkness. We, like the disciples, think that God is sleeping in the boat, while we are facing the storms, for He is always with us (Mark 4:38). In our joys and our sorrows, God’s presence is constant. We were created to be spiritual beings while dominating the physical and the material world and expanding the boundaries of our influence. However, the knowledge of ‘good and evil’, the experiential knowledge has changed the status. Now, we desire to feel everything and with that, try to dominate and influence the heavenly and the spiritual realm.
The Samaritan woman is perceived to be living in sin with the sixth husband, after being separated from the first five (John 4:17-24). Late Dr Gopal Singh had termed her as a saint who had already controlled the five vices of sex, greed, anger, attachment/love and ego. And then, she was trying to control time also, the sixth husband, and was shown the right way by the Lord. She was told, ‘God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth’. The life-giving spirit of a man is the only way to communicate with the spiritual. We are to be governed by the God ordained rules and Lord Jesus is the only one, who as Man, could operate above these. We submit to God and in faith seek answers to our prayers. The answer is received in the spirit and the soul, the centre of our feelings and desires, gets it later.
Apostle Peter, while walking on water in the storm, was influenced by the circumstances and went under. Lord Jesus ‘immediately reached’ and rescued him to say, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ (Matthew 14:31). God’s love could not be expressed in a mightier way, as through the sacrifice of His Beloved Son on the cross. If we still look for a proof of His love, what answer can we expect from God? God has an overall picture and wants us to be prepared for the answer to our prayers, lest we are filled with pride.
Why does God let us fall into such situations, where even reaching out to Him becomes difficult? When we look back in our lives, we rejoice in the fact of being chosen by God and the transformation of our lives with that. We have been given four major blessings by the Saviour Lord. This is over and above our salvation through forgiveness of sins and eternal life in His presence in heaven, after this life. First, His authority, ‘Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you’ (Luke 10:19). Second, His presence in the indwelling Holy Spirit and the promise, ‘I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you’ (John 14:17-18). Third, His promise, ‘whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father be glorified in the Son’ (John 14:13. Forth, His provision and protection. As our Good Shepherd, He laid down His own life to free us from the clutches of sin and the devil to bless us to live abundantly (John 10:10-11).
King David could confidently declare, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want’ (Psalm 23:1). He is our Provider of all spiritual, material and physical needs so that we suffer no lack. God the Father testified about His love for His Son to say, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:16-17). God, the Holy Spirit descended on Him ‘like a dove and alighting upon Him’. But immediately after this the Saviour ‘was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’ (Matthew 4:1). Surely, The Father never doubted the ability of His son to face the devil, nor fall prey to his lies. Lord Jesus was and is fully God and came on earth to be born as fully Human after leaving His Godly glory in heaven. The Father wanted to not only let His Son experience the temptation but also for the devil to face the might of a sinless Man filled with the glory of the Second Adam.
In like manner, Lord Jesus also tested His disciples at certain occasions – Multitudes followed Him to learn from Hm, the Great Teacher, for healing and for relief from demonic oppression. In the wilderness with around five thousand families, the disciples sought the Lord to send them away to go to the villages to find something to eat (John 6:5-12). But He tested Philip by asking him to find bread for such a large crowd, ‘for He Himself knew what He would do’. God not only knows everything in advance but is in total control and turns every situation into the right way as per His overall plan.
God heard the cry of the Israelites, suffering from the oppression of Egyptian slavery (Exodus 3:7). Moses was sent to lead them out but his first attempt to convince Pharaoh, resulted in stoppage of the straw to the people to make bricks, thus adding to their labour (Exodus 5:1-23). When they complained to Moses and Aaron, ‘Moses returned to the LORD and said, ‘Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people?’ Moses blamed God and said, ‘since I have come to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all’. The LORD God had told Abraham about the afflictions of his people ‘for four hundred years’ (Genesis 15:13-14). But with that the added word was, ‘And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterword they shall come out with great possessions’
God desires to give us the best but many times the chains of evil that bind us, create hurdles in the way. The ten plagues that were unleashed by God on the Egyptians, completely destroyed their economy, farm produce, army and their belief in their gods. We tend to focus on the visible, for the spiritual realm is hidden from our eyes, and start complaining. Saul was touched by Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). To restore his sight Ananias was commanded by the Lord to go to him Seeing his fear, the Lord told him, ‘he (Saul) is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel’. He became the great Apostle Paul, the writer of half of the New Testament and has touched millions of souls since then But the Lord had also decreed, ‘I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake’. He suffered greatly, but still, he could say, ‘for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21).
We want the best from God but when we get pricked by the thorn while plucking the rose from the bush, we cry big tears. A loving Father gives the best but many times the effect of our past brings some pain with it.
Facing adversity in the power of God – Lord Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters Matha and Mary of Bethany. But when he was sick and he died, Lord Jesus delayed His coming, despite the message of his sickness being received by Him – (John 11:5-32). When He reached Bethany, first Martha and then Mary came and said exactly the same words, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died’. Martha complained but Mary ‘saw Him, she fell down at His feet’, for she worshipped first and then spoke. Lord Jesus wanted to perform a great miracle, for nobody had ever been raised from the dead after four days. As per Jewish belief, the soul of a dead person hovers near the body for three days, hoping for a chance to enter again. On the fourth day, the soul departs and only God could have raised him back to life. It was because of this that the ‘chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also’ (John 12:10). In our ignorance we complain, but the Lord sees the end from the beginning.
Job had no idea about the reason for his suffering for he must have looked back over his entire life to see any wrong that he might have committed knowingly or otherwise. His three friends also blamed him only, for some hidden and unconfessed sin. Nobody could understand that there could be suffering without a reason. But Job, instead of asking God for relief from that, kept on seeking an answer to his questions. He could finally say, ‘He knows the way I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold’ (Job 23:10). He could even encourage his wife to say, ‘Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?’ (Job 2:10).
The Saviour Lord had never suffered separation from God, the Father, and His prayer in Gethsemane Park was to avoid that pain. On the cross, when the evil darkness of the sins of all humanity were poured out on Jesus, He did not complain. His cry was to the just God from His Servant, ‘Why have You forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46). There was no reason for Him to suffer for me and you and all others, but God, the righteous judge made His face that and then, had to turn His face away from the obedient Son, whom He loved. The psalmist conveys God’s command, ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10). This stillness is of the mind, heart and soul with focus on God above and not on the worldly things.
God’s daily visits in the Eden Garden, the Scriptures, messages from the Prophets and finally in His Son were all aimed at helping mankind to know Him. Once we make the effort, the Holy Spirit starts teaching and revealing the truth to us. With that we get filled with hope and assurance that God loves us and means the best for us and is always with us. Then like Apostle Peter, we also realise that God who has chosen and called us, and, ‘after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast’. Then the lies of the devil become clear to us and doubts start vanishing, helping us to thank God in all circumstances, for this is His will for us.
Lord Jesus commanded us to cast our cares and heavy burdens on Him. Instead, we start telling everyone else, when all this neither affects them in any way, nor do they care and many become inwardly happy. However, when we realise this truth and express gratitude to God for all His blessings, miraculous things start happening in our lives. God keeps an eye on every aspect of our lives and nothing is hidden from Him!
