What if God Denies Your Request?

Prayer is the vehicle God has given us to make our requests known and to receive from Him. Jesus teaches that if we ask, we will receive. In James’ epistle, the Bible says we have not because we ask not. A noteworthy truth about this is that we don’t always know the perfect will of God concerning what we are praying about. So what if God denies your request? That is, suppose when you pray, God says no?

In his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul the apostle talks about this messenger of Satan he had to contend with. The great apostle said he prayed to God three times that He would remove it from him. I am sure that if any of us were under the same kind of attack from the enemy we too would pray to God for deliverance. Furthermore, we would be confident God would oblige. On the surface, this seems like a straightforward case.

But God denied Paul’s request. Instead, He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9a). What God is saying here is that it is not His will to remove every load and test from our lives. Human nature is for us to pray for Him to remove every such burden, and we are never wrong to pray that way. But sometimes God suffers us to go through a test that is beyond our strength so that in our weakness we can experience His strength.

Anyway, when God so responded to Paul, he in turn said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (verse 9b).

Say what? Most gladly? Let me get this straight. Paul made a serious request to God. The Lord denied Paul’s specific request. In effect, God said no. And Paul was not disappointed but glad. Hum.

What is the lesson for us? It is that when we pray, we must be willing to subject our will to God’s perfect plan for our lives. Until we develop the habit of coming before the Lord in prayer with this kind of disposition, we have a ways to go in learning how to pray. Sometimes, God does not answer our prayers the way we want Him to, even when we pray in accordance with His Word. He gets the final say. We are on a journey with Him, and He wants us to experience Him.

Twenty-one years ago, I began pastoring a church. I really thought I was going to take the world by storm through that ministry, but it didn’t turn out that way. I pastored the church for nine years, and most of the time was a serious struggle. About five years into that pastorate, things got really bad on several fronts. I diligently prayed and sought the face of God for a turnaround. The truth is, the going was tough the entire nine years I was at that church.

I never saw the realization of my requests to God, regarding that church. What I can boldly say, however, is that God didn’t build that congregation the way I wanted Him to, but He certainly did build this preacher better than I could ever have imagined. I will give absolutely nothing for how I grew spiritually in the process. It never would have happened had I not been tested as I was. God won’t always grant our request, but for us He always knows what’s best.

Copyright © 2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Fathers as Spiritual Leaders (Father's Day Message)

Since I am posting this message on Father’s Day, what I will talk about is slanted toward the fathers out there, but it should interest the whole family. You see, in a family, the actions of one person can affect the entire family. I am keenly aware of the fact that as a father, my actions can affect my whole family—in ways that are good or bad. Furthermore, I believe that our role as the spiritual leaders at home is perhaps our most important role as Christian fathers.

In Ephesians 6:4, God says: “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (KJV). The instructions here are twofold. First, God tells us to not provoke our children to wrath. As fathers, we have a lot of power to influence the prevailing climate in our home. Last week, for instance, I visited a home in which all the children despised their dad. The wife felt the same way about him. Though he still lived with his family, tension in the home was always there. I believe that if he could do things over and differently, he would gladly do so.

Secondly, fathers are to bring up their children in the training and instruction of the Lord. In other words, we must raise our children in the nurturing ways of God. Think about it. There is no one who knows more about nurturing children than God does. He has more children than anyone else does. And each of them is a unique case. I know; this is huge but fathers, God is asking us to emulate His ways in parenting our children.

Let me point out that Paul’s letter was written to the Christians at Ephesus, so he is talking to Christian fathers. The reason these instructions are so practical is because all Christian fathers have firsthand knowledge of God’s nurturing ways. He has been patient with us when we needed Him to be; firm when we needed Him to be; forgiving when we need Him to be; encouraging when we needed Him to be, etc. And He is asking us, excuse me, commanding us to model His ways in rearing our children.

Fathers, let’s be careful to not develop a convenient case of Alzheimer’s in raising our children. Let me explain. Remember those times when you fought God, and it took Him years to bring you to spiritual maturity in a particular area in your life? Not because He was powerless, but because of His method of parenting.

Well now, God has blessed you with a child who is just as you were when you were a young Christian, and you are finding out that you were good at dishing it out (to God), but you can’t take it. You are at your wits’ end because that challenging teen won’t get with the program, and you just want to whip this kid into shape so you can move on with your life. Yeah, like you don’t remember what God had to endure in bringing you along. Similarly, you must not give up, but keep nurturing that child in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Fathers, it is vitally important that we step up to the plate and embrace the calling that God has placed upon us as spiritual leaders at home. It’s a big task. Actually, it’s bigger than us. But our heavenly and loving Father has nurtured us to this point, and He’s the kind of Parent who helps His children succeed in every challenge—even that of parenting. Godspeed.

Copyright © 2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Life is to be Lived, Not Just Passed Through

Life can be deceiving because what the Bible refers to as death, people who don’t know Christ regard as life, and vice versa. When I was a teen, my concept of Christianity was that God just wanted to take all the fun out of life. I got this perverted view from a couple of girls in my class who were part of the holiness movement. They wore long dresses, and no make up or jewelry. And one of them was always preaching to me the gospel of do’s and don’ts, as if anything that was fun should be shunned as sin or unacceptable to God. Oftentimes, she invited me to church, but I avoided her like the plague. Of course, that was hard to do since we attended class together each day.

Once I gave my life to Christ and came to know the truth, it revolutionized my whole concept of life. True life is much more than things such as partying, gratification of the flesh, and materialism.

As I write this blog, I am in the state of Massachusetts for a week of vacation. I drove here from my home in Georgia. We divided the 1000 mile trip into two days, stopping in Washington, D. C., where I have a son in college. We arrived at the campus about 11:00 p.m. due to a serious accident and long traffic delays on the interstate. As we arrived at the campus and made our way to my son’s dorm, we saw lots of the students walking around. Several of the girls were dressed like young hookers. The whole scene on and around the campus was pretty wild. Yes, as a parent of a student there, what I saw concerned me. As it was with me when I was the age of these students, this is their concept of life.

Jesus came to give us true life. “The thief cometh not; but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” He said (John 10:10). This life is twofold: life, and life more abundantly. Everybody who has become born again has true life because at that instant, the person has passed from death to life. But God also wants us to experience abundant living through a faith-filled life that revolutionizes every aspect of our life and how we see everything. “Impossible, can’t do, too hard,” etc., do not belong in our vocabulary. We can do all things through Christ. Christians who fail to live this faith-driven life are not living the life God has given them.

In the verse above, Jesus said that the enemy comes to kill, to steal, and destroy. Right now, our nation is faced with so many huge challenges, it is as if the devil wants to kill the very soul of this nation. I still stand in awe of the environmental disaster currently occurring with the oil leak into the Gulf. Not that I believe this to be the work of the devil. But he can and often does exploit tragedies like these to wreak havoc in the lives of as many people as he can. But hear ye the words of the Lord. Jesus acknowledged the work of the enemy in the same breath in which He said He came to give us life, and life more abundantly. He is telling us that in Him, we can live and experience abundant life in spite of the works of the devil, in spite of the gloom and doom of this world. So let us look up and live.

Copyright © 2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Praying With Confidence

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4, NIV). I echo the sentiment of the psalmist. It blows my mind that you and I can communicate with the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, and that He is mindful of our prayers. Moreover, prayer was His idea, not ours. He was so interested in having conversation with us, that He came up with this thing called prayer so we could communicate with Him!

When we pray, we should not just go through the motions and hope something happens, but we should pray with confidence, knowing that we have connected with God and that He will grant us our requests. Accordingly, John was inspired to write these words: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15, KJV).

This passage reveals that in order for us to be confident that God hears us, we must pray according to His will. The best and most reliable resource we have for knowing His will is the Bible. Hence, I don’t believe we can pray effectively when we are ignorant of the Bible. Note, I did not say we can’t pray when we are ignorant of the Bible, but we won’t be effective in our prayer life when that is the case. For instance, I have heard believers pray publicly for things that go counter to the will of God as revealed in Scripture.

Also, the passage above says that if we know God hears us, we know that we have what we asked for. Of course, there is some duration of time between when we ask God for something and when we receive from Him. In fact, it can be a very long time. But according to this passage, we don’t have to wait until we actually receive from God to call it a done deal; rather, it is as good as done as soon as we have prayed according to His will. That’s the kind of confidence we should have in prayer.

The above passage should be important to us because it has to do with us asking God for something, and in turn receiving from Him. In other words, prayer is the vehicle that God has given us for making our requests known to Him. He knew that in this sin cursed world we would have needs, so He has provided us a way to receive from Him whatever it is that we need.

But did you know that it’s possible for us to live lives that are obedient to God and still miss out on receiving from Him? One reason is that we fail to pray. The Bible says we have not because we ask not (James 4:2). Another reason is that we pray but we are wishy-washy in our prayers: “Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:7). I conclude, then, that to be confident that we will receive from God, we must live in obedience to Him, be committed to prayer, and pray according to His will.

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.

Youths Today Need Faith in God

I believe most people would agree that the current economy is very tough. It is particularly difficult on young adults entering the workforce, and trying to make it on their own. The good jobs are few and far between. Having a good education and a marketable skill don’t assure young adults that they will find their dream job. This subject is dear to my heart. My youngest daughter graduated almost a year ago, and still she has not found a job in her field of study, information technology. Two former colleagues of mine have the exact situation. This reality repeats itself throughout the country, as businesses play it on the safe side.

My how times have changed—for the worse. When I graduated from college in 1978, my first engineering job was at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, working on the Space Shuttle program. Before I graduated, I had two good job offers, and I didn’t even go looking for them. These came through talking with recruiters who visited my college. Their firms were looking for as many promising college graduates as they could find. That’s certainly not the case today.

So what’s a young person to do? As a preacher of the gospel, it has long been my conviction that our faith in God or the lack thereof greatly bears on our quality of life. As time marches on and the business of living becomes more challenging on many fronts, my conviction has become even stronger. My boast is that God’s ability to bless us and to take care of us is not subject to the state of our economy. For instance, Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes” ( Mark 9:23, NIV). Accordingly, if we want to enjoy a blessed life even in these days, we can do that if we will have faith in God!

There are still good job opportunities out there. No, they are not as plenteous as they used to be. And, yes, just because you attend an elite school, and graduate with honors, these don’t guarantee you success. But with God all things are possible. It follows then that as part of a young person’s strategy for success in life, youths today need faith in God. As parents, it’s great that we work and save money to send our children to college, but also, we must model and emphasize to them the need to live by faith in God. The folks in Congress and the White House may not know how to put America back on a road to prosperity, but God knows how—if we would only trust Him. He has possibilities at His disposal that are out of this world.

In a couple of months from the date of this post, a new wave of college graduates will be out there trying to cash in on their years of hard work and preparation to enter the workforce. They will be competing against many of last year’s graduates, like my daughter. They will also be competing against thousands who have been laid off, being victims of the current economic slump, and who desperately need work. To be sure, there will be a shortage of good jobs to go around. But the God we serve is more than able to bless us in spite of it all. I say to youths and parents alike, let us not be moved by what we see. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Copyright ©2010 by Frank King. All rights reserved.