Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayer?

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Y'all as a pastor I will tell you I find that people don't have a problem with pray. Almost every Christian I know prays. The problem is when they don't see a lot of immediate answers for the things they're praying for and so they give up assuming that prayer doesn't work. The problem is not a prayer problem it is a persistence problem and this text addresses that. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author and theologian J.D.

Greer. I'm your host Molly Vidovitch. Today pastor J.D. tells the story of Jacob, a man who began his life as a deceiver and ended his life with a limp but who right in the middle actually wrestled with God and received an unimaginable blessing as a result. Jacob provided a model for all of us who have ever waited on God to answer us. Through Jacob we learned that many of the blessings of God are released into our lives only through persistent unrelenting prayer. Be sure to stay tuned to the end to learn more about our latest resource, a set of three prayer books meant to go alongside this current teaching series on the program.

You can give us a call at 866-335-5220 or visit us at jdgreer.com for more information. But now let's jump into today's message titled why doesn't God answer my prayer? If you have your bible this weekend if you'd open it to Genesis 32 in her book prodigals and those who love them Ruth Belgram, Billy Graham's wife tells the story of waking up in the middle of the night worried for one of her children.

I don't know if you know this but Billy and Ruth Graham who arguably were two of the most significant Christians of the 20th century had prodigals in their family most notoriously their oldest son Franklin who for many years ran from God hard. She says it was around three o'clock in the morning when the name of someone that I love dearly flashed into my mind. She said it came into my mind like an electric shock instantly I was wide awake I knew there would be no more sleep for me for the rest of the night so I lay there and I prayed for the one who was trying hard to run from God. She says when it is dark and the imagination runs wild there are fears that only a mother can understand. Suddenly she said in that place of darkness and fear and worry she said a voice spoke to me and said quit studying the problems and start studying the promises.

That might be our theme for this morning. Quit studying the problems and start studying the promises because that's where true tenacity and prayer is inspired. The Bible I have told you is a book of more than 3,000 different promises. An effective prayer begins with unearthing each of these promises one by one and praying them back to God. It's why we say you should not merely read the Bible read your way through the Bible you should pray your way through the Bible. Well today I want to talk about wrestling with God in prayer and refusing to give up.

We are going to use one of my favorite Old Testament stories and that is the story of Jacob wrestling with God recorded in Genesis 32. As we turn there let me just point out to you before we get to Genesis 32 that one of the most predominant themes in Jesus's teaching on prayer was the need to persist to cling to the promises to wrestle with God and to refuse to give up. It was so central that Luke summarized one of Jesus's parables this way and I'm pointing this out before Genesis 32 because I don't want you to write off Genesis 32 today as just some weird Old Testament story that was kind of bizarre and it's just sort of a one-off. This was a dominant theme in Jesus's teaching.

Here's how he summarized. Luke summarized one of Jesus's parables. Now he told them this parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up.

This is what he was trying to teach him. You got to pray and not give up and to illustrate this he tells a story about a widow who needs a judge to give her justice but the judge ignores her because because she doesn't have enough money to hire a lawyer and he's kind of a jerk who doesn't really care about doing the right thing just because it's the right thing. And so Jesus says this woman because she cannot get justice camps outside of the judge's house and every time this judge goes anywhere to work to the grocery store to the gym she pesters him about her need. Watch this.

Watch this. Jesus says for a while this judge was unwilling but later he said to himself even though I don't fear God or respect people yet because this widow keeps pestering me she won't leave me alone I'll give her justice so that she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming. And then Jesus says quite unbelievably this is how you should pray to God. Now his point of course is not to compare God to an unjust judge. His point is to contrast him with one and he is saying if even an unjust judge will respond to persistence how much more will your heavenly father. You see in contrast to this poor widow you and I have a heavenly father who who loves to hear from us. He's not an unjust judge who cares neither for God or for us. He is so in touch with us in fact that he knows when a hair falls from our heads and values us so much that he sent his son to die for us.

But some blessings even in that kind of relationship Jesus says some blessings he grants only through persistence and asking. Today we're going to look at one of the clearest pictures of that in the whole Bible. It is the story of Jacob wrestling with God. By the way I've always heard that everything that you really need to know about God can be found in the book of Genesis. Every core doctrine every beautiful truth every essential Christian practice it's all in the book of Genesis and the rest of the Bible just basically expands on the themes that get introduced in this first book. That is certainly true of what we're going to look at today. Prayer is a major major theme in the book of Genesis.

It appears in the most dramatic of ways again and again. We saw it last week when we looked at Genesis 18 and 19 about Abraham and Lot. Don't miss the significance of this in the very first book of the Bible. The books that's going to lay out the foundation for all of the rest of the books and everything else that's taught.

God establishes the primacy and the agency of prayer and how he does his work on earth. Genesis 32 Jacob the grandson of Abraham is in quite a pickle in Genesis 32. His brother Esau is about to kill him and this is the culmination of a 30-year grudge. Let me explain for a moment how he got there.

Okay I'll have to back up a few chapters starting chapter 27 and let me walk you up to Genesis 32. Here's how he got there. Jacob had been a jerk for most of his life.

That's how he got there. Most significantly he cheated his twin brother Esau out of the birthright. The birthright in those days was the right to officially carry on the family name.

It usually came with upwards of two-thirds of the father's wealth and it always went to the oldest son. Esau and Jacob were twins but Esau was older by a couple of minutes. All right so here's how it went down how Jacob got the birthright. Esau and Jacob though they were twins were very very different.

Esau was tough. He was macho. He was the man's man kind of guy. The text tells us that he was hairy and he liked to hunt. Today he would be the kind of guy probably who loves football drives a Ford Raptor and has hair poking out the top of his shirt. The text tells us that Jacob by contrast had smooth skin and he liked to cook right which meant he was more of an indoorsy kind of guy.

Today he'd probably be the kind of guy who watches The Bachelor drives a Mini Cooper and has a Pinterest account. Okay all right so you got the contrast. Well one day when they were teenagers Esau comes in from hunting and he's powerful hungry. Jacob had just finished you know brewing up a pot of stew and so Esau asked him if he could have a bowl of stew. Jacob who is very crafty sensing a moment of opportunity says sure I'll trade you something for it and Esau said like what and Jacob says how about your birthright which is an insane ask but Esau being a teenager and thinking impulsively as teenagers are prone to do not having a well-developed frontal cortex and all and being hangry on top of that said well sure I mean what good is my birthright if I die of hunger right now it's not going to do me any good then so they shook on it and Jacob says no takebacks and Esau effectively relinquishes his birthright. Well a few years pass by and their dad Isaac is about to die and so Isaac who probably did not know anything about this deal and would have ignored it as a stupid teenager thing if he had known wants to formally confer the blessing onto Esau so we ask Esau to go out and hunt him up some venison and bring it back and prepare it so they can eat together and he can formally confer the blessing of the birthright onto him and so Esau leaves to go hunt. Now Isaac by this point is old I mean he can barely see or hear anymore so Jacob thinks here's my chance. Now one thing I forgot to tell you Esau was Isaac's favorite of the twins and Jacob was his mama Rebecca's favorite so Jacob runs and gets his mama Rebecca's help while Esau is away hunting and she says Genesis 27 verse 8 now my son listen to me and do exactly what I tell you go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats and I will make them into a delicious meal for your father the kind he loves I'll make it just the way he likes it then take him to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies then Rebecca verse 15 took the best clothes of her older son Esau she went to his closet got some of his favorite outfits and had her younger son Jacob put them on then verse 16 she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and the smooth part of his neck now to be honest I'm not sure what that says about Esau that to look and smell like him you would tie pieces of a dead goat to your neck and arms but at any rate verse 17 she then hands the delicious food and the bread she had made to her son Jacob Jacob takes it back into Isaac disguises his voice talks really deeply and presents himself as Esau well somehow miracle of miracles they pull it off and Isaac mistakenly confers the blessing onto Jacob and in those days once a blessing of the birthright had been formally bestowed you couldn't take it back so when Esau gets home and he finds out Jacob has heisted him he vows to kill Jacob well Jacob is scared of Esau anyway and so he flees and he is gone for 30 years now Jacob turns out to be pretty resourceful and through a combination of hard work and a lot more trickery he becomes really really wealthy his name Jacob by the way literally means in Hebrew Grasper and the reason he got that name was because when he and his brother were coming out of Rebecca's womb Esau like I told you came out first but it says that when Esau came out first Jacob's little hand came out right after Esau left the womb and grabbed the hold of his heel as if to say oh no get back in here I wanted to come out first so his parents called him Grasper but the name Jacob can also mean deceiver and so those two words Grasper and deceiver pretty well sum up Jacob's life and if your name is Jacob this morning I sincerely apologize for bringing that out right now but at any rate somewhere during those 30 years that he's gone God begins to work in Jacob's life and in chapter 31 God appears to Jacob 31 verse 3 and says go back to the land of your ancestors and your family and I will be with you now to make a long story really short Jacob gets right with God and so he obeys and so he starts this long journey home but as Jacob is getting close to his birthplace a place remember that he hadn't been for over 30 years he starts to wonder he starts to wonder what Esau is going to say is Esau still met maybe he's forgotten about the whole thing and suddenly he gets word that Esau has come out to greet him with 400 armed men which is not the kind of group that you bring for a welcome party it's the kind of group that you bring for a massacre and so clearly Jacob understands Esau has not forgotten and so Jacob plunges into despair so do you have questions about why your prayers aren't answered I think we all do so we're thankful for solid biblical wisdom to give us hope in those moments we'll return to our teaching here on summit life in just a moment but I wanted to share a little bit more about our current resource this month we have three books each called five things to pray they will cover how to pray for your city and community how to pray effectively for your kids and how to lift up your parents in prayer take what you're learning here on the program this week and make them truly personal by reaching out today in support of this ministry give us a call at 866 335 52 20 or go online to jdgrier.com and reserve your copy today now let's get back to today's message with pastor jd greer here on summit life so he praised genesis 32 verse 9 oh god oh god of my father abraham god of my father isaac oh lord who said to me return to your country and to your kindred that i may do you good by the way you hear what he's doing you see it i hope i've taught you to recognize this you see what he's doing he's holding god's words back up in front of god god you said you said return to your homeland and i will do you good verse 10 i am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant please deliver me from the hand of my brother esau from the hand of esau for i fear him that he may come and attack me verse 12 but you said you said i will surely do you good and make your offspring like the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude you see the second time he's holding god's word back up in front of him he's saying god you promised you said this jacob keeps praying to god like this all through the night and sometime in the middle of the night verse 24 a man notice the capitalization by the way a man came and wrestled with jacob until dawn when the man saw that he could not win the match with jacob he touched jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at the socket god's finisher signature finishing move is the hip flick by the way do you know how painful that would have been how many of you have had um a finger pulled out of joint or a shoulder pulled out of joint raise your hand that's ever happened to you okay i've never had it happen i don't want it to happen because people that have had that happen say it's unbelievably painful and the largest joint in your body is your hip and this guy just touches it with his finger and knocks it out of the joint so the question you're supposed to ask is if this strange man has that kind of power how in the world did he lose the wrestling match to jacob right verse 26 and the man said let me go for it is dawn again this guy is so powerful he can just touch jacob's hip and knock it out of socket but he's pinned and he has to ask permission to leave what in the world is going on here but jacob painted i will not let you go unless you bless me y'all imagine how much pain jacob is in his hip is out of socket but he won't let go i won't let you go i got no other alternatives i'm desperate i won't let you go until you bless me verse 27 my favorite part of this whole story what is your name the man asked he replied jacob okay a little sidebar how do you wrestle with somebody all night long and not even know their name was this heavenly man just out looking for a random fight when he comes across jacob he says hey pretty boy you'll do and so they beat each other up all night now he's like hey who are you anyway is that really what's going no of course that's not what's going on he already knows jacob's name he just wants jacob to say his name say your name my name is jacob it means liar and deceiver verse 28 your name will no longer be jacob the man told him it is now israel which means literally you have wrestled with god and prevailed because he says you have struggled with god and men and have won verse 29 and what is your name jacob asked him why do you ask the man replied oh i don't know maybe because you just snapped my hip socket out of joint and changed my birth name to a different one and it would be helpful if when i'm telling the story later i can at least tell people who you were that's why verse 29 the man never answers but the man blessed jacob there in the next few verses jacob is going to go on to meet esau and god changes esau's heart when esau sees his brother instead of killing him his heart melts and he lays down his weapons and he runs to embrace him and they stand there weeping in each other's arms for a long time jacob goes on from this moment not only to be reconciled to his brother but also to father the jewish nation jacob's 12 sons are going to become the 12 tribes of israel and from one of those tribes the tribe of judah jesus himself would be born now so many questions first who is this strange man that's wrestling with jacob some commentators say it was an angel yes i guess there's some to that theory i don't know why you'd have to leave it dawn he's not a vampire so i'm not really sure what that all means but most theologians believe it is god himself because of what jacob says in verse 30 jacob named the place peniel peniel which means face of god for he said i have seen god face to face yet my life has been spared so jacob thinks seems to think that it's god taking a human body so then the question becomes if jacob is wrestling with god how does god not win again the guy is clearly strong enough that he can whip jacob whenever he wants he can with a flick of his finger knock jacob's hip socket out of joint yet he lets himself be pinned by jacob and what you see is that god is teaching you something important about prevailing with god in prayer and that is that many of the blessings of god are released into our lives only through persistent unrelenting prayer he wants you to pin him so to speak but see that raises another question god had clearly promised those blessings to jacob jacob quotes him twice god had told jacob go back home and i'll bless you so why does jacob have to wrestle all night with god to obtain the blessing write this down many of the blessings of god are released into our lives only through persistent unrelenting wrestling prayer yes god had promised this blessing to jacob yet jacob had to wrestle all night with god to get it and only after a full night of wrestling does god let you pin him and obtain the blessing y'all as a pastor i will tell you i find that people don't have a problem with praying almost every christian i know prays the problem is when they don't see a lot of immediate answers for the things they're praying for and so they give up assuming that prayer doesn't work their problem is not a prayer problem it is a persistence problem and this text addresses that y'all remember martin luther's definition of prayer that i gave you a few weeks ago effective prayer means catching god in his words luther said well this story is going to add another layer to that another dimension sometimes you wrestle with god for a long time to get those blessings now please be clear and don't be confused i'm not talking here about salvation i'm not talking about forgiveness i'm not talking about the filling of the holy spirit i'm not talking about about wisdom scripture promises that god will give you those blessings the first time you ask for them right what we're talking about is the outpouring the end breaking of god's goodness into some area of your life a broken relationship a career choice a ministry opportunity that's what we're talking about now you hear that you ask you say well i don't get why why does god do it that way and i always turn here to the words of martin luther in fact i quoted them a few weeks ago to you who who compares it to the father who has something in his hand that his kid wants but he won't let it go at first to test the child's resolve to see how badly his kid wants it and so the father resists the kids trying to pull it out of his hand and he's resisting to test his kid's strength and to test the kid's resolve to get it and god does that with us when we pray luther says he holds the blessing in his hand as we wrestle with him and he asks how desperate are you for this do you really believe that i'm the only i'm the only one who can give it how quickly you're going to give up on me do you really believe that i'm good do you really trust me by the way a few weeks ago um i asked you i was like why does god sometimes make us persist and asking and not just give us what we ask for the first time we ask it and i you know kind of paused a minute for a dramatic effect and i was like i don't know and you laughed and that's partially true i don't know all the specific reasons in each situation that god delays but i do know y'all i do know i do know based on stories like jacobs i do know what his purpose is for us and the waiting and i know that because scripture tells us he does so to purify and to perfect our faith he is saying do you really trust me do you really believe that i'm good do you really believe that i'm the only one who can give this or are you already hatching a plan b in your head in case i'm not really good and don't come through and if i delay are you going to just give up and you assume that i don't care or even that i don't exist you see our belief in the goodness of god is measured by how long we will persist in prayer when the answer does not come that's your measure of the belief your belief in the goodness of how long will you persist in prayer when the answer doesn't come and write this down real prayer real prayer the kind that comes from your soul the kind that jacob prayed the kind that just comes up as a groan that always leaves you with a wound like that's the sign that you've started to pray that way a wound like jacob received a wound where god drives you to the end of yourself where you've exhausted all your abilities and you've lost any confidence that you can do anything and you're looking out saying god there's 400 armed men i got no answer for that i got nowhere to run i got nowhere to turn my only hope is you and from that point onward you're going to walk for the rest of your life with a limp have you been there maybe you there right now you feel desperate about something something you want to change some change you want to see in your life some change you need to see in somebody else's life some change in the situation and you despair and at some point you have found yourself screaming at god by yourself in your car maybe at home when nobody else is there out in the wall and you're screaming at god i can't do this i don't have anything else you're the only one you're the only one who can do this you're the only one who can give this blessing and i won't let you go because i got no other alternatives i won't let you go until you bless me because i know you're good and i got nowhere else to turn these are powerful reminders from pastor jd greer on summit life jd the people i find it most difficult to pray for and not because i don't want to are my parents so how can we pray specifically and intentionally for our parents even now you know the bible tells us to honor our parents and sometimes we don't know exactly what that means one of the things i've learned is um that i can honor my parents by praying for them there are new challenges they have to face so praying for wisdom for them praying for comfort because obviously as your parents age it's a time of of loss as they're seeing friends pass away or dealing with just the discomfort and pain that goes with their own bodies aging these things are ways that you can help pray the promises of god over them and also learn promises that you can be sharing with them that bring them comfort and direction wherever your parents are this is a great thing to add to your daily prayer time and this is a great tool that will help you do it it's part of a three-book bundle how to pray for your kids how to pray for your parents and how to pray for your cities that i think will add some definition and some clarity how to engage god's promises about each of those three areas remember we're offering three of these five things to pray books this month in a bundle including how to pray for your city and how to pray for your kids as well we'll send this resource as our way of saying thanks when you donate 35 dollars or more to support this ministry it's easy to give and easy to give when you give us a call at 866-335-5220 or you can give online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich be sure to join us tomorrow for the conclusion of our message titled why doesn't god answer my prayer on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries