We know from experience that we do not receive everything we ask for in prayer. There are some intentions we have often brought to God in prayer and for a long period but we are yet to get answers to these prayers. Yet the Lord promised in today’s gospel reading, “ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Does He mean what He said here metaphorically or literally? Why do we not receive everything we bring to God in prayer in spite of these promises?
Divine Intervention
This condition poses indeed a big challenge to many Christians. The experience can be frustrating and discouraging, especially when we desperately need divine intervention. It has caused many to question the faithfulness of God. Yet God is eternally faithful. His words in today’s reading are not metaphors. He means them to be understood literally. However, we must recall that Jesus also taught us in the ‘Lord’s prayer’ to pray according to the will of God: “Your will be done” (Matt. 6:9). This means that our prayers must be amenable to the will of God.
Therefore, when we pray, we must pray with the disposition that God will grant our prayers in accordance with his will. We have not forgotten the prayer of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk. 22:42). He subjected his prayers to the will of His Father. This means that He was disposed to accept with humble resignation whatever His Father decides. This is a perfect disposition in prayer. It is founded on absolute faith and trust in God’s infinite wisdom and goodness to grant us all that is necessary for our temporal welfare and eternal salvation, when asked for.
Pray Unrelentingly
However, there are many reasons why answers to prayers might be delayed or why petitions may appear unanswered. It might not just be that they do not accord with the will of God. It is against this backdrop that Jesus encourages us to be importunate when we pray. We have an example in the Prophet Daniel, who demonstrated one of the reasons we must pray unrelentingly (cf. Dan 10).
When Daniel began to intercede for his people, who were in exile in the Kingdom of Persia, he did not actually set out to pray for the three weeks he prayed before he got an answer. He only disposed himself to pray until something happened. Thus, when he got no answers, he continued his fasting and prayer. He refused to relent on his supplications for Israel until God gave him an answer.
Never Lose Heart
This is what Jesus asks us to do when we pray. We must be insistent, even when it seems that heaven is silent. We must not be discouraged, when there appears to be no answer. There should be some element of stubbornness in prayer. Like Jacob, Daniel stubbornly insisted in his request until something happened.
Note that heaven reacted to the prayer of Daniel the very first day he began to pray. God sent His angel to him to give him the answer to his prayers. However, the demon in charge of the kingdom of Persia hijacked the answered prayer. The angel of God fought this demon fiercely for three weeks before the archangel Michael came and released him to complete his mission. That was how it took three weeks for a prayer answered already in the spiritual realm to manifest in the physical realm.
Sometimes we fail to get answers to our prayers because we could not release enough spiritual energies to counter opposing spiritual forces, who vowed to keep us down. We must, therefore, pray, and never lose heart.
