Why Won’t God Answer Me?

Recently I fell really sick. It’s been more than 5 years since I felt this sick. I was in so much pain and it felt like the pain won’t go away. Everything hurt! Even talking felt like a lot of work! It suddenly dawned on me how much of a blessing health is and how much we take it for granted. Until it slips out of your grip for a second you won’t really know what you had and how blessed you are to have it. Well anyway that’s just by the way. That’s not exactly the topic I wanted to write on today.

So while I was sick, lying in my bed and in so much pain, I turned to God (of course) and asked him to heal me. I asked him to take the pain away… But it didn’t happen immediately as I thought it would. Days passed, a week went by, still… no healing, the pain was still there. So I started questioning God. I thought about all the bible passages that say all I needed to do was ask, that said sickness has no place in my body. Why was I still sick for this long! Why wasn’t God answering me!? Why didn’t he heal me?

I know this hasn’t happened to just me. I know most of you out there get these questions in your heads too when it seems like all your prayers are going unanswered. When you’ve applied every possible principle in the bible and still nothing happens. We all wonder… WHY?

If I tell I know the exact answers to these questions, I wouldn’t be very truthful. The truth is I don’t know why. There are just certain questions that we can’t answer neither can we understand. But as the curious human beings that we are (or atleast that I am), we still try to seek answers. So that’s exactly what I did. I asked Him, why he wouldn’t heal me. He of all people must have known the kind of pain I felt and how miserable I was. So why didn’t he relieve me of the pain immediately? And of course He didn’t give me any direct answers (typical!). He just reminded me of a few persons and these were of help to answer the questions I had in some way. Hopefully these persons and their stories could also be of help to you too when you have similar questions like those I had.

1. Job – Would you condemn the Lord to justify yourself? (Job 40:8)

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the famous story of Job in the bible. The innocent man and very upright servant of God (acknowledged by God himself) who did his best to please God and obey his commandments. Yet God let the devil inflict sickness on him and take away everything he owned. When Job questioned God, God in response asked him some really difficult questions. None of which Job could answer. They were all about God’s might, ability and power. God asked Job if was able to do what he does and of course he couldn’t (see Job chapters 38-40). The honest truth is, we really are in no position to question God or condemn him. All we have to do is trust that He is a good and just God. At the end of the day, everything worked out well for Job and everything he lost was restored to him. Sometimes all we need is a little more patience. When the answers don’t seem to be coming immediately, hold on a little longer.

2. Paul – His grace is sufficient for you (2Corinthians 12:8-9)

Paul spoke about a ‘messenger of satan’, a ‘thorn in his flesh’ that tormented him. He said he asked God to take this away from him 3 times and what God will say to him each time was ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’. This I just couldn’t make sense out of when I first read it. I mean this is Paul, the true, and faithful servant of God who was ready to die for the gospel (eventually did). Through him thousands were healed. Why wouldn’t he get his healing? Then again Paul said this was given him to ‘keep him from being conceited’ and God’s power was shown through his weakness. In every circumstance, there is a reason why God let’s certain things happen to us and though it wouldn’t always make sense to us, we can take solace in the fact that God’s grace will always see us through.

There’s many more examples of people in the bible who didn’t exactly get what they requested of God but they didn’t stop loving him neither did they condemn Him. Moses wasn’t granted the request to enter the Promised Land, God didn’t grant David’s request to build the temple, even Jesus wasn’t granted the request for the cup to be taken away from him. These were all people God deeply loved still he didn’t grant their requests because He had good reasons not to and we cannot question God’s decisions or actions. We can wait patiently on him and pray for His will to be done instead.

‘Do you have an arm like God’s and can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendour, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.’ Job 40:9-10NIV

Remain blessed

Apiseh