(1 John 3:22)
12. Unanswered Prayer (1 John 3:22)
Here a question comes up. If any particular person, if you or I, asks anything from the Lord our God and doesn't receive it, anyone can always say, *He has no love." We can easily say this of any person of our own time. Anyone can think what he wills of another. A more serious question comes up concerning those persons who we are certain wrote as saints and are now with God. If you consider John's words, it all seems clear. If you take examples into account, it becomes obscure. Nothing could be clearer than his words: We will receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. If we pray, John says, and if our hearts don't accuse us but declare in God's sight that we have true love in us, we will receive from him whatever we ask.
I've already told you, my friends, not to look to me. What am I? What are you? What are we but the Church of God, which is known to everyone? If God please we belong to his
Church, we abide in it by love. Let us persevere in it if we want to manifest the love we have.
But consider the apostle Paul. What evil are we to think of him? Did he not love his sisters and brothers? Did he not have the testimony of his conscience in God's sight? Did he lack that root of love from which all good fruits proceed? Who would be foolish enough to say this? Where then have we found that the Apostle asked and didn't receive? He himself says, "Lest I be exalted by the greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in my flesh, an angel of Satan to harass me. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that he would take it from me; and he said to me: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness.' " You see, his
UNANSWERED PRAYER /
prayer that the angel of Satan be taken from him wasn't heard. Why wasn't it? Because it wasn't for his good. His prayer was heard for his good, not according to his desire. This is a great mystery, my friends; I want you to recognize it and never lose sight of it in your temptations. The saints are heard for their good in all things. They are always heard for their eternal good. This is what they desire; in what concerns this, their prayers are always heard.
We have to distinguish God's different ways of hearing. We find some people who aren't granted what they want, but what is for their good. And we find others who are granted what they want, but it is not for their good. Don't lose sight of this distinction. Keep in mind the example of Paul, who was not heard according to his will but for his good: *My grace is sufficient for you," God told him, "for strength is made perfect in weakness." ""You asked me, you cried out to me, three times you cried out to me, and I heard what you cried to me. I didn't turn away my ears from you. I know what I have to do. You want to escape the medicine that stings you, yet I know the weakness that oppresses you." This was a man heard for his good, but not given what he wanted.
W here do we find people given what they want but not for their good? Do we think we can find some wicked, ungodly person treated in this way? If I put some such person before you, you can always say to me, "It's you who call him wicked; he was righteous. If he hadn't been, God wouldn't have heard him." But the example I'm going to give you is someone whose wickedness and ungodliness you can't doubt: it's the devil himself. He asked to have a holy man, Job, to tempt, and he received what he asked for. The Apostle asked that the thorn in his flesh be removed, and it wasn't. But it was still Paul rather than the devil whom God heard. The Apostle was heard for his good, though he wasn't given what he wanted. The devil was given what he wanted, but for his damnation. Job was given over to the devil to be tempted, so that his constancy might be a torment for his tempter.
So we have to understand that although God doesn't give us what we want, he gives what we need for our salvation. What if you ask your doctor for something harmful, something he knows is harmful? Suppose you ask for a drink of cold water. You can't say he doesn't hear you when he gives it to you right away, if it's for your good. But if it's not good for you, he doesn't give it. If he contradicts your will, does that mean he hasn't heard you? Or has he heard you and done what is good for your health?
Have love in yourselves, dear friends. Have love and be at peace. Even when you aren't given what you ask for, you are heard, only you aren't aware of it. Many people have been given into their own hands to their harm. The Apostle says of them that "God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts." One such person asked for great riches. While he was poor he had little to fear. When he began to grow rich, he became the prey of someone more powerful. Wasn't he heard to his harm? He wanted to possess what would attract robbers to him; no one sought him while he was poor.
Learn to make your needs known to God, entrusting yourself to your Physician to do what he judges best. Confess your illness and let him apply the remedy. It's for you to hold fast to love. He's going to cut you and sting you. If you cry out and he doesn't listen while he is cutting and stinging and making you suffer, it's because he knows how far the disease reaches. You want him to take his hands off you, yet he knows how deep the wound is and how far he has to go. He's not listening to what you want, but granting what will bring you good health.
You may be sure, my friends, that what the Apostle says is true: "We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words . . . for he is interceding for the saints." What does "the Spirit himself intercedes for the saints" signify, if not that love is brought about in you through the Spirit? And so the same Apostle says that "God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us." Love itself sighs, love itself prays. The one who gives it can't close his ears against it. Be at peace. Let love ask and God's ears are there to hear. He doesn't do what you want, but he does what is expedient for you. Therefore, John says, We will receive from him whatever we ask. As I've said, if you understand "for your good" there's no problem here. If you don't, you have a problem, a serious one that makes you a defamer of the apostle Paul. We will receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight; within, where he sees us.