Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): What does it mean to truly pray? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Prayer is not some sort of an exercise where we get our will on earth done in heaven, but where God in heaven gets his will done on earth. Prayer is not some way where we bend God’s will to fit our will, but prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound Bible teaching simply taught by Adrian Rogers. First Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us to pray without ceasing. But so many times, our prayers seem to go unanswered. We pray and seek God, we ask according to His will, and it feels quiet. Does He hear us?

We can rest assured that yes, He does. In Luke chapter 1, we meet Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth, both righteous before God, yet barren, without any children for which they had prayed for their whole lives. By observing their story, we can learn what to do and what it actually means when prayer seems unanswered. Once again, here’s Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: Would you take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 1? I want to talk to you today about prayer, and I want to talk to you on this subject: when prayer seems unanswered.

Now, that’s a problem to many of us. We hear that we are to pray, and indeed we should. But so many times we pray, and our prayer seems unanswered.

Look if you will in Luke chapter 1 beginning in verse 5: "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they were both now well stricken in years.

"And it came to pass, while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was, that is Zacharias’s duty was, to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without," that is, they were standing outside and they were praying at the time of incense.

"And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, and here’s the key verse: 'Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth.

"For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'"

Now when we pray, we have to ask the question sometimes: why doesn't God answer my prayer? Why does my prayer seem to be, at any rate, unanswered? First of all, sometimes our prayers are not answered very frankly because we haven't asked. There's the problem of unasked prayer, unoffered prayer.

Have you ever thought how many commands in the Bible there are to pray? Whether you understand it or not, the Bible commands us to pray. As a matter of fact, 1st Samuel chapter 12, verse 23, Samuel said: "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." Prayerlessness very plainly is a sin. The Bible has commanded that we pray. First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17, the Bible commands that we're to pray without ceasing. We’re never to stop praying.

Luke 18, verse 1: "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray." Always to pray. Mark 14, verse 38: "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Very frankly, many of us are failing simply because we do not pray.

There is no substitute for prayer—not eloquence, not energy, not enthusiasm, not intellect. There is no substitute for prayer. I came across this, I want to share it with you: "I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn’t have time to pray."

Have you ever been there? So much to do, I didn’t have time to pray. "Problems just tumbled about me and heavier came each task. Why doesn’t God help me, I wondered. He answered, you didn’t ask. I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn’t show me, but He said, but you didn’t seek.

"I tried to come into God’s presence. I used all the keys on the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, my son, you didn’t knock. I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray." Amen. Listen, friend, if you're too busy to pray, you're too busy.

There is the problem of unoffered prayer. But what about the other problem: unanswered prayer? We do pray. We do seek God. We do beg. We do try to get right and ask God according to His will, and yet our prayer seems to be unanswered. First of all, your prayer may seem unanswered because it has simply been denied. God cannot and God will not answer your prayer because you’re not asking according to His will and He cannot give you that which is not according to His will.

It's very obvious here that Zacharias was a man walking with the Lord, knowing the will of the Lord. Look if you will in chapter 1, verse 6, speaking of Zacharias and Elizabeth. It says, "they were both righteous before God, walking in all of the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." And so these people were on praying ground. Very frankly, many of us don’t get our prayers answered because we are not on praying ground. You might put in your margin James chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. James is very practical. James doesn’t beat around the bush.

James asks this question: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" He’s saying people fight on the outside because they're at war with themselves on the inside. And then James says, "You lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not." Now that deals with unoffered prayer. You have not because you ask not.

But then he says, "You ask and receive not that you might consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is warfare with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Very frankly, God cannot answer some of our prayers because they're selfish. We ask and receive not because we ask amiss.

You say, Adrian, can’t I ask God for my personal needs? Of course you can, but not for your selfish needs. There’s a difference. God wants to meet every one of your personal needs, but God does not want to feed your lust and your pride and your selfishness. And if you’re a friend of this world and you’re asking God to make you a stronger person, why should God give you more strength to serve the devil? God calls friendship with the world spiritual adultery.

Suppose there is a woman who’s married to a man and she’s unfaithful to her husband, and she has a boyfriend, and she comes to her husband and says, husband, would you give me some money to go to New Orleans and spend a weekend with my boyfriend? Why would he underwrite her sin? Why would God underwrite your spiritual adultery? Why should God give you more strength to serve the devil?

Prayer is not some sort of an exercise where we get our will on earth done in heaven, but where God in heaven gets His will done on earth. Prayer is not some way where we bend God’s will to fit our will, but prayer is finding the will of God and getting in on it. Put this verse down also in your margin: 1st John chapter 5, verses 14 and 15: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.

"According to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we’ve desired of Him." And so sometimes, folks, very plainly, we're just simply asking with sin in our heart, out of the will of God, and our prayers are simply denied.

Now, having said that, let's tighten the focus a little bit and give you the second reason sometimes that prayer seems unanswered. Sometimes it’s answered and God says no. The second reason, however: not only is prayer sometimes simply denied because it’s out of the will of God, but sometimes, dear friend, it is strategically delayed. Strategically delayed. You see, with God, timing is far more important than time.

God answers, but sometimes not when you think He should, but when it will be far better for His glory and your good for Him to answer. Sometimes prayers are delayed, and they’re strategically delayed. I think about another example of delayed prayer, prayer that has been granted but not yet given. Do you remember Daniel in the book of Daniel? Put this verse down: Daniel chapter 10. Daniel had been praying and seeking an answer from God.

In verse 12, we read this: the angel came to Daniel and he said, "Then he said unto me, fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of Persia," that’s the prince of Iran, "withstood me one and twenty days, and lo Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia."

Now that's a very enigmatic and hard to understand passage of Scripture. But God said, Daniel, from the very time that you began to pray, your prayer was heard. But it was 21 days later when Daniel received the answer. You see, God may grant a prayer without giving the answer until a delayed time, until a later time. Let me give you a verse: Mark 11, verse 24. This impinges on all that I’m going to say right here, and I want to give it to you in Williams’ translation because I think it makes it abundantly clear.

Here’s what Williams’ translation says: "So then I tell you, whenever you pray and ask for anything, have faith that it has been given you, and you will get it. Have faith that it has been given you and you will get it." That is, God says you're going to get what you already have. Just believe that you have it. Now, if you already have it and believe that you have it, that's not faith. But when you don’t have it and believe that you have it, then that's faith.

In other words, just believe that it has already been given you, and you will have it. You see, years ago, years ago, God had given Zacharias and Elizabeth, God had given them a son. And the angel comes and says to Zacharias, now he’s an old man and his wife is old, he says well-stricken in years, and then God says, your prayer was heard. Your prayer was heard.

I think there are many of us who have asked God for something and we think that God hasn’t heard our prayer, but dear friend, our prayer was heard, and we’re waiting on God to give us what He has granted us. Why does God delay? Well, again I want to tell you that with God, timing is far more important than time. Here’s a wonderful verse, I love this verse, listen to it: Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 18: "And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you."

Isn’t that beautiful? Oh listen, if you've been asking God for something and you really feel it’s in the will of God and for God’s glory, and your heart is clean and pure, and the answer doesn’t come, "And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted." Now wait a minute, God wants to be gracious to you, and God wants to get glory to Himself. God’s grace and God’s glory are one of the reasons that God waits.

Now watch it: "Therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted." God is going to answer your prayer when it will give to Him the greatest glory, that He may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment. That is, a God of intelligence, a God of discrimination, a God of wisdom. The Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for Him.

Oh my friend, don’t quit waiting on God. God is waiting for you to wait on Him, and God wants you to wait on Him. God sometimes delays the answer to prayer until the situation gets so difficult there’s no way that you’re going to get the glory from it. Let me give you a cardinal rule: God always takes the route that brings Himself the greatest glory. God always takes the route that brings to Himself the greatest glory.

And really, that's why we pray. Have you ever thought about why we pray? Here’s the reason we pray, if you're praying correctly: John 14, verse 13: "And whatsoever ye ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son." He doesn’t say I’m going to do it that you have what you need. Whatever you ask in prayer, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Is the desire of your life to have God glorified?

Sometimes our prayers are strategically delayed to display God’s glory. Now here’s the third thing I want to say to you. Sometimes prayer may be simply denied; we're praying out of the will of God. Sometimes prayer may be strategically delayed. God for His glory and for His grace waits that He may be gracious unto you. Now here’s the third thing. Sometimes the answer to your prayer may be strangely different. Strangely different, significantly different.

Put these verses down: Psalm 34, verse 10: "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Put this verse down: Psalm 84, verse 11: "The Lord God is a sun and a shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." Now my friend, if God withheld it, for you it wasn’t good. I mean, why do you complain if God withholds something that for you was not good?

You see, many times God doesn’t give us what we ask. Do you know why God doesn’t give us what we ask? He has something better than we ask. Let me give you a verse: Romans chapter 8 and verse 26: "Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought." All of us are there sometimes, we pray God, I think it’s this, I think it’s that, Lord, I don’t know. We don’t know what to pray for as we ought.

"But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Thank God, dear friend, that we're asking for one thing, and God the Holy Spirit says, now Father, there’s Adrian, he’s down there asking for something, he’s sincere, this is what he thinks he wants, but God, this is what he needs. Sometimes the answer may be delayed, and sometimes the answer, my dear friend, may be different.

Not very far from our house is a great big metal thing stuck on a pole. It’s called a transformer. Power lines, big lines, come into that transformer, surging energy goes into that transformer. And somehow something happens in that transformer, and that energy is changed, and a line goes into my house and puts energy into our toaster. Now my dear friend, if you took that energy off that wire and put it into our toaster without it going through that transformer, you talk about burned toast and toaster.

I mean, it’s all gone. Now it is the same energy, but it goes through a transformer that makes it adaptable and acceptable. And that’s the way it is with our prayers sometimes. It is the same energy, it is the same prayer, it is the same motivation. God knows our desire for His glory, and God puts our prayers through the Holy Spirit, that great transformer, who makes intercession for us, and He takes our prayers, He makes them acceptable to the throne of grace.

Then our prayers are answered because sometimes we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Hallelujah for that. Sometimes prayer may be denied because we're out of the will of God. Sometimes prayer may be delayed for God’s glory and for His grace, and sometimes, dear friends, prayers are different, but they are better.

We used to have a preacher down in Florida. He was tongue-tied. His name was Ed Solomon. He was a great man of God. He was so wise. One time he was preaching in his own alma mater, his college church, and his wife was sitting out there. And in his tongue-tied way, he said God never did give me anything I wanted. He said I never got to go to the school I wanted to go to. That was his alma mater.

And he said God didn’t let me marry the woman I wanted to marry, and his wife was sitting right out there. And then he said, and God never let me pastor the church I wanted to pastor. And his church people were out there. You talk about embarrassing. He said God never did ever give me anything I’ve ever wanted, but he said God always gave me something better than I ever wanted. Oh friend, listen, listen, God gives the best to those who leave the choice with Him.

You just remember that. Sometimes prayer may be denied, sometimes prayer may be delayed, sometimes prayer may be different. Now what do you do then if you're praying and your prayer seems to be unanswered? First of all, you just check up. Am I right with God? Am I seeking the glory of God? Am I? Am I asking for His glory or that I might consume it upon my lust? If you're convinced that you're asking for the glory of God, then continue to pray.

Just keep on praying. Don’t quit. Pray and pray and pray and pray. The Bible says that we're to pray without ceasing. Men ought always to pray and not to faint, and Jesus told about that woman who went to that unjust judge and she just wouldn’t shut up. The Lord Jesus told about that man who need to borrow bread from a friend and he knocked on that friend’s door, and the friend said, go away. He said, no, I just keep on knocking.

The Bible says, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. And that word actually means keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Keep on, keep on, keep on. Just keep on praying. You say, but wait a minute, wait a minute, doesn’t there ever come a time when I stop praying? Yes. Yes. Number one, when you get the answer. You have the answer in your hand, you begin to praise.

Maybe you don’t have the answer in your hand, but God says it’s done and the burden is gone. Then you say, all right, Lord, thank you. I don’t have it in my hand, but I have it in my heart. Thank you. I praise you. Just begin to praise then. Or maybe God may say to you, as He said to Paul, Paul asked God three times to take the thorn from his flesh, and God said, Paul, I’m not going to do it, but I’m going to give you something better. I’m going to give you my grace.

My dear friend, you just keep on praying until you have the answer in your hand, in your heart, or God shows you a better way. But men ought always to pray. Our greatest need as a church and as individuals is truly to know how to pray. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would teach us to pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): Oh what a great reminder of the urgency to learn to pray. You know, Love Worth Finding has a fruitful and intentional prayer ministry. In addition to our onsite prayer team and dedicated volunteers, we have a free resource on the Love Worth Finding homepage called the Prayer Wall. There you can submit a prayer request or you can pray for others in the community. To find out more, go to lwf.org/radio and scroll down until you see the prayer wall section. On behalf of the Love Worth Finding team, it is a privilege to join with you in prayer. Again, go to lwf.org/radio.

Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1-877-LOVEGOD, that’s 1-877-568-3463, or write to us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38-600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183.

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