Yesterday, someone asked me the following question. With permission, I am posting the question and my answer as today’s blog in hopes of it being helpful to this person and anyone else.
“I was in James today and chapter 1 verses 6-8 scared me. After a series of prayers over the course of time where I thought God had my back, it turned out He didn’t for whatever His purpose was. So I did feel a sort of betrayal at first and a stab in the back. Moving forward, I now have this thing where I pray and I know and have faith that God can answer prayers and perform the impossible. But I also have it in my mind where He probably won’t. Not that I don’t believe He can, but that He may not.
Am I the double minded man that shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord?
Question
This is a great question. Thank you for sharing it with me. I’m asking the Lord to help me point to His Word clearly and for you to be receptive to it. I have three main things to say in hopes of helping you.
1. Look at the context of James
The verse right before the one you referenced tells us that the prayer request is for something specific. Here are verses 5-8 of James 1, from the ESV:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:5-8 (ESV)
The context is that we should ask God in faith for wisdom. God tells us what we should ask Him for and promises that He will give us that thing–in this case, wisdom. If we doubt that God will give us wisdom when we ask Him, then we won’t receive it because God’s promises are activated by faith.
2. Remember where you’re going
Friend! Remember why God saved you from your sins and called you to Himself! The purpose is to prepare you for heaven by making you like Jesus. Remember the passage from this past Sunday:
Colossians 1:22
“he has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”
His purpose for you is not so you can have your best life now, but so you can be like Him then and enjoy Him forever.
Through Jesus, you are going to heaven and will live forever with Him in a new body on a perfect earth with all the saints in eternal bliss.
Every “yes” He gives to your prayers are a reminder that He hears, knows, and provides for your needs more than we deserve. And every “no” to your prayers that results in experiencing the same pain or loss Jesus tasted is one degree more toward the image of Jesus He is crafting you to be.
3. Didn’t God Have Your Back?
You said that there was a time when you asked God for something and He didn’t “have your back.” I want to suggest that isn’t the best way of viewing God’s silence to your previous prayer. (Obviously, I don’t know what it was.)
Actually, I believe God always answers the prayers of His children with what’s best for them. To do otherwise would contradict His nature. Consider Romans 8:18:
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:18 ESV
Also, 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 is huge on this:
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Tim Keller has a great quote in his book called Prayer. He says “
God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows.
Tim Keller in “Prayer”
Ending
Paul asked the Lord to remove a “thorn” from him three separate times, but the Lord never did. God’s response to Paul was “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
Some things we ask for in faith because God has promised He will do them for us. (Wisdom is one of those.) Other things we ask for aren’t things He’s promised (physical health, possessions, etc.). He may give us those things. When He does, we thank Him. But when He doesn’t, we trust Him and remember the greater goal He’s doing in us. In all of them, we can rejoice.
Hope this helps. Praying for you!
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