It is easy to get discouraged after praying many years for a particular intention and never receiving the result we wanted. Our intention may have even been good and noble, such as the healing of a child struck with cancer. After hearing the silence of God we may be tempted to throw up our arms and stop praying. In our eyes, prayer is useless.
[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]Christ heals the man with paralysed hand. Byzantine mosaic in the Cathedral of Monreale.[/featured-image]
Is God listening? Does He care?
Here are 3 reasons why we should pray to God and never lose heart, even when our petitions do not appear to have been answered:
1. God’s plans are always for our benefit
It is not aways easy to see, but God desires our wellbeing. He does not hate or scorn us. He does not inflict evil upon us. As God said through the prophet Jeremiah:
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:11-14, empahsis added).
The main problem from our perspective is that we only see a particular moment in time. We can not always connect the dots and see the bigger picture. That is why faith and trust are essential to prayer. We pray to God in hopes that our prayers will be answered, but we do so trusting that His answer is always for our benefit.
In particular, God desires above all else our salvation. This means that God’s answer will always be in relation to our eternal destiny.
It is helpful to envision God as a Divine Physician, who only gives us medicine that speeds us along the path to eternal life. Saint Augustine put it this way:
“He who faithfully prays God for the necessaries of this life, is both mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better than the sick man what is good for the disease.“
2. The act of praying helps us along the road to salvation
When our prayers aren’t answered we may think that prayer does nothing. However the very act of praying benefits us tremendously.
First of all, prayer reminds us that God is the author of all good things. Prayer fosters humility and helps us realize that we can not do anything without the grace of God.
Secondly, prayer fosters a sense of abandonment to God’s divine will. In our prayers we offer everything to Him and abandon ourselves to His plans.
3. Prayer is a conversation with God and should include our frustrations
We may have a false idea that prayer needs to be formal and can not express our strongest feelings, emotions or frustrations. On the contrary, prayer is raising our heart and mind to God and should cover everything that is going on in those two areas. If we are frustrated with God because of something that happened or because of His silence, tell Him that! God wants to hear our cares and concerns.
The Psalms are a perfect example of how prayer should be and it is no coincidence that the Psalms play a vital part in the official prayers of the Church (both in the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours). Let us take Psalm 22 as a prime example:
O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel.
In thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them.
They cried to thee, and they were saved: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him.
For thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb: my hope from the breasts of my mother.
I was cast upon thee from the womb. From my mother’s womb thou art my God,
Depart not from me. For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help me.
Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me.
They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring.
I am poured out like water; and all my bones are scattered. My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws: and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.
For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.
They have numbered all my bones. And they have looked and stared upon me.
They parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.
But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help to a distance from me; look towards my defence.
Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword: my only one from the hand of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth; and my lowness from the horns of the wild oxen.
I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the Lord, praise him: all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. (Psalm 22(21):2-24)
The Psalm begins in desperation, but ends in praise. We should takes good notes and pray in the same manner. We may be frustrated with God and that is not necessarily a bad thing. They key is to offer everything to God, to praise Him for His good works and to trust that He wills our good.
In the end, God’s answer to our prayers may not be what we were hoping for or may simply be His silence. Whatever it is, God always answers our prayers. It is up to us to persevere and not to lose heart.
God is there, always. He is the Divine Physician. Let us strive to trust the medicine He gives us.