The Act of Love... and Prayer

Does God answer every prayer? I have always heard that He did, but recently I have began to understand how there may be positions where God does not (or cannot) answer a prayer. Before you clinch your fist and cry out, “heresy,” hear me out.

There is a particular scripture in the Bible that has been somewhat of a mystery (it was to me) to those who read it. The story it is connected with and the context itself overshadows the power of the meaning of it’s words. Beyond that, some have guessed it’s meaning to be purely the statement of the words themselves and failed to go deeper into it’s real significance. I like the way it is worded in the Contemporary English Version:

Matthew 16:19 (CEV)

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow.

I, most likely, will blog about this scripture later because of the great truth found in it, but for our current subject let me just give a brief explanation of it’s meaning. The scripture is making reference to the responsibility that we hold in the Kingdom. God is giving us the “keys” to accomplish His work. Christ is saying here, that we are in charge of doing heavenly work here on earth. Should we choose not to accomplish a work, God will not come down out of heaven and do it for us. The work of the kingdom is ours. Even Jesus told us that, in some of His last words, that we would receive power to accomplish His work. (see Acts 1:8) When we pray or do kingdom work we are setting in motion God’s work. By placing the work in our hands, God is, in fact, telling us that whatever is accomplished in His kingdom will come through the channel of human intervention. The gospel message is one good example: God will not preach His own message but has determined that, in order for it to be spread, mankind must be involved. (more to come.)

Understanding this concept of God’s plan leads us to understanding that God is very serious about our role in His work. Our involvement in the fulfillment of His strategy is not only His wish, but is detrimental to the success He wants. 

Prayer is a most vital part of accomplishing God’s plan. His way is that we take things to Him in prayer and expect things to change because we pray. And yet God’s blueprint is not drawn only with the supports of prayer. His design is also the work of our hands. It is often that we as Christian’s can easily miss God’s will by praying for it, but doing nothing about it. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we find it easier to pray and expect divine intervention than actually allowing God to use us to accomplish His will. It is much simpler to pray for God to feed my neighbor than to take him groceries.

We often tell others that we will pray for them and somehow think that we have settled the debt of love we owe them. (see Romans 13:8) It makes us feel as though, somehow, we have caused the work of God to be done because we prayed, and that our love is demonstrated in that few moments of calling someone’s name in intercession. We convince ourselves that God is pleased and seldom evaluate whether the need was met.

This is the prayer that God cannot/will not answer ... because the answer is not prayer. God’s will is to use us as vessels of love, not spilling out just words of charity, not spilling out just petitions for needs, but spilling over everyone in our lives actions of agape love. Many times, the answer to pray is not what God will do, but what we must to do. God cannot answer when we are His answer and we refuse to accomplish the deed.

The fact is that prayer is the easy way out. It becomes even easier when we recognize the energy we put into my prayers. How often do we labor for someone’s need in prayer. How often do we find ourselves spending hours battling for someone, wrestling like Jacob, in order to know that we have prayed the prayer of faith. So often we fail to connect with the needs of people we pray for. Someone’s mother is dying with cancer and is now in hospice and we diminish our “Christian” care, our passion for healing, to a few incidental words that take mere seconds to speak. We walk away from our short plea feeling as though we have done a great thing for God and for others.

Pray is not a substitute for love. Jesus said:

John 13:34

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Love each other as Christ loved us? How did Christ love us? Was His love based on prayers for us, or was there more? Did His love move Him to action, even to death on a cross? Yes! The love of Jesus was a love that drove Him beyond words to demonstration. The love that Christ knew for us was a love that was, at the least, inconvenient for him. Christ moved, by His compassion for us, did things that took Him beyond words or prayers, to the point of giving. His love didn’t stop at the Mount of the Beatitudes with words of blessing: “Blessed are....” But, He blessed!

In the book of James we read:

James 2:14-20 (The Message)

Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

Love is the arms of our faith. The operation of love is often the answer to our own prayers. God answers prayer through us. Are there cases where He must divinely intervene? Of course! Can we heal? No, but does God say to lay our hands on the sick? Can I travel around the world to put something in the hands of a missionary? No, but can I pull out my wallet and place a check in a mission’s envelope? Can I stop the grass from growing? No, but I can cut it for a neighbor who has a broken leg.

Real love cannot not be condensed to words. Words seldom impact lives. Love will call us to do things that will not be convenient, that will not be comfortable, and will demand that we give what is hard to give. Love will ask you to sacrifice more than prayers. God’s design for us to love is a call to duty, to sweat, to tears, to toil, and even to pain. Love is described by these very things, not verbal expressions of care or even prayers of concern.

So, am I saying to stop praying? No, our works are supported by our faith. (see James 2:18, above) We are commissioned to pray. Intercession is a God-given tool. Prayer is of great value to God. Prayer is that vehicle that God chose to allow us to express our faith in Him and our desire for His will. Pray can change things that cannot be changed without it. But the greatest commandment is not “pray!” The greatest duty of man doesn’t take place on bended knee, but the action of the hand! That is produced by the heart.

God’s love is not the fulfillment of His plan. His intent becomes complete when His love is poured through us to transform our world. The “key” is what we allow to happen because of the labor of our love.

Pray for your world, but more importantly love it!

Ro 13:8 

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.