Like many of you, I have times of trial and difficulty. I pray and try to trust the Lord with the problem, and then wait for his answer. But what do we do when we have a pressing problem or obstacle in our life, we pray and wait, but the answer does not come?
I have been attempting to minister to the people of Bantayan Island in the Philippines for the past year. We have sold our home in the U.S., at a price far below it’s real worth, believing that the Lord allowed this to happen because he wanted us to trust him for the rest of the finances that we would need once we arrived on Bantayan.
We arrived here and began the building of the house and church we would live in and use for ministry, by application for a building permit. We hired an architect, had the plans completely engineered and paid all the fees required. We did everything legally required to secure a permit. At the same time we were applying for our permit, the entire island became under a suspension for all building permits, pending action by an environmentalist who has brought a case before a judge in the main city of Cebu. The results of this petition by the attorney, was that the local municipality where we live, has ceased issuing all permits for any house along the shore of the island. Even though there is no specific order for any private property owner to not be able to build, the suit being against seven commercial resorts for building too close to the shore, one individual has decided on his own that he will not issue any permits. The law specifically prescribes how building permits are to be issued, and with a denial of application, a reason must be given in writing, with an opportunity for appeal. No such letter was given to us, no opportunity to appeal. This is clearly an unlawful action and violates the most basic property rights of people who have a legal right to build on their own property.
Knowing that the Lord had clearly lead us to the island and had given us the land, and the opportunity to build here, we proceeded as instructed by the supervisor of zoning, “at our own risk”. After nearly 3 months of building and nearing the completion of the foundation and walls of the house, we were ready to install the roof and windows. In order to do this, we need electricity for the welding machine, on our home site.
Upon making application for a temporary electrical connection, we have run into a brick wall. The municipality will not issue a permit, causing all work to come to a halt. After praying and seeking direction from the Lord, no answer has come and it feels as if he has abandoned us at the end of our long journey here. Of course the Lord does not ever abandon his people, but never-the-less, this is how it feels to us at this moment. When answers do not come in our life after we pray. When evil men seem to have authority given to them by God over us and our trials, it does feel as if God has forsaken us.
There are many web sites where people have had similar situations in which they were desperately in need of the Lord’s help, they prayed, and he did not answer. Some of these people are now bitter and no longer feel they can trust the Lord. Have you ever felt all alone and that the Lord has not heard your cry for help? Then you know what I am talking about. When it happens to you, it hurts deeply, and it drastically affects your faith.
My pastor for the last 36 years, is Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California. He has written and taught us extensively on this subject of prayer without answers, and the reality of having doubts in God in those moments. One of these studies is in Psalm 77, where the Psalmist is experiencing the very same feelings that we are discussing here in my situation, and perhaps your own situation at sometime in the past.
What am I going to do in my present difficulty when it seems God is not working or coming to my aide? I will continue to love him, trust him, and wait for his answer. Where else can I go, only He has the words of eternal life….
We will stop all construction, take time off to rest and refresh ourselves from the nearly three months of constant stress and anxiety, and allow the Lord as much time as he requires to bring a solution to this problem. Oh, I could fight, I could file a law suit and perhaps win. I can become bitter at God for not coming to my aide at this late hour. I can loose my faith and trust in him and use that as an excuse to live my life my own way for now on….
But I will not!
You see, about 2,000 years ago Jesus died for me on the cruel Roman cross and paid for all of my sins. In that single act, God forever proved to me that he does love me. Now when I do not know or understand what the Lord is doing in my life, and I have these deep doubts and feel the pain of unheard prayers, I want to give up and walk away from ever trusting the Lord, but I do not. Why? Because I can look back to what I do know, when I don’t know what is happening now. God forever proved his love to me when he allowed his Son to die for my sins. He does not have to prove his love to me today by doing things my way, or answering my prayers in the prescribed time I allow him to do so.
So, I will wait for him, and in time I am confident that answer will come. I do not need to fight this battle my way, because the Lord has already told me that the battles of our life are not by our power or might, but by his spirit….
I am just as angry and hurt at God right now as ever, but my heart and my mind refuse to concede that God has really forsaken me. It only seems that way, because I have not yet heard from him. In his time and in his way, the answers I need will come. Until then I will take the final bit of faith that I have and plant it deep in the soil of my sorrow and pain and wait till the Lord waters it and brings a brand new crop of faith by his sure help that will come soon.
It was very hard for me to write this article because I did not want to think anymore about how hurt I feel. I did not want to be reminded of how much pain I am going through. At the same time, I needed to let out my true feelings to God and to those of you who might also be going through a similar time of trial, doubts, and pain. I hope you will do what I am trying to do now, just hold on to your trust of God for a little while longer and wait for him. Give him as much time as he requires, to do what he wants. Take the time off and away from your present struggle to relax, read your Bible, and enjoy the simple pleasures of your life. Allow yourself to be refreshed and concern yourself no longer for the outcome of your problem. The solution is not in your power, it is under the Lord’s authority. If we just trust him a little while longer and we do not fight and try to fix the problem ourselves, he will come to our aid and fix for us what we cannot or should not do, ourselves.
Rob Robinson
The following is Pastor Chuck Smith’s study on Psalm 77. It helped me in this difficult time, I trust it will do the same for you.
By, Chuck Smith
So psalm seventy-seven sort of follows that same kind of a pattern where he makes a declaration of God in a positive way but then he lapses into the depths of despair, despondency, discouragement and depression but then looking at things from a different perspective, from a divine perspective, he has confidence, he gains confidence and he begins his declarations of confidence and praise in God. Let’s follow it in seventy-seven.
I CRIED unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me (77:1).
God answers prayer. This is the basic affirmation of the psalm. We know that this is true, that the basic thrust or incentive to pray is the fact that God answers prayer. It does follow that there are many prayers that go up to bring nothing down. When God doesn’t answer prayer, our first reaction is to blame God for not answering prayer rather than looking at our prayer or at ourselves we have a tendency to immediately blame God. He affirms that I did call and he gave ear, God does hear the prayers of his people and God answers the prayers of his people, that’s the chief thrust for praying.
James said, “You have not because you ask not”. Many people just haven’t prayed about it, that’s why they don’t have it. Then he went on to say though, “You ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you might consume it on your own lust”. So your prayers are for the wrong things. I do believe that there is a vast misunderstanding of prayer within the church, within the Christian body, because so often we look at prayer as an agency that God has devised whereby we can accomplish our will upon the earth. Unfortunately that’s being preached really in some quarters. Prayer is that and faith are those divine agencies by which you can get your will done upon the earth, you can write your own ticket with God, you can become a sovereign god yourself because you can create your own realities. That’s never the purpose of prayer. The real purpose of prayer is to get God’s will accomplished upon the earth.
When Jesus was in the garden, surely he expressed it when he said, “Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not what I will but thy will be done”. Any prayer that is offered to God that doesn’t have that “Nevertheless not my will, thy will be done isn’t really true prayer”. You don’t understand the real purpose of prayer. It’s not to get your will done; it’s to get God’s will done. Thus many times we are asking amiss because we are asking to consume it upon our own lusts. Our purpose is to get my will accomplished rather than getting God’s will accomplished here on earth. He affirms the fact of God I prayed and God does hear our prayers.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: (77:2).
That is, I sought the Lord and there was no answer to my cry, to my prayer. It was as though God did not answer the prayer. The problem continued. We’ve all had that experience haven’t we? Where we brought an issue to God in prayer and it seemed like nothing happened, the problem persisted.
I think of how Mary and Martha sent the urgent message to Jesus when their brother Lazarus was so sick, was dying. Jesus was down at the Jordan River and they sent that urgent message that said, “Lord, come quickly. The one you love is dying” and Jesus, it said, continued there at the Jordan River for two days with his disciples after receiving this urgent appeal. After two days Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go to Bethany that we might see Lazarus”. Now it’s a two-day journey from Jericho to Lazarus at Bethany.
By the time that Jesus is approaching the village his friend has already been dead for four days, he’s been buried. Martha, when word came to the mourners that Jesus was approaching Bethany, went running down the road towards Jericho to meet Jesus as he came. When she caught up with him she said, “Lord, if you would have only been here my brother would not have died.” She was rebuking him. She was in essence saying, “Lord, what took you so long to get here? Lord, why didn’t you respond to our prayer? The request was to come quickly, the one you love is dying”.
Why didn’t Jesus respond immediately? Because Jesus wanted to demonstrate his power in even a greater way than they ever dreamed. They wanted Jesus to come and heal Lazarus. Had he just come and healed Lazarus everyone would have said, “O isn’t Jesus wonderful. He came and Lazarus was healed but he probably would have gotten better anyhow”. It’s so easy for us to cry unto the Lord and ask God to do something. After God does it we can attribute it to natural things, “O well had we just waited another day it would probably been alright anyhow so no sweat”.
Jesus really wanted to do something even more amazing. He stayed down at the Jordan River for two days. He allowed Lazarus to become thoroughly dead. Four days wrapped in those grave clothes in that tomb and when Jesus came to the tomb and he ordered the stone to be rolled back they objected. They said, “Lord, it’s been four days. He’s smelling pretty bad by now” and Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come forth”. Someone has suggested it’s a good thing he said Lazarus come forth or he would have emptied the whole cemetery. Lazarus came forth and the power of God was revealed in even a greater way.
Sometimes God delays the answers to our prayers so that when he gives he might give more than what we were ever anticipating or desiring. I think in the Old Testament of Hannah who had a curse, from a cultural standpoint in that she was barren. That was a cultural curse. It was grounds for legal divorce; no one would have questioned Elkanah had he said to beat it woman. If a woman could not bare a son or a child for her husband, that was legal grounds for divorce. It was a curse to not be able to bare children.
In that day polygamy was practiced and the other wife of Elkanah could have all kinds of kids. She was throwing it into Hannah’s face that something was wrong with her. Hannah was just vexed by this and no doubt had prayed and prayed and prayed for God to give her a son. Yet God didn’t answer, the delay of the answer. She and her husband were going to Shiloh to worship God for at that time the tabernacle was at Shiloh. While she was there she was in agony of spirit. Of course on the way there she was depressed, she was down and her husband said, “What’s the matter? What kind of a traveling companion are you? Cheer up”. She would be saying, “How can I be happy when I don’t have a child? Give me a child or I’m going to die”. He got upset “Do you think I’m God, what can I do? God knows we’ve tried”.
She was in such bitterness of spirit that as she was lying there in the temple area she couldn’t utter the prayer aloud anymore. It was the agony of the heart. She was lying there probably contorted and just her mouth moving with no words coming out. Eli the priest came by and said, “Hey woman get rid of booze it’s going to ruin you”. She said, “I’ve not been drinking sir. My heart is grieved before God. I’ve been asking God to give me a son” but she had done one more thing, she said, “God if you would just give me a son I will give him back to you all the days of his life”. That’s what God was wanting.
Israel was in a desperate state. Eli the priest was corrupted. With a corrupted priesthood you have a corrupted condition through out the land. God needed a deliverer for the people and there was none. So God needed a man and to get a man he had to get the woman first. What he did was shut up her womb. She prayed and sought God and nothing happened until finally she prayed, “God if you’ll just give me a son I’ll give him back to you”. Now she’s in line with the purpose of God.
God is just looking for people who are in line with his purpose. “The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entire earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect”. Now her heart is perfect towards the Lord. The priest said, “God your way. God has heard your prayer”. Samuel was born. That one that God raised up to be a prophet and a judge to the Nation of Israel that brought them out of their spiritual morass and led them into a worship and an acknowledgement again of God as the Lord over the nation. God again delayed the answer that he might give more and that is often the case.
The psalmist cried unto God in his trouble but there was no relief. It continued. The problem did not cease until he went into a depression.
my soul refused to be comforted (77:2).
The thought of God became bitter. When I would think about God it would only trouble me because I don’t understand God. That often is troubling because I desire to understand what God is doing in my life. But God said, “My ways are not your ways saith the Lord. For my ways are beyond your finding out”. I am thankful that God is not limited to my ways.
So many times when I am facing a problem I get it all figured out. If God would just do this and this and this then it will come together here and it will be great. I’ve got the whole thing worked out. If I will just win the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes coming up on the fifteenth, all of my problems are going to be over. O God, let them draw my number now. Let that thing pop out of the computer, the one that they sent me, that special card that I got. I am praying now direction prayers rather than direct prayer. I’m directing God how to do it because I’ve got it all figured out. Then July fifteenth passes and I don’t get any call and no telegram. God, how could you let me down? What am I going to do now? This was the last hope. I’m all upset because my debts are still here. God didn’t come through, I prayed that I might win.
God has a completely different way to work out the problem and suddenly here it comes along and wow, that wasn’t as complex as I thought it was. How could God think of that? Why didn’t I think of that? That was so simple. What a simple solution. I’ve got this whole complex thing worked out and God has got to work through this maze and if he makes it to the end then I’ll get the reward. He doesn’t always follow my complex methods and he has usually such a much more simpler way of doing things. Our prayers need to be direct prayer. Lay the need before the Lord and leave it at that.
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, (77:3).
Yes I have at that. Have you ever complained to God? Do you know what that is about?
and my spirit was overwhelmed (77:3).
It now became a spiritual problem. Often times these things can turn into real spiritual problems in your life. That endeavor by man with this finite mind to understand the infinite God. I am running up against all of these impenetrable walls. I can’t understand what God is doing and I can’t understand this infinite God and I can’t understand the ways of the infinite God because we are looking at the situation from a different perspective.
I am looking at it from my temporal material perspective of how it’s going to affect me now and God is looking at it from the eternal perspective of how it’s going to affect me eternally. Because we are looking at the issues from a different perspective I cannot understand the eternal perspective of God, the eternal plan that God is working out because I am so interested in my temporary comfort, temporary convenience because I’m living in this day to day world and I want things to work out now because I’m not going to be here long. “Why tarry ye Lord?” Let’s get things going God. You may have eternity but I don’t.
He began to lose sleep. His eyes in the night are wide open looking at the ceiling.
Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak (77:4).
Getting to the place where you can’t even talk about the issues anymore.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times (77:5).
Now he is beginning to reflect on the past of what God has revealed of himself to the fathers.
I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search (77:6).
This is the turn around point. He had lapsed into the depths of despair. His spirit is troubled and overwhelmed, he can’t sleep and he can’t even talk about it. Coming to the bottom things begin to change. He began to ask a series of questions concerning God in which he took it to the absurd, reducing it to the absurd.
Will the Lord cast of for ever? (77:7).
Of course we know he won’t.
and will he be favourable no more? (77:7).
Has God ended his favors? Has he quit working? Has God abandoned his creation? Sometimes we are prone to think that aren’t we when we look around and see the conditions that are going on.
Is his mercy clean gone for ever? (77:8).
Will he never again be merciful?
doth his promise fail for evermore? (77:8).
Are the promises of God something that you can’t trust anymore? Has God failed to keep his word? “Heaven and earth will pass away” Jesus said, “but my words will never pass away”.
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? (77:9).
Has he changed his nature?
hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? (77:9).
All of these are sort of rhetorical type of questions that immediately call for a “No, of course not. No, that’s foolish. That’s stupid to think that”.
And I said, This is my infirmity: (77:10).
It isn’t God’s problem, this is my problem. The problem isn’t on God’s side of the wall; the problem is on my side of the wall.
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old (77:11).
I will remember the past. There is where the scripture comes in, as I read of God’s faithfulness to his word, to his people. I read of the work of God amongst his people, the delivering hand of God when it seemed like there was no hope at all.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings (77:12).
As he turns around, rather than looking at God in a negative light he is beginning to look at God in a positive light.
Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou has declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph (77:13-15).
He turns things around and he sees the power of God, the glory of God and the works of God and he sees God in a positive light. Be careful when you start looking at God in a negative light. That’s a trick of the enemy to take you to the bottom. “I don’t think God really cares about me. I don’t think God is interested in me at all. I don’t think God loves me anymore. I think that God’s forsaken me.” You are looking at God in this negative light and man, talk about despair, that’ll take you to the bottom. We need to look at God in a positive light. Surely there is no God as great as our God. He does such marvelous things. He is manifested his strength to his people.
He begins to talk of the waters. That is the waters of the Red Sea when the children of Israel had come and they seemed to be trapped, there was no way out. The Egyptians were behind them, the sea in front of them and the hills of Pihahiroth beside them. They are in this valley and they were trapped.
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled (77:16).
He speaks of this now in a very poetic beautiful way.
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not know. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron (77:17-20).
You brought them through.
Psalm seventy-eight is the first of what they call the historic psalms. The psalmist said I’m going to give you a parable but really he is going to give to you now a review of the history of the nation in this psalm in a poetic form. He’s going to follow the history of the nation from the beginning of it being a nation up until that present time which was the time of David’s reign. In the book of Acts when Stephen was brought before the counsel, we find that Stephen in his defense gave to them a preview of their history.
It was very important to the Jew to understand their history as it related to God and to look back and to see how God relates to the historic events of a nation. It is an important thing to see how that when that nation served and honored God they were blessed of God and prospered of God. When that nation turned against God, God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. Thus was the case of Israel when they followed after God, God blessed them and when they followed after the flesh and turned from God, then they experienced the judgements of God. As the psalmist is looking over their history he sees it as it relates to God.
