#prayer #prayers #unansweredprayers #unanswered
7 Reasons Why Prayers Are Not Answered and the Story of 3 Friends: Sarah, Emily and Rachel – Lessons from the prayer request of the Lion and the Buffalo
Saturday, 17th of August 2024
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/uIIkmsXK2hk
7 Reasons Why Prayers Are Not Answered and the Story of 3 Friends: Sarah, Emily and Rachel – Lessons from the prayer request of the Lion and the Buffalo
Friends, I woke up this morning to a message alert on my phone from a friend. It was a picture of the Lion and the Buffalo, both presenting a prayer request to their maker God.
The Lion: “Give us our daily bread”
The Buffalo: “Deliver us from all evil.”
There was a commentary under this imposing picture as follows:
“This poignant picture speaks volumes! It captures the prayers of two animals, each with a unique request. The lion’s prayer is, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), while the buffalo’s prayer is, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13b) This raises a thought-provoking question begging for answer”
“If God decides to answer the lion’s prayer, the buffalo becomes its prey, providing food for the lion. On the other hand, if God answers the buffalo’s prayer, the lion will go hungry and potentially die. This dilemma sparks a fascinating debate about justice and fairness.”
“Which prayer should God answer to ensure equity? I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this intriguing scenario. Please share your insights! We learn everyday”
The interesting fact of the matter is that both prayer requests were scripturally sound. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray when His disciples asked to be taught as John taught his disciples (Luke 11:1). The prayer request and the circumstances surrounding these two requests strike at the core of answered and unanswered prayers and more importantly at righteousness and justice are the foundation upon which God’s throne is built (Psalm 89:14).
These very prayers take a more personal tone and intensity if we replace the lion with a coffin maker and the buffalo representing those who don’t want to die soon and have no intention of making their dead body the next customer for the coffin maker; or the doctor and the patient; or the bad government and the governed; or the kidnappers and the victim. It was told that some robbers pray to God before embarking on their trade asking God to bless their operation whilst the potential victims are praying that God keeps them from the evil one of the nights. The list goes on as long as your imagination permits. I have heard stories of some unscrupulous spiritual leaders that bless the business of oil thieves and in turn receive strange tithes and offerings from them, all in the name of ministering to them believing that they will come out of the illicit trade and join the believers club sometime in the future.
I decided to post the same messages to our different broadcast group with our eclectic audience cutting across church leaders, Pastor, Business leaders, Former house members, senate members, professionals, young and old from different churches and background, believers and potential believers alike – from other faiths. Below are some of the insights I received. ..more responses still coming in. I posted my insights to my friend which will be shared at the bottom of all inputs received so far from others.
For brevity, here are a few:
“Because God has the sovereign power, God’s answer to our prayers sometimes is NO, WAIT or YES. In this scenario God may tell the lion to wait, otherwise, the buffalo would lock him down with his horns and he would die. With a little bit of patience God will provide a prey for him.”
“This is truly hilarious! God can answer each of their prayers.
- God will deliver the buffalo from the lion.
- God will provide the lion with an alternative meal other than the buffalo.”
“There is this fascinating story in Genesis 18 that should make all humans shudder at the depth of justice, fairness, mercy, and compassion of God towards His creation.
God in all His wisdom has the complete CONTEXT of all human nuances brought upon by the “Fall”.
The God of all creation has the final say regarding justice, equity, and fairness in our broken world.
Therefore, “which prayer should God answer to ensure equity and fairness” depends on the context which only God knows.”
“Hahahaha this is thought provoking question. God can answer both prayers. God can answer Buffalo’s prayer by making the lion not go for the buffalo or in the cause of the lion trying to kill the buffalo the Buffalo can in turn kill the lion. God can also answer the prayer of the lion by directing it to other preys”
“Good morning AMBASSADOR MONDAY!
Since at the BEGINNING OF LIFE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN GOD MADE ANIMALS VIS A VIS THE LION AND THE BUFFALO NOT TO EAT EACH OTHER BUT GRASS, SO THEN LET US EARNESTLY TELL OUR FATHER GOD TO TAKE AWAY EVIL ON EARTH THAT BOTH ANIMALS EAT THEIR ORIGINAL FOOD GOD MADE FOR THEM BOTH!
That is my INSIGHT AS THE LORD GAVE US A TEMPLATE OF PRAYER SUCH AS …… THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
Matthew 6:10!”
“God can answer both at the same time; he can easily make the Lion forget his hunger or make him lose appetite, thereby saving the Buffalo’s life.”
“Monday, you are making a wrong assumption. One on one the Buffalo will most likely kill the Lion. It’s bigger in size and its horns are seriously dangerous to kill the Lion instantly. The Lion will only overcome the Buffalo if it comes as a group.”
“I don’t buy into this philosophical assumption that ignores God’s sovereignty. He says in Romans 9:14-18:- “Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all. For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.” So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God’s mercy. For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.” So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes anyone he wishes.”
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“Simplified and clear concepts when truly understood, and submerged lessons made clear, learnt and assimilated, makes the intended right response it’s planned to elicit not to be missed.
However, to achieve this, three principles, namely: 1) definition, 2) context and 3) perspective must be employed with a delicate balance to rightly approach it.
In the prayer story above – definition and perspective are clear or not needed at the moment.Thus, to rightly answer questions posed, the principle of context is required here.
God is loving, gracious, just, fair, good and protects all vulnerable creatures of his from all other creatures or beings stronger than them.
However these characteristics, values and attributes of operation and application are subject and confined to certain general or specific laws depending on the context and condition that precede the victim – the buffalo and the predator – the lion meeting each other.
Under these conditions the predator will will win: habitual sin that the victim has been repeatedly warned to repent from but stubbornly continue in, rebellion, bad attitude that predispose prey-creature to preventable dangers, careless-reckless living, habitual gross violations of well defined code of conduct, ethics or rules, ignorance, arrogance, foolishness/folly, habitual hasty way of life, indiscipline, and stupidity and a poor or bad system of dealing with issues, uninstructed-foolishness orchestrated Lords power/faith test – the story of the man in University of Ibadan zoo lion’s den: claiming he wants to prove that the Lord is alive and will repeat Daniel’s lions den experience.
However, the victim prey-creature will be delivered from their predators in these context: preplanned confrontation designed to teach prey creature vital life lessons and shame arrogant predator boast of its power, strength and scheming to have anything it wants without the Lord’s help – a man can receive nothing except it is given from above 3:27, strayed and helpless prey-creature that unintentionally wander off from the herd/pack for some reason beyond its control, providential occasion design to show mercy, or a design scenario designed to pay back a favour or good deed, obedience match design to show prey-creature the Lord’s faithfulness, power, omniscient , omnipotence, omnipresence and providential foresight over all creatures in right standing with him and in keeping with his known will or specific instructions. Humility, test of supremacy of given applied divine wisdom, an impromptu situation that warrant prey-creature to meet predator creature in a course of unpredictable and unplanned events, a strong reason to live/a must fulfill destiny in case of human beings or providentially set aside prey-creature that the Lord cannot allowed to be terminated prior realising it predetermined purpose for being – a lot of attempts were made on our LORD Jesus and apostle Paul but non succeeded until appointed time, if a prey-creature have found favour and it’s regularly being advocated for or the LORD moved it’s advocate to pray in time: prior, and during the death confrontation.
Prey-creatures deliverance from death and their predators or having them get delivered to their predators as food is set on the followings: God’s sovereignty, prerogative, providence, context, concerned prey-creature relationship standing with the Lord, known and unknown will LORD’s will and timing. I think with these, the above questions have been addressed. Blessings in Christ. O. Onijesude”
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Below was my first response: The animals should have structured their prayer request a little differently since there is a potential prey already In front of the Lion and the Buffalo is already sensing danger.
Buffalo Prays: “Lord, give me power to fight off my enemies, oh Lord.” Whilst for the lion, it will be, whatever is not my own, don’t give to me oh Lord even if I need to go hungry and die off to meet you”
BUT since it strikes on the issue of answered and unanswered prayers, Justice and fairness, if we go beyond the animals and replace with real humans as explained earlier above with varying interests, I decided to add these 7 reasons why prayers are not answered and you will find a thin line that waive through some or all of the responses above.
So, fasten your seatbelt!
7 Reasons Why Prayers Are Not Answered and the story of 3 friends – Sarah, Emily and Rachel
There are reasons why prayers are not answered
God is not a cosmic genie who promises to answer every request if we just believe strongly enough in His power. There are qualifiers. Someone once said that God answers prayer in one of four ways or more:
1) “Yes,”
2) “No,”
3) “Wait,”
or
4) “You’ve got to be kidding Me!” or
“Did I just hear you ask for that…????”
Here are 7 Reasons Why Prayers Are Not Answered and there might be more if you ask Him yourself.
Why Prayers Are Not Answered Reason
#1: Unconfessed sin.
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2)
#2: An unforgiving spirit.
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25)
#3: An unbelieving heart.
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” (James 1:6-8)
#4: Improper motives.
“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3)
#5: An alienated marriage relationship.
“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” (1 Peter 3:7)
#6: An anemic effort.
“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” (Acts 12:5) “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” (James 5:17)
#7: The sovereignty of God.
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:15-16)
Finally,
The Story of 3 Friends – Sarah, Emily and Rachel
Three friends, Sarah, Emily, and Rachel, had been inseparable since childhood. They had shared countless memories together, and their bond had only grown stronger with each passing year. One day, they decided to go to Father God with a prayer request.
Sarah, the tenacious of the group, was determined to get her prayer answered. She had been struggling with a chronic illness for years, and she was adamant that God could heal her. She prayed with all her might, her voice trembling with conviction, her eyes brimming with tears.
Emily, on the other hand, was easily excitable. She would get carried away with her prayers, raising her voice and waving her hands in the air. She was full of enthusiasm, but her prayers were often short-lived. As the minutes ticked by, her excitement would wane, and she would eventually fall silent.
Rachel, the third member of the group, was neither here nor there. She prayed softly, her voice barely ignored the din of the bustling church. She seemed lost in thought, her eyes glazed over, as if she were a million miles away.
As they finished their prayers, they left the sanctuary, each one confident that their prayer request had been heard and answered. But as the days passed, only Sarah’s prayer was granted. She was miraculously healed of her illness, and she knew that it was God’s answer to her determined prayers.
Emily, on the other hand, was left feeling disappointed and disillusioned. She had put so much effort into her prayers, but they seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. She wondered if God had even heard her prayers.
Rachel, the third member of the group, remained indifferent. She had never been one to get too excited about prayer, and she didn’t let the outcome affect her. She knew that God had His own plans and timeline, and she trusted that He would answer her prayers in His own way and in His own time.
As the three friends went their separate ways, they each reflected on their prayer experience. Sarah was grateful for her healing, Emily was left searching for answers, and Rachel remained content in her trust of God’s sovereignty.
Their prayer experience has shown them that sometimes, even with the same prayer request, the answers we receive can be vastly different. But it also reminded them that God is a God of love and grace, who hears and answers every prayer, even if it doesn’t always come in the way we expect it to.
Trust and obey- When we have done all that needs to be done and submitted our request, if there is no conviction within our heart, we keep at it until conviction comes as we check our hearts and ask Him if these requests are in order with His divine counsel for us. If there are steps to take, confession to make, we have to be sensitive to take that on board and we wait and trust and obey
The Lord Jesus provided ample evidence of His love by coming to earth and suffering and dying for our sins. He gave us proof of His power by rising from the dead. So we have good reason to believe that “all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
God doesn’t promise that all our prayers will be answered just as we express them. He does promise that He hears our prayers and in the end all will be made right. In the meantime, ours is not to understand or explain, but to trust and to wait.
Do you have more reasons to provide in light of the new input to the discussion? Are there lessons today that you could apply going forward especially with regards to the 7 reasons to unanswered prayers and the story of the 3 friends, let’s hear them or write back
Shalom!
Ambassador Monday O. Ogbe
God’s Eagle Ministries
https://www.otakada.org
Where we are seeding the Nations with God’s word and God is transforming lives through His timeless TRUTH One content at a time. We are One in Christ Jesus Let’s Stay ONE Evangelism Discipleship Counseling Healing Deliverance Restoration and Prayer without WALLS BORDERS and DENOMINATIONS!