Does GOD answer ‘ALL’ our PRAYERS?
March 29 Bible
Reading: 1 Samuel Chapters 28-31
Does GOD answer ‘ALL’ our PRAYERS?
Then
the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul
gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the
army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And
when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams
or by Urim or by the prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, "Find me a
woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her." (1 Sam
28:4-7)
Saul, who
started his reign with great expectations being filled and prophesying through
the Spirit of God (10:6-12), had a tragic life ending. He had started out with
everything in his favor but then had departed from God gradually. It all began with
him offering a presumptuous sacrifice as a result of which Samuel foretold the
loss of his kingdom (13:14). Then Saul disobeyed God's specific commands and
spared Agag and flocks due to which he lost his kingdom (15:28). With his total
separation from Samuel, Saul then lost complete fellowship with God as well (28:6).
In his downhill path Saul then visited a medium to get answers, and his doom was
predicted (28:19). Finally, Saul ended up taking his own life in a battle that
killed all his three sons as well (31:4, 6).
When Saul
began his reign, it was “the dawning of
the day” (9:26), but now he was walking in total darkness. Saul’s
disobedience in the past had led to darkness in the present, and defeat along
with death in the future. By consulting a medium (28:7), Saul made a poor
choice as his use of witchcraft was a violation of God’s law (Exod. 22:18; Lev.
19:31; 20:6; Deut. 18:9–14), and that ultimately led to his death (1 Chr.
10:13–14).
Moreover, Saul
had been fighting a ‘wrongly perceived’
enemy (David) for so long that when the ‘real’
enemy (Philistines) appeared, he was unprepared. Saul’s persistent disobedience
had left him completely without God’s presence and protection. Saul had rejected
God earlier and as a consequence God had rejected him now (15:23). When God
gave him opportunities to repent, he ignored them. He did not “seek the Lord while He may be found”
(Isaiah 55:6).
All these
problems did not happen overnight for Saul. When Saul had killed the priests
from Nob earlier (22:18-19), he totally eliminated the means by which he could
receive guidance from God. While David had the prophet Gad with him (22:5), it
is unlikely that a true prophet accompanied Saul after Samuel had left him for
good due to his deliberate sins (15:34-35). Moreover, the authentic ephod
containing the Urim (2:28) had come into David’s possession now through the
priest Abiathar (22:20-23; 23:6). God was
not with Saul now and his prayer was not answered!
What should we do when our prayers
are not answered immediately? The first thing is
to examine our hearts to see if we have sin in our lives. The Psalmist has thus
said: "If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear (me)" (Psalms 66:18). Let us confess our
sins through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9), and forsake them as well. "He who covers his sins will not
prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy"
(Prov 28:13).
God’s delays are necessarily not His denials! Let us be persistent in our prayers like the widow in Luke 18:1-8, and Daniel who had to wait for an answer from God for three full weeks (Daniel 10:1-14). Let us not go to any wrong people as Saul did, but get our answers directly from God according to His wonderful promise: "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (Jer 33:3).
