Does God Answer Prayer?

In 1974 Romania was in the grip of its dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. The people lived in constant fear. Secret police waited to pounce on anyone who stepped out of line. Informants were even among one's friends. The Church was heavily scrutinized, restricted, and openly opposed.

It was under these circumstances that a few women from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Oradea, in northwest Romania, felt the urge to pray for their country on a regular basis. They requested a room at the church and decided that early in the morning was the best time: 5:30 a.m.

This handful of women began their prayer vigil and consistently met at that time to pray for their country and the Church. It was not long before others joined. Soon the room was not big enough, so a larger room was allocated. This was followed by an even larger room, and then another, and another, until only the sanctuary was left in which to meet.

What began as five women praying grew to over 500 people meeting each morning to pray for change to come to their country. On Saturdays the number would swell to 900.

The amazing aspect about this story is not merely that the prayer meeting occurred early each morning, or the increasing number of people who flocked to the church to pray before they went to work, but that this prayer meeting went on every day for 15 years before they began to see answers to those prayers.

While under heavy persecution, they prayed that the time would come when the Church could worship freely and openly share the Gospel. They prayed that evangelistic meetings would be held in Cultural Halls, and that Bibles would be plentiful and easily distributed. All this was impossible at that time to even imagine.

It was not until 1989 that the communist governments of Eastern Europe began to crumble. One by one, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary all fell like a house of cards, releasing their people from 40 years of communist oppression. On Christmas day, 1989, the Romanian dictator Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed by their own soldiers. Freedom came to the Church.

The very things that the people had prayed for were realized. The Gospel was allowed to be openly preached, even to the holding of evangelistic crusades in soccer stadiums. Bibles were freely distributed and Christian literature was available for all.

How many of us in the West would have continued to pray for 15 years for things that appeared so incredibly impossible? It must have been a God-given vision for them to see the possibility of such a vast change in their country. God answered  their prayers and rewarded their faithfulness. Even then, they continued the daily prayer meeting for many years.

What is prayer?
Prayer is not trying to persuade God or force His hand. It is being a vessel available to implement the decisions that God has already made. God does not need our help. He is sovereign and totally self-sufficient, yet He calls upon His children to pray in order to fulfill His plan and purpose on earth.

Prayer can be very specific. For many years, a friend of ours prayed concerning the whereabouts of her children. Her estranged husband had taken them abroad and she was unable to find them. She felt she could never forgive him for this; but she never lost the desire to know where they were and she continued to pray.

Years later, after hearing a sermon on forgiveness, she realized that she needed to forgive her husband. Within days of doing so, she miraculously learned where her daughter was living. She had a remarkable and joyous reunion with her daughter and eventually with her son.

There are times we would love to see the hand of God visibly involved as we go through the day. The reality is that we have no idea how many times God intervenes on our behalf, protects and provides for us. We often see God’s hand at work retrospectively. As in Mary Stevenson’s popular “Footprints in the Sand” poem, we see only one set of footprints in the sand at the times of crisis and stress in our lives when, in fact, those were the times when God was carrying us.

Does God always answer prayer?
There are times our prayers are not answered in the way we want them to be, but they are always answered one way or another. There are places even in Scripture where answers to prayers were not quickly forthcoming. Paul had times where he did not receive the answer he had in mind (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Daniel also cites a time where his prayer was answered immediately but it took three weeks before he received the answer because of demonic powers (Daniel 10).

There are other reasons for seemingly unanswered prayer. James suggests prayerlessness and selfish intentions may be a problem: “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives” (James 4:2-3). Obviously we cannot see God’s answers to prayer if we do not pray. But when we do pray, what are our motives? Are they ultimately for the glory of God, or are we seeking answers only for our own benefit?

It is easy to say that “God knows best,” but that is little comfort for those going through a serious loss or heartache. Even though many lessons have been learned when God did not answer our prayer in the way we desired, there are times when we simply must yield to the sovereignty of God and to His greater knowledge and understanding.

We can take comfort and consolation from the fact that, even when we do not immediately see the answer to our prayer, we can still trust God implicitly. God has already been where we are and He promises to always be with us. One day we will understand why some of our prayers were visibly answered, while seemingly others were not. We will see that all our prayers were, in fact, answered in the best way possible. We bow to God’s authority and defer to His wisdom in all things and in all situations. We must rest in the assurance that He really does know best.

This article is an adaptation of a chapter in his book “If We Only Knew… Remarkable True Stories of God’s Intervention." Many of the stories in it are from his years traveling Russia and Eastern Europe on behalf of EC. For information on his book go to www.jmurray.ca.