386: Why Pray When Prayer Does Not Seem To Work? | +Quigg Lawrence

Please be seated. Thank you Jesus. You guys were spared in the first service. I couldn't find Bonnie, Reverend Bonnie Laconie from Rwanda. I started singing my Bonnie lies over the ocean—a song we sing together.

Well, stand up just for a second. I want to tell them who you are. Since 2012, we've been building churches in Rwanda. Many people tried it, but they all gave up too easily. Bishop Nathan was the one man who said yes, we'll do it with you. But this is the guy that executed all the work—111 churches. Amen.

Unlike Roanoke, which has 500 churches with a church on every corner, these are in rural places. It means that people can actually go to church and not have to walk 15 miles. Bonnie's made sure they not only have a church building, which is kind of a hub for their community, but also that they disciple people in God's Word—Old Testament, New Testament, and Bible studies.

Bonnie, we are honored to have you here. We love you. If you get on my phone, you see Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie. We're so glad to have you here in person, brother. Thank you.

I'm going to time us because when two people preach, it can get twice as long, and we don't want to do that to the nice people here.

Can we start with a story? Why don't you pray for us first, and then we'll start with the story.

Lord, we thank you for such a wonderful Sunday morning. We thank you for your grace and your love upon us, almighty Father. I thank you for everybody in this sanctuary. I pray that you touch their hearts and bless them, almighty Father. Give them strength. We pray for all those who are out there in Rwanda, and also those who have not made it to church and they're at home. Bless them, almighty Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

It's sort of ironic that we're celebrating the feast of Pentecost today. That was a Jewish feast that the Jews were required to go up to Jerusalem, and on that particular Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell, and everybody heard the gospel in their own language. Bonnie, you speak how many languages? Name them.

About seven or eight. I'll start with my native tongue and work out: Acholi, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Kiswahili, a little English. You've been studying maybe Greek or Hebrew? Well, a lot of Swahili.

It's so interesting that on Pentecost Sunday you were able to hear this in your own language, and you're able to speak in English. The Holy Spirit has fallen, and we're so glad that you can proclaim the gospel in a way that they can hear in their own language. Amen?

Alright. Let's start with a story. How many of you have heard of Dwight L. Moody? Dwight L. Moody was a famous evangelist, and I confess that I actually had to look this up on ChatGPT because I looked and looked and couldn't find the story. I wrote to ChatGPT: "Who was the famous evangelist who prayed for his best friend's son for decades but never saw the kid come to Christ, but at the funeral..." And it said, "Perhaps you're thinking of Dwight L. Moody."

Dwight L. Moody was an evangelist and he had this unique anointing from the Lord. When he would pray for people, they came to Christ. I don't know why. I don't know how. He just had this gift.

But Dwight L. Moody says there were two boys that he prayed for for decades. When Dwight L. Moody prayed, he wasn't bowing his head saying, "Thank you for these gifts we're about to receive." He got on his face. He got on his knees, and he did battle. He did intercession.

His friend, who was also an evangelist named Wilbur Chapman, had two boys that resisted the gospel. Can you imagine? PKs—preacher's kids, evangelist kids. Wilbur said to Dwight, "Here's the thing: my boys, I've told them everything I can tell them. They're not listening to me, so I turn them over to you."

So Dwight prayed and he prayed and he prayed. And unlike all the other people he prayed for, these boys never came to Christ in Moody's lifetime. Never.

Then when Dwight died, there was a funeral. And at the funeral, the Holy Spirit fell and one of those boys—one of Wilbur's sons—got cut to the heart and he heard the gospel in his own language for the very first time. He actually could hear the gospel.

And in that funeral service, he repented and he called upon the Lord. So I tell you that story to say, if you have somebody you've been praying for for a long time—I have many—you're so tempted to give up. So tempted to give up.

But what I wanna say is God doesn't always work on your time. He's not a vending machine. He's not a microwave that you punch the buttons and boom, thirty seconds later out comes hot. But in his time, God does all things well.

Dwight L. Moody is just one example of somebody who never got to see it in his life. Never got to see it.

Why Pray When Prayer Does Not Seem to Work?

Here's the question of the day as we're in our prayer series. Why pray? And I want you to know at the end, I'm gonna ask you, given some of the very hard things you've gone through, one especially brutal, how could you continue as a man of prayer?

Why do we pray when we don't see answers? I know what it's like to pray for somebody you love deeply and it's not just a polite prayer like you're begging God. God intervene. I wanna see my three friends in heaven. I want my friends not just to be in heaven. I want them to know you now. And we're thirty-two, thirty-three years into praying.

Just this past year, one of them has started to get it. God's cracking them open. One of them. It's only gonna take one because it's gonna be like an avalanche. But one of them through hardship, not through pleasure, through hardship has been open and find out he's reading about Christ and he's reading books about Christ. So we see God beginning to move.

Why do we pray when we don't get answers? Why? The first and best answer is because the Lord commands us to. At the end of the day, it's not about our feelings. It's not even about outcomes. Prayer is a gift. It's a relational gift where we not only ask God to do things, but we praise him. We thank him. We confess to him. And as we talk to each other, much like as Bonnie and I talk to each other via WhatsApp, FaceTime, whatever, we've grown close. And so the Lord, in his word, commands us to pray.

Let me give you some examples.

Pray continually. — 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Paul, the Lord speaking through Paul says, I want you to pray continually. That doesn't mean pray for a while and then get frustrated. It says pray continually. It's not an option. It's not if it feels good. He says, do it. Do it. Pure obedience.

Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. — Philippians 4

That's why we keep praying.

When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. — Matthew 6

Jesus says this. And embedded in that is the thought from Jesus that you're gonna continue to pray. You're not the only one to have hard things happen. You're not the only one to have somebody that didn't love Jesus, to have hardship, to have disease. He knew that. They had it too. He says, but when you pray, there was an expectation that we would keep praying.

Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. — Luke 18

Isn't it comforting to know that even those who walked with Jesus daily, they were tempted to give up? I understand that. Some of you have very important things you've been praying for and not for a week, not for a month, not even for a year—maybe a decade, maybe three decades, maybe five decades. And maybe like Dwight L. Moody, you haven't yet seen it.

The Persistent Widow

Bonnie, maybe you could share a couple examples of some people that persisted in prayer.

That's where we find the persistent widow. The widow wanted justice, and she went many times to this judge who didn't know God, who didn't care about even other people. I like this reference because in my context, we always say persistence breaks resistance. And we see the widow persisting even when the judge was saying no many times. She went there many times. She continued to persist that justice will come on her end, that she will receive justice.

The judge didn't want to be beaten down, so because of persistence he gave in. And I love the way Jesus puts it here:

Will not God bring about justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? — Luke 18

God loves us. God is our Father. I always like to see it as me as a father.

I have two lovely young daughters who are very demanding sometimes. When I come to America, they ask things like, "Bring us snow because they want to have a white Christmas." We cannot have a white Christmas in Rwanda because we do not have snow. We have a machine for that—we actually do. But I cannot carry that machine to Rwanda.

What do I tell my daughters? I tell them, "I love you guys, but snow you will not get." And then sometimes I'll tell them, "Wait, maybe there will be a big plane to take the snow machine someday." I tell them to wait. I tell them no. Just like God, our father, sometimes he will say, "Wait." Sometimes he will say, "No." Sometimes he will just give it to you right there.

The persistent widow was persistent, and the resistance was broken. I also love Second Corinthians. Paul gives us a great example of his persistence in prayer. In chapter 12, from verse 10, he talks about the thorn in the flesh that he had, the pain that he was going through, the challenges, the persecution. The devil was beating him down, tormenting him, and of course he didn't like it. Can you imagine a thorn in your flesh? Even just thinking about it—it feels like a thorn. He really wanted to get out of that position, and he asked the Lord, "Get this thing away from me. Can you take this thorn away?"

God did not answer him the way he wanted, but He told him, "Look, all you need is my grace. All you need is the grace that I give you." That is the sort of persistence. You might not get everything that you want from the Lord. We cannot turn God into a vending machine. I was telling the first service that I love Coca-Cola. If I wanted God to be like a Coca-Cola machine, every time I want Coca-Cola, I just push in a coin and get the Coca-Cola. I don't want my God to be like a machine like that. I want my God to be the God of grace, to be the God that gives me comfort, to be the God that gives me courage. Amen.

Those Who Did Not See Their Prayers Answered

I'm going to give you an example of some folks who did not see answers in prayers. Because it's always exciting to hear somebody have a testimony—"I prayed, was on my hands and knees and then, a year later, I saw an amazing answer." But let's turn to Hebrews 11. Does that ring a bell? The Hall of Faith, the Hall of Fame—great men and women of God. But then it says this:

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised... but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they are strangers and exiles on the earth. — Hebrews 11:13

If your prayers are not being answered, let me just tell you—the greatest men and women of God, sometimes the answer was yes from God. Sometimes the answer was not yet. But some of them never saw it in their lifetime. In Hebrews 11, they were all waiting. They were all hoping. They all did not see the things that were promised.

Now let's go to the New Testament. How about Anna? Do you remember Anna? Let's go to Luke 2, verse 36:

There was a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow she lived eighty-four years old. — Luke 2:36-37

That's really old for those days. The average lifespan was about 45, 50 years old, and yet here she is 84. You can imagine—there were no artificial knees, artificial shoulders, no back surgery, no pain pills, no whirlpools, no occupational therapy, no physical therapy, no acetaminophen, nothing. She's 84, in pain. And what was she doing? Was she griping? No.

She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. — Luke 2:37

And coming up at that very hour, Joseph and Mary were bringing the baby Jesus to the temple to fulfill the law.

She saw them and she began to give the Lord thanks and to speak of this Messiah to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. So we have an example in Anna of somebody who prayed for years, decades. A widow, she hurt, but she didn't wrap in on her hurt. She wrapped in on the Lord and she worshiped and she was steadfast, and God commends her.

Now, there's another one we want to look at in the New Testament. Turn back a page. Luke 2, Simeon. Do you remember that name? You probably heard his prayer also known as the Nunc Dimittis.

Lord, let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation that you've brought to your people Israel.

Do you know that prayer? Let's go read about Simeon. We are in Luke 2, verse 25.

Now, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel.

Some of y'all like to read. Some of y'all were English majors, and some of y'all play Wordle. I played that for like two weeks and I'm like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. Waste of time.

What's consolation? He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. What does consolation mean? To comfort. Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people. God's people were slaves for four hundred years. You think they weren't tired of waiting? They were waiting for Messiah.

It says that Simeon was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's Christ or Messiah. Don't you think there were days where he's like, it just ain't gonna happen? There would have been days where I'm like, Lord, I've been on my knees. I've been faithful. I've been praying. You ain't showing up. Anybody ever felt like that?

I got to a place about a year and a half ago. Was praying for somebody very dear in my life. I wanted the Lord to apprehend their heart, body, mind, soul. They would come back in fullness to Jesus and to his church and to his word, and after about 20,000 prayers, I'm like, Lord, really? Really? Are you deaf? And then the Scripture goes, oh no. He's not deaf. The Bible says:

Is the inventor of the ear unable to hear?

The Lord says, do you not think I love that person more than you? Like Job, I just kind of shut my lips. What I realized is God doesn't work in my timetable. I don't understand it. I don't know why when I snap my little fingers, he doesn't do what I ask him. When I put the quarter in the spiritual vending machine, why didn't he pop it out? I don't understand it. His ways are higher than my ways.

You know, my grandmother used to do this thing. In the old days, ladies would sit on the porch and they weren't snapping beans. They were knitting or doing penny point. Penny point is what it's called—little needles and little pre-designs. And so when you look at the top, you're like, wow, that's amazing. That's a cross and an angel and cherubim. Wow. And then you turn it over and it's just a big mess.

To me, life most often looks like this, and this is all we can see—is the mess. I'm so grateful that our God sees all things. Not just the mess that's before us, but he's actually using the mess. He's an amazing God where he can use broken things and messy things and broken people and messy people to do this beautiful thing that we're not yet seeing but we will see.

A Man of Prayer

Now, you, brother, I want you to tell them the truth. You're a man of prayer. You faithfully serve the Lord. He's built 111 churches. He's discipled those people. He does things when nobody's watching. You have had the most modest means, would go on these long journeys with his little coins and use that for fare—money he could use for his own kids' school fees. To go pray for somebody in this church's compassion kid. To go pray for the brother of another compassion kid who's a quadriplegic. He would go like an hour and a half each way. He wouldn't tell anybody.

Only the Lord saw. But a little birdie told me. The point is, brother, you are a man of prayer. Amen.

Now, you had something—well, you had several things, but one major thing that happened that you easily could've followed Job's wife's example. When she said to Job, "Curse God and die. He didn't do what we want him to do. He didn't answer my prayers. So why don't you just curse God and die?" Tell us what happened and why you did not stop praying in spite of the really horrible, from our perspective, the messy under part of the tapestry—an awful thing.

Thank you, Bishop. It's been a tough journey. I've now spent a couple of weeks in America, not many weeks—about three weeks. And back home, my daughter Joy has been in the hospital bed battling pneumonia. Of course, I told the church here, and you have been praying. Praise the Lord, yesterday Joy got out of the hospital. And this morning, she is doing great. My wife said that she's even doing some homework that she was missing at school. So I praise the Lord for that.

But I have also been in a very, very complicated situation with my third-born, Ethan. Ethan got sick in 2019. He got sick just for a few days. He had a fever that was not going away. His body was just burning up every night. And every night, we took him to the hospital. Three days in a row, we took him to the hospital, and the doctors were saying, "This child has no problem." And then we saw the problem. Later in that night, the boy begins to shake. He begins to choke, and we begin to pray. When he was choking, when he was shaking, when we were seeing him slipping away from our hands, we began to pray. My wife is a very prayerful woman—she loves to pray. I love to pray. And we prayed so hard: "Lord, save our son. Lord, save Ethan. If you save Ethan, we will serve you more than ever."

You were bargaining, weren't you?

Yes. And we put him in our car because he was not improving. We got a midwife that was close by in our neighborhood, put her in the car to keep trying to resuscitate him so that he comes back.

That's good.

Yes. So he was battling for his life, and we were battling in prayer that the Lord would bring our son back to good health. When we got into the hospital twenty minutes later, the doctor said, "I'm sorry, we can't do anything more." We were crushed. And I thought, "Lord God, do you really answer prayers? This is one thing I asked you. This is one important thing that you could have done for me so that I could serve you even more. But my son couldn't make it." I was crushed.

But the Lord encouraged me. I know that I could have given up. I could have cursed God, but I know that God who created Ethan loved him more and loves him, and has taken him in glory. And every day, I know that the Lord has taken Ethan to be with the angels, to be with Him. And every day, I pray consistently, and I continue to encourage myself to know that God is a loving God, God is a God who cares. He will sometimes give me what I want, and sometimes He won't. Sometimes the things I pray for will even take a long time, but I have faith in Him, and I keep my faith in the Lord. Amen.

Amen. So last statement: Jesus in the garden.

Father, let this cup pass from me.

And the Father said no. The Father said no. Not because He's mean, not because He couldn't hear, but because He loved you. And He loved His son. God has a will.

You know, a lot of your parents or grandparents—or if you're not, maybe you have a dog or cat. And there's an expectation that your dog or cat will obey you and do the things you ask, or that your kids will. And it can be very, very frustrating when you see your kids not doing it.

Here's the point: When I was a kid, I asked for a monkey. I've told you this before. It's an outrageous ask of a parent. I think at the time my mom was a single mom and I wanted a monkey, dagnabbit. I just wanted a monkey. What could possibly go wrong? I actually had a monkey, and I hadn't read the Bible yet.

So I asked for a monkey and I hadn't read the Bible yet. I was just a kid. But the story of the persistent widow—I was more persistent. I wore my mommy out and she kept saying, "Nope." You parents often will tell your kids no, or you might say, "Not yet." It's like we don't want to have open internet to a kid before they're able to handle the hard things that are there.

And so what I want to say: If we parents—who are sinners or evil—want good for our children, how much more does the Lord want good for us? And the problem is our thoughts are not His thoughts.

He is not our vending machine. He's working out all things for good for those who love the Lord. There are a lot of things where we go, "Lord, I don't understand it." We won't understand till we're face to face, but I want to say this: never, never, never, never give up.

God has appointed you for the assignment you're on, and I tell you, it'll be so easy just to quit. That's what Satan wants you to do. But I want to tell you, remember Anna, remember Simeon, remember Bonnie—remember these people that say, "Lord, I'm going to be steadfast in praying and I will not quit because I know who you are and I know your character."

Yes. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.