When God Doesn't Come Through — Erwin Lutzer

Marriage, Prayer, and God's Providence

The service before we had a chance to speak. I really do appreciate her. I think that Rebecca is one of the most godly women around. She prays for her children, and I believe that God has led us together, and I'm just so grateful to God for a godly partner.

I hope that all of you men can say that about your wives, that she is an individual that supports you by her prayers, and I know that in the providence of God, that God will bless your family if you put Christ central.

My wife, you know, is the one that doubles all of my joys. She halves my sorrows, and she triples my expenses, and I'm sure that others can testify perhaps in a similar way. You know, it is said that there are three things in life that are difficult to do.

One is to cross a fence that is leaning towards you, the other is to kiss a girl who is leaning away from you, and the third is to speak late on a Sunday evening. Now, I've never had the experience of having to cross a fence that was leaning towards me, but after being a pastor in Chicago for five years, I've had lots of experience in in having to speak late on Sunday evenings, and it certainly, even though it is a little late, I'm sure that the Lord will bless us as we look into the Word of God.

Promoting Flames of Freedom

There's just one or two things I want to say in a preliminary way. One has to do with the book Flames of Freedom. Ralph once asked how this message that is in the book could get out to other people and how the message of it could spread, and I think that one of the best things that could happen is if everyone that is here in this conference were to go home to your individual hometown and find a Christian bookstore and make sure that they carry it.

You see, quite frankly, the market today is so glutted with Christian books that oftentimes Christian bookstores do not know what books to keep, and they often want to keep the ones that the public wants, and if they don't get a demand for the book, the book may not even be in the bookstore, and the bookstores that keep Flames of Freedom discover that they do get rid of their copies, but oftentimes just introducing the book to your bookstore and to your bookseller will be the key by which they will keep copies on hand.

So that others will be able to purchase them, and if you were to do that, if everyone were to do that, this would be one way for the message of the book to be spread to many other people who otherwise may not even know anything at all about Flames of Freedom and about what God has done.

I hope that you come to the position in your experience in the Christian life where you really appreciate what we have in Jesus Christ. I, this past spring in Chicago, took a course at a secular university where I've been doing some work on philosophy of religion, and it was a very difficult course, but the essence of it was this, that everything that is said about God is nonsense, and this is why.

Because it is said that all of the words and all of the language that we use applies only to this world, to books and to people and to things and to the weather, but it is impossible to use human language and to use that human language and apply it to a transcendent, imminent being about which we know virtually nothing, and that was the essence of the course.

And I want to tell you tonight that that professor who said that was absolutely right, given the presuppositions that he was operating from. Because if we did not have a word from outside of the universe, if we did not have a word from God, that's precisely the sort of darkness that we would be in.

You see, the whole answer to that course involves two things. Number one, that God is the creator of language, and therefore he created a vehicle by which humans could talk about him. But number two, the answer to that course is the incarnation.

Jesus Christ said that he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. God was revealed in very concrete terms, and God says, I'm not only going to tell you what I'm like, I'm going to show you what I'm like.

He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. The absolutely explosive, mind-boggling character of the incarnation and the fact that in God's revelation to man, we have the answer to the deepest, deepest human needs.

Never lose sight of that. Some of you who teach Sunday school, please don't bore your class. Make sure that you realize it is a sin to bore people with the Word of God. You know, sometimes I've heard people present the Word of God, and they do so in such an insignificant and boring way that it really, it must be a gift.

Because some people do it so poorly that I don't think they could do it naturally that bad. And remember this, that when you stand up and you are giving the Word of God, you are giving something that is absolutely earth-shaking, and after having 25 courses in philosophy, I'm more believe that more deeply than ever before.

Absolutely revolutionary, and don't you dare become unexcited about God and the Word. Because it is absolutely mind-boggling when we think what God has done in giving us a revelation and being able to find the answers to human needs and the deep human needs that exist.

When Prayers for Healing Go Unanswered

Well, that's only by way of introduction. You know, I think that one of the most discouraging things that sometimes happens in the lives of believers is to have their prayers go unanswered. About five years ago, there was a young man, and I call him young.

He was about my age. There was a young man who was a good preacher. In fact, he loved to preach, and many people who heard him preach said that he preached with such a passion, and he believed that we were living in a day and age where we needed preachers who knew how to communicate, and he was one.

And one day he was at camp. He discovered that there was a pain in his chest, and after they got back and they took him to the hospital, they discovered that he had a very rare form of cancer. His church was very concerned about him, of course, and they organized a prayer chain whereby someone prayed for him 15 minutes a day so that around the clock, 24 hours a day, somebody was praying that God would touch this young minister.

Furthermore, the church decided that they will have an all-night prayer meeting, and so they spent all night in prayer for him. This brave young man continued to preach. In fact, he was brought up to the pulpit in a wheelchair, and with a microphone very close to him, he still preached and went on preaching despite excruciating pain.

After all of that chemotherapy and everything else that he went through, some people came into the room, in his hospital room, and said, you know, God has shown us that he's going to heal you, and that was encouraging.

Someone else said, you know, you ought to go to a faith healer, and so he did. I remember being at a convention in Minneapolis with about 2 ,500 people, and all of us, he was at the back sitting in a wheelchair, all of us bowed our heads and we were led in prayer, and we were praying, believing that God would touch this young man who had such a great gift, and that God would continue to use him as a pastor.

Well, he became more ill and more ill, and finally, as there were relatives there beside his bed day after day, he finally said to his wife, you know, he said, I always hoped that I could go in a blaze of glory, but this is the best I can do.

And with that, he sunk into a coma, and 30 minutes later, he died. There's a woman in that church who later said, I'm never going to bother God with another request again. Why should I trouble him? If all of the prayers of hundreds of churches, if an all-night prayer meeting, and a prayer chain, if after all of that, God did not heal this young man, why should we trouble him?

Why bother? Have you ever thought that? There was a teacher of a woman's Bible class who said, long ago, I've given up on prayer. She said, for 18 years, I prayed that my daughter would grow up and become a missionary.

She has grown up, and she has married an unsaved fellow. She says, if God didn't answer 18 years worth of my prayers, I'm through. I don't want to be hurt again. Why should I ask if he doesn't come through?

You know, Christians sometimes pray for all sorts of things that don't happen. Sometimes in Sunday school picnics, they pray that the sun will shine, and sometimes it does, and I've been at Sunday school picnics when it's rained.

I've known young people who have prayed that a certain boyfriend or girlfriend would fall in love with them, but for some strange reason, he never does. And in discouragement, they sometimes say, why should I bother?

I prayed, and I believed, and I trusted, and God disappointed me. Because he didn't come through the way I was convinced he ought to. This evening, I'd appreciate if you would turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews chapter 11, where perhaps we can get some insight on God's ways, and perhaps, at least to some extent, answer the problem that we've just raised. I have four observations I'd like to leave with you this morning, this evening, in Hebrews chapter 11.

Incidentally, it's on page 1145, if you have a Bible like mine. I'd like to give you, this evening, four observations regarding faith. And the first observation I would like to leave with you is this, that sometimes faith changes our circumstances.

Faith Sometimes Changes Circumstances

Sometimes faith in God changes our circumstances. You are all acquainted with the 11th chapter of Hebrews, how verse after verse after verse, God lists, through the Holy Spirit, the inspired writer, lists things that God did in the lives of other people, tremendous miracles.

You read, for example, of Abraham, and you read in, about Moses, verse 23. We have to skip over, of course, the long list. How that when he was born, he was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Let's skip to verse 29. By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as they were passing through dry land, and the Egyptians, when they tried it, were drowned.

By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down. What a miracle that was. You know, you can go to Israel today, and you can see where the city of Jericho, Old Testament Jericho, stood, and that's where God did that miracle.

By faith, verse 31, the harlot Rahab did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. And what more shall I say? Incidentally, I heard of a preacher who once began his sermon with that, and somebody in the back said, try amen.

Well, always watch the people in the back. And what more shall I say? For time will fail to tell me if I tell of Gideon, and of Beric, of Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, that's probably a reference to Daniel, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection, apparently a reference to Elijah. Think of the miracles. Just stop there for a moment. Think of all of the things that God did in answer to people's faith.

And I might say that God is the same today. He often does miracles in response to the prayers of God's people. And because of faith, there are some people who are healed. Sometimes God delights in taking a circumstance that is so difficult, and just turning that circumstance around, and making it to be a great blessing.

And sometimes God does exactly what we ask him to do, and we can stand up, and we can give praise to him because of his goodness towards his children. Sometimes faith changes our circumstances, and sometimes we see miracles.

Faith Does Not Always Change Circumstances

But there's a second observation I'd like to make about faith in this chapter this evening, and that is this, that sometimes faith does not change our circumstances. Sometimes faith does not change our circumstances.

I don't know how often I read the 11th chapter of Hebrews, and somehow did not realize that there are two classes of people in the 11th chapter. Because beginning in the middle of verse 35, where we stopped a moment ago, it says others were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. Notice, no deliverance. They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword.

They went about in sheepskins and in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated. Men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground, and they never saw any miracles.

And they were not delivered. Many commentators believe that the events that are referred to in this passage have to do with those that took place by Antiochus the Epiphany, went during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

You know that during the time of Antiochus, in the year, I think, 187 BC, he was going to go into Egypt, and then the Romans didn't allow him to go into Egypt. And as a result of that, he came back, and he came to Jerusalem, and he was exceedingly angry.

And Antiochus came, and you remember, he sacrificed a sow on the altar. What a hideous thing to do! The Jews had been told that they should not even eat the flesh of pigs. And here was a man who took one of those animals and sacrificed it to Zeus on the altar of Jehovah.

He took 80 ,000 people and massacred them. And some of the atrocities that he did to the women and children are beyond belief. For example, Eliezer, who was the high priest during that time, was a very godly man.

He was serving God with all of his heart and with all of his mind, and he was leading the people in righteousness. And when Antiochus Epiphanes came, he took Eliezer, and he tortured him by taking off all of his flesh, and then letting him lie there until he died.

And Eliezer had seven sons. And do you know what Antiochus did? He took his first son, and he put that son on the wheel of a chariot, and as the horses ran, that boy's body kept turning around. And that's the way he tortured that boy until he died.

And then Antiochus, in bitterness, took the second son and killed him by putting huge spikes into all different parts of his body. The third son had his arms and his legs cut off, and he was allowed to ride there in the dust until he died.

The fourth son had his tongue cut off, and that's the way the torture began, until he was tortured until he died. The fifth son was also put on one of those cartwheels. The sixth was burned to death, and the seventh was fried in a huge frying pan.

Now you say, well, why do you do that this evening in a beautiful church in Rives Junction, Michigan? Why do you say and give such gory stories? I'll tell you why. It's because I want to ask you a question.

Where was God when all that was happening? These were people that loved God. These were people who cried out to God and said, Oh God, deliver us! Stop this wicked man! But the wicked man was not stopped, and these people died, and they are recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews as those who were sawn in two.

They were tempted. They were put to death with the sword. They wandered around as they left the city of Jerusalem, going in sheepskins and in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, and there was no deliverance.

Do you know that Isaiah the prophet tradition says was sawed in two? Zechariah, one of the Old Testament prophets, was stoned, and all of those things took place, and God was watching, and God did not intervene, and God did not deliver, though he could have.

But they are men and women of faith. Why? It is in them because in the midst of incredible suffering and ugly circumstances, they kept on believing that God knew what he was doing. In fact, that leads me to a third observation I'd like to make on this passage this evening, and that is this, that people of faith never judge God by circumstances.

Faith Refuses to Judge God by Circumstances

Let me say that again. People of faith never judge God by circumstances. You know, one of the problems that we have is that we often get our theology from circumstances. Everything goes good, and we say, oh, God must love me today.

It is so sunny and warm, and the crop is good. But what if it hails? Does God still love you? You know, I'm impressed in the Bible, in the 11th chapter of John, it says that Jesus loved Lazarus. Specifically, it says Jesus loved Lazarus, and two verses later, it says that Lazarus died.

Sometimes we say, why is it that God takes somebody from us, somebody that we really needed? We wonder, did God really love them? Ah, yes, God loves them. Because men and women of faith are men and women who do not judge God by circumstances.

They say, God says he loves me, and I will keep on believing that he loves me against incredible odds, and that is honoring to the Lord God. That's why Paul says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Will that do it? Will famine do it? Will tragedy do it? Will a car accident do it? He says, nay, in all these things we are persuaded that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For Paul says, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Oh, I'd like you to remember that. Don't ever judge God by circumstances. Some of you know Francis Schaeffer, who is an outstanding thinker and apologist. He has a nice place up in the Alps, I understand.

You know, the Alps are some mountains or some hills over in Europe somewhere, and he's got a nice place where he takes young people off the streets, and young people especially with intellectual difficulties, and he works with them.

And a girl that we know very well in Chicago was hitchhiking through Europe, backslidden, wanting to just live it up, and someone said, you know, you want to go to Francis Schaeffer's place? And so she did, and she got squared away spiritually, and she got right with God.

But before she left that beautiful place in the Alps, she said to Francis Schaeffer, you know, she says, I'm afraid of something. She says, I'm afraid that if I come down from these beautiful Alps and go back into the harsh streets of Chicago, I might get to Chicago and find out that God isn't real.

And you know what Francis Schaeffer said to her? He said, if you leave here and go to Chicago and find out that God isn't real, he said, don't come back up here. Because he said, God isn't real up here either.

What was Schaeffer saying? It's not the beauty of the Alps that gives us the assurance that God is with us. Because some of us don't live in such beauty. It's not the beauty of nature where we go out and we say, isn't it wonderful?

God is near, because just look at those beautiful stars. Listen, we ought to do that more often. We ought to look at the stars and appreciate nature. But that's not how come I know that God is with me.

I know that God is with me because he has said, I will never, never, never leave thee nor forsake thee. And I believe his word. And that's the basis of our faith. You know, some of you perhaps have really been ministered to.

I know that all of you have been and you have sensed the presence of God here in Rives Junction. And maybe you say to yourself, oh, when you get home in a week's time, oh, somehow God was so real here.

But now I've got to go home and live with my husband and it's all gone. Now, listen, listen, the reality is not because God's presence is any more here than anywhere else, except that perhaps here we're more open to his presence.

But we know that he is with us regardless of the circumstances, regardless of where we are. Because his word says that he is. And that is the basis for our faith and trust in God. You know, I just have to share this with you, that if the Bible did not say that God didn't love it, God loved the world.

I don't think that any philosopher would necessarily come to the conclusion that God loved the world. You think of the ten million, ten thousand people a day who are starving in different countries of the world.

And you think of that whole problem of evil. We know that God loves us because he says that he does. And he wants us to go on believing that he knows best. And that faith is honoring to him. The Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

And that is true no matter how clever, gifted or brilliant you might happen to be. No, people of faith never judge God by circumstances. We know that he is with us. There was a woman in Chicago whose son was killed in a traffic accident and she came to her pastor and she was very angry.

And she said, where was your God when my son was killed? And he said he was in the same place where he was when his son was killed. That's where he is. And what happens when things go wrong in life? God is still there.

Faith Accepts God's Will in Suffering

You know that oftentimes when we pray to God and we ask him for specific things, even though they seem to be things that we think we ought to have, they may not necessarily be God's will. We oftentimes pray in ways that can become very selfish.

You know that the flesh loves to even pray. And the way in which the flesh sometimes praises this way, it says, oh, Lord, please solve this problem here. Lord, please give me a raise. Please work this thing out so that it won't be quite as thorny.

Oh, God, please make life easy. And sometimes God comes along and says, I don't want life to be easy. And so that's why sometimes we chafe and we argue with God and we say, God, we're not sure that you know what you are really doing.

But oftentimes God says, yes, I do know what I am doing. He always knows what I'm doing. And he wants us to reach up and to say, oh, God, I'll keep believing you and trusting you. And to say with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.

I'll keep believing him whether he answers my prayers or not. And that sort of faith is honoring to God, and those sorts of people are the ones that made it into Hebrews chapter 11, even though they never saw great miracles.

You know that God likes us to be able to accept what he gives us. I'd like to tell you something tonight that faith is not merely receiving God from God, the things that you would like to have. Faith is being able to accept whatever God gives you.

Please turn cassette over to side two for the continuation of this message.

You know that God likes us to be able to accept what he gives us. I'd like to tell you something tonight that faith is not merely receiving God from God, the things that you would like to have. Faith is being able to accept whatever God gives you.

Let me say that again, faith isn't merely receiving the things from God that we'd like to have. So sometimes he gives us what we'd like to have. Rather, faith is the ability to accept whatever God gives us.

And oftentimes he gives us things that we don't want. And sometimes he doesn't arrange circumstances that like we would like to see them arranged. And yet faith keeps on believing and trusting God against incredible odds.

You see, sometimes it's not God's will to heal someone. I know there are people who believe that it's always God's will to heal. But you know, if you really believe that, what you should do is go down the rows of a hospital and knock on every door where there are Christians and say to that Christian, you know, you are here because of lack of faith and it's your fault.

Now don't you do that because that would be being diabolically cruel. Because sometimes God allows people to suffer and sometimes people die of cancer and sometimes people are not delivered. I remember Dr. Culbertson, who for many years was president of Moody Bible Institute.

The only time I ever met him was in the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago. And I remember very clearly that he was there and he was dying of cancer. And I went into his room and we spoke together very briefly and we talked together a little bit about eternity and about heaven.

And some of the nurses there in the Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago said that when you went into his room, it was as if you were walking into a cathedral. God did not see fit to heal him, but he was a man of faith.

Faith Trusts God Even Without Deliverance

You know what I think capsulizes what I'd like to say to you this evening? Do you remember the story of those three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? This is what they said in Daniel chapter 3.

They said, Oh God, we believe that thou art able to deliver us. Praise God. Yes. We believe that God is able to deliver us, but if he doesn't let it be known unto thee, O King, that we will not bow down before that image.

Beautiful, beautiful. And sometimes there are times when we have to pray and we say, Oh God, I believe that you are able to heal so-and-so. I believe that you're able to change those circumstances, but Oh God, let it be known that if you do not, I will not capitulate to unbelief.

I will go on believing and I will go on trusting. And when you live like that, you make it into the 11th chapter of Hebrews, even if you don't see the answer to your prayers. Because God says, I like that kind of faith.

You know, my wife and I have just marveled at some of the people that we know who have problems. We have a few of our own. Nothing as great as some people. And there are some families that just seem to have one tragedy after another, after another, after another, and you look at it and you say, Oh God, how much can they take?

But apparently God knows how much they can take. And when situations like that, what a blessing it is to see people who keep saying, I will go on believing. We will go on trusting. I was in Moody the other day and there was the professor who walked in whose wife died this spring quite suddenly.

And we were talking about that and he says, I want you to know that I was never bitter and I never questioned God's wisdom. God loves that kind of faith. Now everyone at Moody was praying that she would be healed, but she wasn't.

What are we to do? Go on trusting the Lord our God. Then there's the fourth observation that I'd like you to notice tonight, and that is simply this, that faith always leads to ultimate victory. This is maybe the brighter side of what I have to say tonight.

Faith Leads to Ultimate Victory

Faith always believes, faith always leads to ultimate victory. Notice it says in verse 39, all these having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised. You say, well, wait a moment.

Does God keep his promises? Yes, God keeps his promises. But it says in verse 40, because God has provided something better for us, so that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. And then it goes on to exhort us.

Now, here's the point. These people died in faith without seeing God's promises fulfilled. Does that mean that God's promises will not be fulfilled? No, God's promises will be fulfilled, but in different ways, and at a better time.

Look at Abraham. God says, Abraham, I'm going to give you a land, and when it comes time for Abraham to die, he has to buy a plot of land to bury his own wife in the very land that God said, I'm going to give you.

Did Abraham see the fulfillment of his promises? No, no, he did not see the fulfillment of those promises, but Abraham yet someday will see the fulfillment of those promises. We believe that every promise of God is yea and amen in Jesus Christ, and that there is no word that God has spoken that he will not fulfill, and we die that way.

We die in faith, believing that every word that comes out of God's mouth is dependable. And that's the sort of faith that God wants to see in our lives, and that's the kind of faith that he honors. You'll notice that Jesus Christ in chapter 12 himself is an example of this.

It says that fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

Imagine Jesus. God did not deliver him. You know, Beverly Shays sings in that song, he could have called 10 ,000 angels, and they would have delivered him. God could have spoken the word, and those people who were putting those nails through Jesus Christ's hands would have been wiped out, but God did not do that.

And there was that time in the garden when Jesus Christ was saying, Oh Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but the cup did not pass from him. And yet because of that, God has highly exalted him, and has given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And the Bible says that Jesus is an example to us of faith. You know, the Bible says that when John the Baptist was here on earth, and he heard about Jesus Christ's ministry, remember that story, how John the Baptist began to doubt whether Jesus was the Messiah.

And he said, go and ask Jesus. He sent some disciples. This is incredible, because to us, we think that John the Baptist lived so close to God that surely he had insight into these things. But the Bible says that John the Baptist sent some disciples to ask Jesus a question, and the question was, are you the one that we should look for, or ought we to look for another?

And Jesus said, go back and tell John that the blind are seeing, and the lame are walking, and so forth. And then Jesus, out of these words, says, blessed is the person who is not offended because of me.

Or as the New American Standard puts it, blessed is the person who doesn't stumble over me. You know what Jesus is saying? If I could just give that a modern translation, Jesus is saying, blessed is the person who doesn't get upset with the way I run my business.

You see, John the Baptist was saying, Lord, look, we have a certain conception as to what the Messiah is like, and you are not fulfilling my blueprint. You're doing something totally different, and I know that you ought to do something like I think you ought to do, and I know that you must be wrong.

And Jesus said, now, wait a moment, John. Blessed is the person who doesn't get upset with the way I'm doing things. And today, God says to us, oh, blessed is the person who doesn't get upset with the way I run my universe, and the way I deal with my children.

Blessed is the person who can see, perhaps, someone die of cancer and not become bitter, and in anger, cry up to God and say, oh, God, I'm not going to bother you again. Blessed is the person who still loves the Lord his God after seeing the haphazard and unpredictable and difficult situations of life.

Now, you know that we're here at a revival conference, and you know, sometimes we become very excited, and I think that's good, and God help us when we don't. But I'm very desirous tonight that when we get home, and we get back into the routine, and we do not see everything happen the way we think it ought to, I'm very desirous that we not become discouraged.

I'm very desirous and very jealous for all of our hearts that we will so remember that God sometimes doesn't do things according to our plan, but that we go on believing that He knows best, and that we are willing to accept whatever He gives us.

And I'll tell you, people like that belong in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. They may not always see what they'd like to see. Sometimes God doesn't do what we'd like Him to do, but we go on trusting, and we go on believing.

Praying for God's Will Rather Than Our Own

You know, there are different ways that we can pray. One way that we can pray is to say, Lord, please help me do this. You know, I'm going to be taking some exams in a month's time, and I often was praying, Oh, Lord, please help me to pass.

But you know, God rebuked me, and I don't pray that anymore. I really don't, because I say, you know, that could be a very fleshly prayer. Just help me to get through and finish those exams, and let me be free.