[This devotion is taken from last Sunday’s sermon. The audio for the entire sermon is available here.]

How do you react when God answers “No” to your prayers?
We are tempted to think of ourselves as potential worshipers of different religions, and thus of different gods. These different gods, are almost like presidential candidates vying for our vote, for our affections, for our commitment. If a god promises us enough, and exhibits enough power and love toward us to show he is sincere and able to keep his promises, then we will cast out vote for him. He’ll be our candidate, our god.

How do we cast our vote? By:

coming to church,
giving money,
reading the Bible,
offering prayers.
We say (rather like the immature Jacob in Genesis 28), “If you, god, do your part, I’ll come to worship services, you’ll be my candidate (oops, I mean you’ll be my god).”

God just needs to live up to His campaign promises, and then we’ll live up to our commitment to stand by Him, to worship Him in this quid pro quo sense.

Is that the way you’ve approached God? Is that what your relationship to God looks like?

If your relationship to God is based on such an arrangement, what happens when God says, “No”? What happens is that you switch parties. He’s no longer your candidate, your god. Effectively, you end up saying:

“If God doesn’t save the life of this child,
if He doesn’t bring my husband back to me,
if he doesn’t stop this war,
if he doesn’t take away this temptation I face,
then I’m out of here. That negative answer will show that Christianity doesn’t work. I won’t offer that god any more worship: No more coming to church, no more giving money, no more reading the Bible, no more offering of prayers.”

When we think this way, we are treating God like an approximate equal, a man – a rich and powerful man, perhaps even a good man, but nevertheless a man with whom we have some bargaining power, one whom we need to hold accountable, and make sure He lives up to His agreement.

We must remember again and again: The difference between us and God is much greater than the difference between a two-year-old child and his parents. And two-year-olds should not treat their parents like approximate equals.

Consider this encounter:

Father to two-year-old: “I love you, my child, and I will always provide for you.”

Child: “OK, Daddy, if you’ll put food on my plate each meal and give me warm blankets, then once a week I’ll join my siblings in saying, “Thank you”, and I’ll acknowledge you as a good Dad, and I’ll share my ice cream with you.”

What would you think of two-year-old who says that?:

God is our Father. He loves us. He loves to meet our requests for our genuine needs. Keep remembering Luke 12:32: “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

As we can see from Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 (the “Lord’s Prayer”), true prayer has three steps: Acknowledging that God is our loving Father, and we are like little children before Him; asking that He might be glorified, and acknowledging that this must happen; and asking that we might have all we need in order to play our role in glorifying Him.

And this, indeed, is the basis of true worship. Worship is not a quid pro quo arrangement with God – “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” Worship does not consist of our coming to church, giving money, reading the Bible, and offering prayers. Those acts can be acts of worship. But those acts in and of themselves are not worship.

Instead, worship is loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and expressing that love. Worship is valuing Christ more than all the world has to offer, and acting, thinking, and feeling in accord with that value.

So if we are not to treat God like a presidential candidate, how should we understand God’s negative answers to our requests?

When God says no, He is telling us:

“You don’t need that to glorify Me. Trust Me in this. Your trusting me when I seem to say no magnifies My name. Your valuing Me more than the gift you wanted from Me glorifies Me. Know that I love you. I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. My kingdom must come. My will must be done. Believe me.”

Jesus Himself shows us how this is done: The night He was betrayed, He asked that He might not go to the cross, saying:

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” . . . “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26:39, 42)

He begins with the first part of prayer, addressing God as Father, and seeing Himself as a beloved child (Mark records that He said, “Abba, Father” – an even more intimate expression). He then moves to the second part of prayer. Recall that the Lord’s Prayer includes these phrases: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus uses exactly the same words at the end of verse 42: “Your will be done.” He wants God’s kingdom to come. He wants God to be glorified in all the earth. And He knows that His death – as terrible as it will be – is part of God’s plan to bring glory to Himself. As He had said earlier that afternoon:

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:27-28)

The third, final step of prayer is implicit in both John 12 and Matthew 26: Jesus effectively is asking, “Give me the strength, the courage, the perseverance I need to glorify Your Name in the midst of this horrible, painful death.”

God the Father said no to Jesus’ request to have the cup of death pass from Him. In that sense, His request was denied.

But God glorified His Name. God fulfilled His perfect will. And that always was Jesus’ primary request. God the Father gave Him what He needed to glorify His Name.

That is His promise to us. And that is how we should pray. If we are praying rightly – that is, if we are following the three steps of the Lord’s prayer, all our requests build on the first two steps:

All our requests are based on God being our loving Father, and we being His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus all our requests begin with an acknowledgment that He is much, much wiser than we are.
All our requests aim to glorify God, to bring in His kingdom, to accomplish His will. In true prayer, any requests for ourselves are made with that end in mind.
God promises that He always answers yes to such requests. But because we are two-year-olds and He is Father, we often won’t understand how He has answered our prayers. We will need to trust Him. We will not receive all we think we need. But He will always give us what we truly need to glorify Him.

So have you been bargaining with God? Have you effectively put yourself in the role of a voter, and God in the role of a presidential candidate seeking your endorsement?

See Him as Father. Make knowing Him the desire of your life. Seek His honor and His glory above all. And then ask – and you will receive what you need to glorify Him.