This past Sunday, I preached through Hebrews 4:14-16 and wrapped up the message with a call to boldly approach the Lord for help. I drew this call from vs. 16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” I could have spent much more time on this verse and what it means for our prayer lives but unfortunately I wasn’t able to due to time constraints. But this verse did cause me to meditate upon a seeming tension that we see in Scripture in regard to prayer. This seeming tension is the relationship between praying expectantly and praying submissively.

Throughout the New Testament, we are commanded to pray with the expectation that God will move and act in response to our petitions and requests (Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, James 5:16). At the same time, we are called to pray submissively and accept the will of the Father when He answers our requests with a “no” or a “wait”. Which is it? Both of these commands seem contradictory but in reality, they are compatible. If you are a parent of young children or teenagers, you see this play out in your home all the time. You want to cultivate an open door policy with your kids where they feel comfortable approaching you and making requests. At the same time, you reserve the right to say “no” or “you have to be patient” because you know what’s best for your child. In a much greater way, the Lord wants us to boldly come to Him with our requests but His will always trumps our own. His plans always win out over our own. We serve a sovereign Father who knows what He is doing and the accomplishment of His perfect will includes the trampling of some of our dreams. The accomplishment of His perfect will includes us going through seasons of difficulty and trial.

We see this dynamic play out in the life of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. He was experiencing some intense trial that many try to speculate on but we’re not actually sure about the exact nature of his affliction. Whatever it was, it was bad. He didn’t want to deal with it anymore. He wanted this thorn in the flesh gone ASAP. We are told in 2 Corinthians 12:8 that Paul pleaded with the Lord three times that this affliction would be taken away. As I studied this verse, many scholars suggest that three times “likely means that Paul pleaded with the Lord to exhaustion.”* Despite Paul’s honest and bold pleading, the Lord would not remove this trial from His faithful servant’s life. There was a greater purpose for Paul’s pain.

The Lord responds to Paul’s pleas with one of the most encouraging verses in all of the New Testament, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, “ (12:9 ESV). We are not promised a yes to every request but we are always promised the presence of our God. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will never waste our pain. He will show Himself mighty in the midst of our struggles. He doesn’t say “no” or “wait” to torture us. He says “no” or “wait” to refine us and mold us into the image of HIs Son. God may not be answering a certain prayer of yours in the way that you want Him to right now. That is hard. It can be painful to realize that God’s plans and timetables do not line up with your own. But don’t let that disappointment crush you or disillusion you from continuing to approach the Lord with confidence and boldness. God answers so many of our requests with a “yes” but we’re so often blind to these things because we’re so focused on what He isn’t giving us. I want to encourage you to write your prayer requests down over the next week. Keep track of how God is answering your prayers and you’ll be blown away by what He is doing in your life. This will give you a much different perspective on those requests that he is currently saying “no” or “wait” to. Don’t give up on praying expectantly and submissively.

*https://www.crossway.org/articles/what-was-pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh-2-corinthians-12/