Her usual welcome hug greeted me from their enormous church building's front door. She was trying to be strong. However, the deep blankness in her eyes can only mean a chaos beyond the surface —internal struggle. Seemingly quick months of suffering has led her mother into this; a wake inside the very thing that her mother has worked most of her life in. A dear pastor has died. Cancer has swiftly wasted away a woman of God's body.
Wayne was a dear friend of mine from graduate school. She was one of the most hopeful, positive people I know. In my attempt to offer a listening ear of the first day of her mother's wake, I heard words I never thought I will ever hear from her.
"Ganun pala talaga 'yun. Hindi pala talaga lahat ng prayer sinasagot."
I never thought it was like that. Perhaps not all prayers get to be answered.
More often than not, being in a community of faith brings us with people who motivate us to believe that God answers our prayers. But how about when a selfless prayer of healing a loved one went unanswered and death came instead?
Have we been encouraged wrongly?
Has God been unfaithful with His promises?
Today's ODB devotional tells that God hears. Some prayers are said and shared with others while some remain in the core of our hearts. Nevertheless, He hears. He listens. On the other hand, it was never said HE WILL ALWAYS ANSWER according to how we want things to turn out.
A Stronger Faith Sprouts Instead
When God answers differently and it is painful, it is a clincher round of faith versus doubt. A solidification. My friend being a believer since childhood has lived a life of faith. From being a rural church with a congregation of 500 people to having a church building of 800sq. meters, believing in the impossible has been at the center of their family’s values.
The whole family had faith that healing was possible. But it didn’t happen.
The Bible is clear that we have to have faith in two things when difficult circumstances happen:
God still has a plan —the loss was meant by evil but God can turn it for good.
God is still perfect in His ways —the death was not hurried; it was at the right time.
In the face of grief, both things are difficult to see. However, it is genuine faith to say, “God, I do not understand but I trust You anyway.”
A faith that is shaken turns into faith that is stronger.
A Hope in the Future Develops in the Present
Without a belief in the resurrection, the whole Christianity corrodes. There is a life after life. Those who have been faithful, will find themselves forever in the presence of God in heaven. One day, we will meet those who have gone before us and our Maker.
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness. -2 Peter 3:13
Sometimes, as Christians walk through life without much sufferings, we only see eternity as wishful thinking. It does not matter as much if it is real or it isn’t. Wishful thinking is different from hope. In my friend’s despair, she said something in the lines of doing the best she can to hold on the truth of eternal life.
That’s real hope —looking forward with much certainty.
This is the same hope we can share to those who mourn.
Believing in the after life develops hope even in the misery of the present.
Love In Turn Becomes the Answer
Romans 12:12 says "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
Being faithful in prayer may not always change the circumstance but it can surely change the heart, making us a little more prepared, a little more adaptable as each day goes, a little more attuned to the will of God.
A heart that is tilled through prayer becomes a good soil where love can grow.
Romans 12:10 tells us, "Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." My friend's mother may have passed away but the love she was able to show her in the last few months of her life was priceless.
Sleepless nights, ousted savings, difficult conversations of goodbye. All are expressions of sacrificial love, an answer to a prayer our lips may have never uttered.
Love expressed is love that grew.
God is nevertheless at work.
FAITH. HOPE. LOVE.
God is good even when the situation isn’t.
He may not always answer the way we want Him to but His answers can be in the form of a stronger faith, a grounded hope, and a deeper love.
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