Do You Ever Wonder Why Things You Want Don’t Happen? by H. Murray Hohns
Have you ever wondered why some things you have asked God for never seem to come to pass?
The fall term at the local Bible College will start in a few days, and I will be teaching the second year core ministry course on Signs, Wonders and Revivals. The course covers some of the most fascinating and challenging areas of Christendom. I have experienced signs and wonders myself. I have seen several miracles happen in my own life. I have prayed for miracles to happen for others and have seen them come to pass. I witnessed the miraculous healing of a close relative in 1970 at a church meeting in Toronto, Canada. Moreover, I am one of those people who has been slain in the Spirit, fallen backwards and landed on the floor when a minister prayed for me. Indeed this has happened several times and with different ministers, one of whom was a female evangelist with the gift of Healing.
And yet with all that first hand experience and even teaching the subject, I still wonder about some of the things I see on television and in person when it comes to healing. I wonder about the healings that are claimed to have occurred, and if they are real. I wonder why them and not me? My late son-in-law went to every kind of healer including bathing in the waters at Lourdes in France, as he fought multiple myeloma for nearly five years before succumbing to that terrible disease. He became a Christian one glorious Easter morning two years before he died, but he died, and all our prayers and his efforts were seemingly to no avail. He was too young to die, there was so much to live for, it seemed so unfair, but he is gone.
How about other things aside from healing, things like unanswered prayers? I decided back in November 1995 that I would pray everyday about two things I wanted to come to pass. That now translates into almost six years of daily focused praying, but so far nothing has happened to even indicate that my prayers did anything more than bounce off the ceiling if they got that far. No answers! It seems so unreasonable, I don’t understand why it has to be this way, and sometimes I get to feeling sorry for myself over those unanswered requests. I think of the story Jesus told about the poor widow lady who went to the unjust judge with her request over and over again until she wore him down. I feel like I have surely exceeded her efforts–but unlike the story, I still have no relief.
How long, O Lord, How long?
The prophet Habakkuk asked the Lord, “How Long?” In the end, Habakkuk wrote that he had decided to praise the Lord and live for Him no matter what was wrong. God gave him deer’s feet so he could climb above it all and live up in the high places rather than in the daily fray–that if not managed well can consume us all. How about you? Are you feeling sorry about your plight? Are you asking “How Long?” Are you endeavoring in prayer? The answer is simple. We are to keep on doing what we know we should do. Do not give up. We certainly do not know the mind of the Lord or His timing. But we must hold on to Him with unshakable trust. What we think is the best maybe is not the best. Trust your God more than your idea of what is best. It is just that easy, even if we, like my son-in-law, have to die in the process. God’s plan is better than ours.
This article by Pastor Mur first appeared in the September 2001 issue of Pneuma Informer published by the Pneuma Foundation.
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