WHEN GOD SAYS "NO"

2 Corinthians 12

Mark Twain was one of the most effective writers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century period. He did not believe in God. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he expressed his view of prayer though the words of his main character. At one point, Huck said,

Miss Watson took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray every day and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. Once I got a fish line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why and I couldn't make it out no way.

I sat down one time back in woods and had a long think about it. I say to myself, 'if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can't the widow get back the box that was stole? Why can't Miss Watson fat up?' 'No,' I says to myself, 'there ain't nothin' to it.'

That's the way a man who didn't believe in God expressed his thoughts about prayer. As a Christian, you're probably offended by such a flippant, outlandish view of faith, prayer and God's involvement with people. But then I wonder how much difference there is between the prayer in which Huck Finn asked for fishhooks and the football player who kneels in the end zone and thanks God for allowing him to score a touchdown. I always wonder why God blessed the running back who got into the end zone and didn't bless the poor defensive player who missed the tackle.

What about the prayer of the Christian who asks God to place a mantle of protection around him and his family to shield them from pain, heartache and disappointment?

Then there's the unsolicited comment of the professing believer, who tells a grieving Christian, "Your loved one wouldn't have died if your faith had been strong enough."

At the opposite end of the pendulum, I recall a very devoted brother in Christ, who told me frankly that he couldn't recall a single event in his life that had been changed as the result of prayer. He said, "I pray because it makes me feel better, but I don't think my prayer ever moves God to action."

While Mark Twain's view of prayer reveals a cynical and perverted view of God's promises, the thought that God is willing to grant every indulgence of the flesh and build a fallout shelter around the praying Christians not only violates common sense observation, but it is utterly foreign to the teachings of the Word of God.

Paul's Third Heaven Experience

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul gave a somewhat mystical account of an other worldly experience. He spoke of being caught up into the "Third Heaven." And then he related the shocking news that three different times, he asked God to do something for him and on all three occasions God said, "No."

Many different rationales have been presented to explain the reasons for unanswered prayer. Sometimes God doesn't answer prayer because we ask with the wrong motives (James 4:3). Sometimes prayer remains unanswered because we fail to pray in faith (James 1:6). However, neither of these explanations applied to Paul. Christ lived in his heart. The Holy Spirit guided his message.

Paul spoke of receiving a thorn in the flesh. At one level, he referred to it as "a messenger of Satan to torment me." At another level he viewed it as a positive thing. He said that its purpose was "to keep me from becoming conceited." Later on he would say that in his weakness he was made strong.

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