2. We may be asking for selfish reasons, and the discipline
of delay is necessary to purge us of this. Selfish
motivation is self-defeating in prayer.
3. We may unconsciously be unwilling to pay the price
involved in the answering of our prayers, and our Father
desires us to face up to this fact.
4. We may be misinterpreting what God is doing in our
lives in answer to our prayers. This was the case with
John Newton, the converted slave-trader. He gives his
testimony in verse:
I asked the Lord, that I may grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek more earnestly his face.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I hoped that in some favoured hour,
At once he’d answer my request;
And by his love’s constraining power,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with his own hand he seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.
“These inward trials I employ,
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy scheme of earthly joy,
That thou mayst seek thy all in me.”
God’s dual method with His servant was to reveal to
him the inherent evil of his heart so that he would be
motivated to claim importunately from God the blessing
he was then fitted to receive.
5. Another possible reason for God’s apparent delay or
denial of an answer is put forward to Dr. D. M.
McIntyre: it secures our humble dependence on God.