120. If the Lord did not answer your prayers, what would you think was the matter? Would you...

If the Lord did not answer your prayers, what would you think was the matter? Would you think it was yourself?

Most assuredly I would. I would go alone with God and ask Him to search me by His Spirit and His Word. If He brought anything to light that was displeasing to Him, I would confess it as a sin and put it away. If He did not bring anything to light, I would go right along praying, for I have learned that God does not always give us the best things the first time we ask for them, but that He tries and develops our faith and teaches us persistence by keeping us waiting. The longer I live the more I feel that the teaching of Luke 18:1 ("Men ought always to pray, and not faint") is of the highest importance, and should sink deeply into our hearts.

There was a time when God did not answer my prayers. I was living by faith. Everything I got came in answer to prayer, but the supplies stopped. I cried to God but got no answer. Then I looked up to God and asked Him to search my heart and bring to light anything in my life that displeased Him. He brought to light something that had often troubled me before, but which I would not admit was sin. That night I said: “O God, if this is wrong, I will give it up”; but I got no answer. In the bottom of my heart I knew it was wrong all the time. Then I said: “O God, this is wrong, it is sin, I will give it up,” and the answer came. The fault was in me, not in God. There is nothing that God more delights to do than to answer prayer.