Do you want to know why it is, if God is merciful, He does not always answer prayer?
God always answers prayer, though it may not be in the particular way expected or desired; it must be real prayer, an opening of the heart, a linking up with the Spirit, not a mechanical repetition of formal words. Prayer is answered in the best way for the one who prays—not always perhaps the pleasantest or easiest but, as every event in life is but one incident in the whole, it is best in the sense of its effect on the life as a whole, its result on character, the lessons it teaches, the experience it gives, and so forth. Also, you must remember earth's limitations make it impossible for all prayers to be answered exactly as desired. For instance, in the case of a child under certain painful conditions of disease, its father, though loving it dearly, might pray for its death, feeling life would be too hard for it under the circumstances, while its mother might pray fervently for it to live; obviously, they could not both have their desires fulfilled.
Panorama of the mountains along the Ulvikfjord, a side arm of the Hardangerfjord in Western Norway | User Aqwis from Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Probably a million people pray for contrary and various things to happen at once. God cannot alter His laws to suit individual cases; the universe would soon be in a state of chaos if this were possible. When a man prays, he is putting himself in touch with the spirit. The man's own spirit is the link between his physical self and God, or I might express it by saying, the subconscious mind is the link between the conscious mind and God. I have often impressed upon you that God is impersonal and infinite. He does not, therefore, answer prayer in a specified or finite way, but He always sends power in response to prayer, which is materialised in the way that is best for the one who prays.
The Whirlpool Galaxy (Spiral Galaxy M51, NGC 5194) is a classic spiral galaxy located in the Canes Venatici constellation, and its companion NGC 5195 | NASA and European Space Agency
Praying is formulating prayer in the conscious mind. It is then projected into the subconscious or spirit mind, which acts almost like a filter, as it were, for when it leaves the spirit mind, it goes on to God as a petition for help, strength, for guidance in a general way, but not in detail. The knowledge of the detail required remains with the spirit mind, and when the power is given by God, in answer to the prayer, it is used by the spirit mind in the best way—whatever that way may be. The spirit, being of God, knows what is right and best for the personality, and with the assistance of his guides, diverts and uses the power accordingly. I will try and explain. Suppose a man prays for wealth, and really intends to use it to good ends, but his spirit knows his limitations, and that, though his intention is excellent, he is really not capable of using it rightly. The power would, in this case, not be used in giving him the wealth he asks for, but in building up and strengthening his character. If his spirit knew he was ready and capable of using wealth aright, he would receive his answer in the way he desired, for his spirit, in co-operation with his guides, would put him in the way to get it.
Messier 82 | NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/UofA/ESA/AURA/JHU
I have explained before how God uses discarnate spirits to do His work, to help comfort and direct those on earth. You can call these God's helpers, or what you will—guides, ministering angels or God's messengers; they materialise the Godpower for physical needs and purposes.
We might think again of men as pilots and their lives as little ships or boats sent out by God from His harbour into the sea of the world.
Can you not imagine one sailing merrily along in fine, calm weather and the pilot A. sleeping lazily, carefree and happy, drifting along just where the wind and tide take him, troubling about nothing?
Meanwhile, the weather changes and a storm rises, and he wakes up to find he has almost run upon the rocks which loom through the spray and gloom before him. He is thoroughly frightened and prays O God! take me out of this, move these terrible rocks, still the storm, save me!
He is shaken, helpless and terrified, for he has become weak in will and body from sloth and indulgence.
The rocks do not move, nor is the storm stilled to let him relapse into his life of ease again. But the prayer is heard, the mists part and he sees a little cleft in the rocks, a tiny creek where he may escape the worst violence of the storm, but to get into that shelter, he has to strain every nerve and sinew and muscle and reach it by his own efforts, and by so doing, he saves his life.
One can imagine him resentfully thinking out things—
I never did any harm, I just went on my own way and do not deserve this ill luck, etc.
Yes; but he did no good either, so he indirectly did harm through neglect.
Other boats passed him, heavily laden, and with weary rowers, and some were old and battered. The men in them begged for a little food or water or even only words of sympathy, but A. had only turned over on his cushions and paid no heed; he, therefore, required the rough lesson which galvanised him into unwilling activity.
You can also imagine another boat with quite another kind of pilot. B. apparently works hard, he strains at his oars, his face is tired and lined, his eyes bloodshot with his efforts and fatigue, but he makes no headway, and one can imagine his prayer would be something like this—
O God! ease my burden, lighten my boat. I work and strain and pull until I am weary and spent, still I make no headway. It is more than I can bear; lighten my burden, Lord!
His burden is lightened, but not perhaps in the way he expected, for he is shown that when he put out to sea he was provided, as is everyone, with the two essential things—a rudder by which to guide his boat and a chart by which to steer his course. The rudder is his free will and the chart is Truth. In this case, he had used his free will, his rudder, to guide him, but as he never troubled to consult his chart, he had chosen his course wrongly, for he was pulling unwittingly against the winds and currents, thus making them his enemies instead of his friends. This being pointed out to him, he learnt to study his chart and altered his course accordingly and so his unnecessary burden was lightened, though naturally, it took him some time to get over his great fatigue and strain.
God teaches people to help themselves. If men learn to pray for the right things, in the right way, their prayers are answered as they desire. If we pray for an open mind and for help to see and realise the truth, it will be given to us; if we pray for courage to act up to the truth when we see it, it will be given to us too, and if we pray that we may be helped to be truly charitable, we shall learn how to become that also—to have understanding and sympathy, to be helpful and compassionate, as Christ was. If we truly pray for, and so obtain these things, we shall steer our life ships safely into God's most beautiful harbour.
Learn and pray to go God's way, for to work in harmony with His laws means honour and safety, but with God's laws against us, we can make no headway, for His tides, His currents, and His winds, are too mighty for us and we shall break ourselves against them eventually.
—Spirit Claude
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy | NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/Caltech)
