God still loves you, even when he says 'no'

In James 5:13-18, we see Elijah was a person just like us or like we can be. Elijah was powerful and effective in prayer because of his righteousness, but he wasn’t the source of the righteousness, and neither will we be.

According to Romans 1:16-17 and 3:10-26, righteousness comes from God through our faith. Elijah was a prophet of God whose faith was very strong, at least most of the time (1 Kings 17:1; 18:1; 19:1-18). He knew God well enough to know that God would grant his requests, but he probably also had gotten the assurance from God before he told Ahab it would not rain, except at his word.

We’re to pray with confidence for help in time of need, even thanking God in advance for answering our prayers according to his will (Hebrews 4:14-16; Philippians 4:4-6; James 1:2-8). In Mark 5:35-36, when the synagogue ruler learned his daughter had died, Jesus told him to not be afraid, but to just believe. In Mark 9:14-29, Jesus told his disciples that anything was possible for those who believe, but some things can only be done through prayer.

The main thing is to be persistent in prayer without using vain repetitions (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Luke 18:1-8; Matthew 7:7-12; 6:5-14). So, how can we ask for the same thing repeatedly without being vainly repetitious? Vain repetition, also called babbling in some Bible versions, likely pertains to praying to a deaf god, or even to God when we’re not also persistent in pursuing his righteousness (1 Kings 18:25-39; John 9:31; Matthew 6:25-34).

Remember, it’s the prayer of a righteous person that accomplishes much. So, we must also continually pursue God’s righteousness, which includes continuing to ask for forgiveness when we sin, once we’ve become a Christian, which is when his righteousness first comes to us by faith (Acts 3:38-39; 5:32; 19:1-5; 1 John 1:5-9; 2:1-6; Romans 8:12-17, 26-27). If we take care of our relationship with God first in our prayers, the rest of our prayer will be based in righteousness (Psalm 51:1-15; 139:23-24).

Our prayer requests still must be within God’s will, but sometimes he still says, “No,” although, even then, he always still makes things right through his grace; after all, his grace was sufficient for Paul and he raised Jesus from the dead (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Luke 22:41-44; Hebrews 5:7-9; 1 Peter 1:3-9; 5:6-9; Romans 6:3-5; 8:1-11). Even during the drought Elijah prayed for, God provided for his needs and, whether or not we’re one of his children, he’ll do that for us (1 Kings 17:2-16; Matthew 5:45; Genesis 8:22).

Therefore, even if we only have the faith of a mustard seed, we can know great things can happen through prayer based on what we know the mustard seed will become on its own with the sunshine and rain God provides (Matthew 13:31-32; 17:20-21).

How’s your prayer life? Are you living righteously, seeking forgiveness when you fail? Remember, God still loves you, even when he says, “No” (John 3:16; Romans 8:31-39).

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].