Austin's Blog

Why did God not heal Gabriel? Does prayer not work? Is it not effective? Did we pray wrongly or selfishly? These types of questions are natural in light of such a horrid event. We prayed. The Lord knows we prayed! Yet, the answer was not what we would have wanted on this side of heaven. But, there was an answer. God always answers yes, no, or in due time to the requests that we ask. Even further, in His infinite wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, He answers the requests rightly. The blessing is in the hearing as well as the response. The prince of preachers, Charles H. Spurgeon writes, “If the Lord will but hear us we will leave it to His superior wisdom to decide whether He will answer us or not. It is better for our prayer to be heard than answered. If the Lord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests it might be rather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility of our lives upon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious position: But now the Lord hears our desires, and that is enough; we only wish Him to grant them if His infinite wisdom sees that it would be for our good and for His glory.” If we knew what He knew, we would make the same decisions He makes every single time.

Having our prayers unanswered also aligns us with Jesus Himself who prayed before the cross in Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Can you imagine the fallout for us had Jesus’ prayer been answered and the cup be removed? The good of the cross would’ve never come to fruition. We would’ve been utterly ruined had Jesus got His request answered. Even the Apostle Paul prayed to the Lord three times to remove the thorn in the flesh but Christ answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:8-9) I would’ve given anything and everything for God to have prevented what happened on January 17th or to have Him heal my boy before his homecoming on January 21st. But, I’m not God. My prerogative is to pray and His is to answer. I have preferences but He has plans. Elisabeth Elliot reminds us that, “God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”

Does that mean our prayers were wasted? Never. When everything happened on January 17th, I posted on my twitter account and it went viral. Over 690,000 people saw the tweet and I received hundreds of messages from people all over the globe that they were praying for my sweet son. People were praying in Myanmar, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Egypt, Timor Leste, Germany South Korea, and elsewhere. Was it a waste? Hardly. Only heaven will reveal the extent that the Lord heard and used those prayers. His touch extends much farther than we realize. Furthermore, the confidence, trust, and faith of those prayers and the people who prayed them echoed in the halls of eternity, even as sweet Gabriel walked with Jesus hand-in-hand into them himself. Wayne Grudem says, “…sometimes prayers will remain unanswered in this life. At times, God will answer those prayers after the believer dies. At other times he will not, but even then, the faith expressed in those prayers, and their heartfelt expressions of love for God and for the people he has made, will still ascend as a pleasing incense before God’s throne (Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4) and will result in ‘praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ (1 Peter. 1:7) Beloved, nothing is ever wasted by the Lord.