Again, we pray and pray, and no answer comes. The boon does not arrive. Why? Perhaps we are not spiritually ready for it. It would not be a real blessing. But the persistence, the importunity of faith, is having a great effect on our spiritual nature. It ripens. A time comes when we are ready for an answer. We then present ourselves to God in a spiritual condition which reasonably causes him to yield. The new spiritual state is not the answer to our prayer, but it is its effect; and it is the condition which makes the answer possible. It makes the prayer effectual. The gift can be a blessing now. So God resists us no more. Importunity prevails, not as mere importunity (for God is not bored into answer), but as the importunity of God's own elect, that is, as obedience, as a force of the kingdom, as increased spiritual power, as real moral action, bringing corresponding strength and fitness to receive. I have often found that what I sought most I did not get at the right time, not till it was too late, not till I had learned to do without it, till I had renounced it in principle (though not in desire). Perhaps it had lost some of its zest by the time it came, but it meant more as a gift and a trust. That was God's right time - when I could have it as though I had it not. If it came, it came not to gratify me, but to glorify him and be a means of serving him.
From The Soul of Prayer by P. T. Forsyth, quoted in The Westminster Collection of Christian Meditations, compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild (Westminster John Knox Press, 1998).
Courtesy of Vicki K Black.
2 comments:
Thanks for this, Mike. It is very true. We often think we need something right now (some situation, person, boon) and it doesn't come and we think 'God has abandoned me.' But God is always right here, and I think, suffers with us in our suffering. He did so love us and want to be here with us! Perhaps a reason for something not happening when we think ot should or when we truly need it is that God is not being heard by, cannot convince the person who can help us to act on his promptings. We have free will after all. BUt whatever the reason, in our desire and our suffering we certaily can draw nearer to the Father and the Son, who know exactly what we are experiencing, for They have, too,
Yes, this idea of the Suffering God is a Franciscan one and maybe shocking to those who see God as omnipotent and invulnerable. But I find great comfort in the God who Bends Near.
I do not believe that the spiritual fruits of our trials are the 'reason' for them, that God is just being ratty to us for our own good; that is ascribing a far too human motive. Things happen. What we do with them, how we respond - with love and vulnerability, drawing near to God; or with bitterness, rejection, and emotional walls - determines whether we are successful as persons and as spiritual being. God holds out His grace, love, and mercy. Do we acceptit? That is up to us.
Pace et bene!
Yes, Kelly, my own feelings exactly, regarding our suffering God. I could never love an impassible God!
What you say reminds me very much of Julian of Norwich, in passages like this:
"For though the dear manhood of Christ could suffer only once, the goodness that is in him can never cease from offering itself again. Every day he is ready to suffer again, if it could be."
and this:
"And I saw here... that the love that made him willing to suffer is as far above the pains that he bore as heaven is above the earth."
(both from Sheila Upjohn's translation, Ch. 22)
No, I don't believe God is ever "ratty to us" for whatever reason. But I do think he will at times give us the answer he knows we need, rather than the one we think we want - and that answer may be "No!" or it may be "But not yet..." I think very often if we accept that, and listen quietly, we will receive an answer we can understand - of course if we are having a tantrum all we can hear is our own voice yelling, "But I wanna - gimme NOW!"
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