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The Prayer You Don’t Want Answered · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  The prayer you don't want answered. Fascinating topic today coming up because we meet
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  it soon. In the Navigator's Bible reading planned later this weekend. On May
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  twelfth, we read Psalm one oh six fifteen together, a text we've been
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  asked about recently by a listener, Pastor John. Hello. My name is
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  Amy, and I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. As I read the Bible,
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  I see that there are times when we ask God for things wrongly and
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  He mercifully just says no. We see this in James four to three,
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  And there are times when we ask God for things wrongly and he says yes.
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  That seems to be the case in Psalm one oh six fifteen. Can
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  you explain this verse in Israel's quote wanton craving in the wilderness end quote in
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  Psalm one oh six fourteen. I presume it's for food? What about this
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  prayer is evil? Why do you think God responded by giving them what they
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  wanted? Why? Also the wasting disease? Confused here? Having a hard
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  time understanding the principle one I find in other texts, namely Insal I'm seventy
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  eight, verses twenty nine to thirty one, Yes and I'm going to add
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  a pair of other texts into the mixed here too and interject them for Samuel
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  chapter eight, verses seven and twenty two, because those are verses we just
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  looked at in APJA twenty twenty nine recently. Okay, so can you explain
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  this Amy asks and tell me whether this should inform how we ask for things
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  today and what we ask for? Are we liable to have a wrongfully asked
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  prayer get answered by God for our own undoing? When I lived in Tennessee
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  for a year, I discovered that there were two hiking routes up the back
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  of Stone Mountain. One was about twice as long as the other, but
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  the short one was really rugged and steep. Now, suppose I had a
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  nine year old son. I didn't at the time, so I had to
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  imagine this. But I try both of them myself, and I know what
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  would happen. I suppose I had this nine year old son with me,
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  and we hike the mountain and say once a week on Saturday for vun for
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  exercise. And suppose every time we got to the fork in the path where
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  the two hiking routes diverged, he complained, and he complained, and he
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  begged, and he begged to go the short one, Daddy, want to
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  go the short one because the other one took so long. Now, there
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  are two ways that I could seek to teach my son to trust me for
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  my wisdom in this in this life. One is to say, no,
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  that's not a wise decision. We're going to do the one we can do.
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  So we're taking the long route. Takes longer, but we can do
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  this. We can handle that, and you know, learn you need to
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  learn to trust me. But there is another way you might choose to teach
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  this kid a thing or two. You'd say, okay, let's do it.
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  Yeah, And halfway up he's utterly exhausted. He's looking at these rocks
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  in front of him. It's looked like a straight up cliff and he's saying
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  I can't do this, Daddy, and saying, yes, you can and
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  you will. You prayed for it, you got it. Now. The
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  point that's the wasting disease right this rock face and his misery, and the
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  point is to teach my son one way or the other. Trust me,
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  son, you need to trust me. I know what I'm doing when I
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  make decisions in this in this family. So some one O six thirteen says
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  Israel soon forgot God's works. They did not wait for his counsel. But
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  they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and God to the test in
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  the desert. He gave them what they asked, but said a wasting disease
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  among them. So God had met every need since Israel left Egypt. But
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  these people grumbled again and again and again against the Lord. They were hungry
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  for meat. Psalm seventy eight nineteen says they spoke against God, saying,
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  can God spread a table in the wilderness? That was how they tested the
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  Lord. They doubted him, they challenged him. So this prayer for what
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  they craved was not a humble expression of trust, which is what good requests
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  are. It was a skeptical expression of anger. God could have kept supplying
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  their needs the way he was doing all along. That would be a lesson
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  amazing grace and provision. Learned to trust me, trust me. That wasn't
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  working. Or He could teach them a lesson this way, I'll grant your
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  doubting, challenging request and misery to go with it. Lesson trust me,
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  don't doubt me. So yes, I think God does that today. It's
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  never right today to forget God's works and then fail to wait for his counsel.
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  It's never right to think that we know what's best and become demanding and
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  challenging to God. He just might give us the car we demand, or
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  the spouse we demand, or the rising stock price that we demand, or
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  the child we demand, and then five twenty years later those answers might come
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  back with great sorrows in our lives. But that could sound fatalistic. But
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  here's the twist. There's a twist of providence in this peculiar way that God
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  disciplines us by giving us what we ask for and then misery to go with
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  it. We can see this twist if we look at the other example that
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  I think you mentioned Tony at the beginning, with regard to the demand for
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  a king. That the twist is that they should not have demanded a king
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  the way they did, and yet God gave them a king and then made
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  their ungodly desire serve his eternal purposes of grace. That's the twist. And
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  he's so hopeful for those of us who've made stupid decisions and have asked for
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  terrible things or asked for things that seem good, and we were all wrong
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  in the way we asked for them. God can work this for good.
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  So here's the way it worked the transaction. In First Samuel eight five,
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  the elders of Israel say to Samuel, a point for us a king to
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  judge us, like all the nations. Now that's the sin. We want
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  to be like the nations. But it says verse six, the thing displeased
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  Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel
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  prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice
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  of this people, for they have not rejected you. They have rejected me
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  from being king over them. And then Samuel seems to give them one more
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  chance to change their minds by telling them all the miseries that the king is
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  going to bring into their lives. The King's gonna take your sons and make
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  them soldiers. He's gonna take your daughters and make them perfumers and cooks.
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  He's gonna take your feels and your vineyards. He's gonna take your flocks.
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  And then in verse nineteen, but the people refuse to obey the voice of
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  Samuel, and they said, no, there shall be a king over us,
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  that we may be like the nations. And then verse twenty two,
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  God says, obey their voice, make them a king. No. Here's
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  three hundred years later. This is Hoseiah, the last prophet who prophesies before
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  Assyria destroys Israel. Here's what he says. Chapter thirteen, verse ten.
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  Where now is your king to save you in all your cities? Where are
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  all your rulers, those whom you said, give me a king and princess.
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  I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away
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  in my wrath. So God answered their request, and it did not go
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  well for them. And I pause, and I say, but wait,
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  I mean, wait, there is something else going on here. Psalm chapter
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  two, verse six. God says, I have set my king on Zion,
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  my holy hill. God said, is king on Zion his holy hill?
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  In Isaiah nine, verse six, to us, a child is born,
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  to us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon
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  his shoulder. Of the increase of his government and of peace. There shall
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  be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom forever, his
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  kingdom forever, and Luke one point thirty two. Gabriel says to Mary,
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  the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he
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  will reign over the House of Jacob forever, and his kingdom kingdom will have
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  no end. So here's the upshot, the twist. The sinful prayer for
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  a king becomes the means by which Jesus enters the world as king to die
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  and rise and forgive their sins that they brought upon themselves by asking for a
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  king. I just think God is amazing in the way his providences twist our
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  sins so that they actually can work for our salvation. So the twist of
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  providence is this. If you are today in a situation of God's discipline in
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  answer to an unbelieving, angry, misguided prayer, don't despair. Don't despair,
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  repent, accept your sin and your guilt, turn to Christ's mercy and
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  blood, and ask God to twist this situation into something good and God honoring.
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  I have seen Him do this in my life. I have seen him
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  do it. I know he can do it in yours. Amen, those
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  are hope giving a word. It's all resting on the goodness of our Savior
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  and his death and resurrection on our behalf. Well, we not only read
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  Some one oh six on Sunday, the day is also set aside as Mother's
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  Day. Happy Early Mother's Day to all the moms out there. On Monday,
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  we're going to return to look at a mom's role in raising boys.
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  It's a wonderful conversation to come, one that I'm sure will be filled with
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  a lot of memories for you. Pastor John, I'm Tony Ranky. See
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  you on Monday.