Monday, March 4, 2013

A stumbling block to faith - unanswered prayers



I once saw a video of Dr William Lane Craig talking about how it is possible for one to have faith in God even though he or she may have doubts about the faith. There is a practical side to this. After all, it is not possible for one to have knowledge or absolute rationality before one commits himself or herself to a belief. But Dr Craig did add that what one possible thing a person can do about his stumbling block to faith is to make it a sort of research project, and take the question and examine it to its fullest so as to obtain understanding and remove that stumbling block to faith.

I have one such stumbling block to faith at the moment. And that is the question why God does not seem to answer my prayers. I do pray for things like healing for my tension headache, for the gift of understanding and intelligence so that I may do well in my law school studies, and to be better in my social skills. I have said the same prayers asking for these things for myself a lot of time.

Well, my logic is simple. If God says in the bible that he will answer prayers, and indeed, my prayers are not getting answered, then there must be something wrong with what is said in the bible. Of course, there may be many possible reasons why prayers are not getting answered.

The usual answer I get when I ask fellow Christians why my prayers don’t get answered is that God will answer our prayers according to his will. I do accept this reasoning, and I do accept that it is better for God’s will to be done. But it can seem unclear why there should be better alternative than what is asked for. And the lack of any response can also seem unnervingly like God is absent or non-existent.

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