"Really, God? What is the deal? … I ask and I seek and I knock and nothing happens.”
During the convention sermon at the close of the Nov. 17–18 annual meeting, Buddy Champion, pastor of First Baptist Church, Trussville, addressed what to do when God doesn’t seem to answer prayers the way one desires.
“Our whole theme (of the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting) has been about prayer,” he said, noting the Scripture for his sermon as being Matthew 7:7–12. “‘Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find and the door will be opened for you.’ It’s simple enough. You ask, you seek and you knock and it just happens. It unfolds in our lives.
“But so many times in my life that is just not the way it happens. I ask and I seek and I knock and nothing happens, what I desire does not happen, yet here I am in the middle of this.”
James 4:2 says, “You have not because you ask not,” Champion noted. “But that’s not true. I ask and I think God doesn’t answer like I think He needs to answer.”
Matthew 17 describes how having the faith of even a mustard seed can move a mountain.
Mark 9 talks about prayer and the book of James describes anointing people with oil for healing.
“I’ll have oil running all over your head and people are still sick,” he said.
“What is wrong? Where is the disconnect? It is true to ask, to seek, to knock. None of us question that, but if I ask, what will I receive?”
Noting he doesn’t yet know the answer, Champion said he continues to read God’s Word.
Matthew 7:9–10 reads: “Which of you if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake?”
Gives what is needed
God is a God who does not give stones or snakes but what is needed, Champion noted.
Describing his personal journey of agonizing over his daughter’s autoimmune difficulties, he shared a peek into many excruciating nights spent at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham not understanding what was happening.
As he cried out to God to help him understand and letting God know he didn’t agree with how his daughter was suffering, Champion said God always offered His love as an answer because that love was settled on the cross.
John 15:13–14 says: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command.”
“He loves us so much,” Champion noted. “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness and he was called God’s friend. What a great name. What a great privilege to be called the friend of God and God’s friend.
“When the wheels fall off and we are asking God and we are praying and we are trying to be faithful through difficulty, we find a God who wraps His arms around us and loves us,” Champion continued.
“In my difficulties and in my struggles I can turn to my Heavenly Father. He loves me and says, ‘Buddy, I’m going to carry you through this. I love you.’ He gives us exactly what we need, what needs to unfold in your life. Ask and you will receive, but what am I going to find?”
Matthew 7:11 describes the good gifts God will give His children — gifts that will help in times of need and even His all-sufficient gift of grace.
Second Corinthians 12:9 also explains how God’s grace is sufficient and how His power is made perfect in weakness.
“Even in those dark days, even in those confusing days, pray for God’s grace that will give you power in your weakness.”
‘If you will be faithful’
And of the door that will be opened, Champion asked, “Where? I need a door.”
But in Matthew 7:12, “it’s a weird shift on the focus,” he said, noting the verse says, “So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets.”
Champion said, “The door will be opened … for God to use you and to transform you. God wants to use us so that … our world might see a God that works through them. Let us throw off everything that hinders us … and let us run this race with perseverance.”
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