“If Prayer Works, Why Doesn’t it Work For Everyone?”

If prayer works, why doesn’t it work for everyone?

This was a question I was asked recently by someone very close to my heart who has been going through a lot of their own pain and struggles in the past few years. I too have wondered this myself a number of times over the last bunch of years. But I think the real question being asked here is better worded like this…

Why do some prayers get answered while others don’t?

This is such a tough question to ponder. Even the greatest spiritual beings in history have had trouble with resolving it. While I can’t say I have the exact answer either, maybe I can best respond like this.

I have struggled with mental, emotional, and physical pain for years now. When it first began I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for it to end and to return to a much better state of health. When those prayers went unanswered over the course of days, weeks, months, and then eventually years, I began to question my faith and wonder if God even existed. Was anyone even hearing all my prayers? Was anyone out there even listening to any of my tear-soaked words?

At first I was angry and wanted to rebel. I wanted to be resentful at God for letting this happen to me. But over time, something changed. My heart opened. And through that, I began to see all my pain and suffering from a totally different perspective. I realized that if my prayers had been answered years ago I would have never gained the gratitude I have in life for even the smallest of things like I do now. I also wouldn’t have seen that God exists in everyone and everything like I do now. But even more importantly than that, I would never have had my faith as much as it has through all of this. And most likely, if my prayers for healing had been answered long ago, there’s a strong likelihood I would have returned to my life of addictions, because that’s all I ever knew.

Sitting still and waiting on God, praying day in and day out for a brighter day has definitely not been an easy thing to do. Especially when my ego has screamed and screamed and screamed at me, trying to take control saying there must be a better way. Unfortunately, the last time I allowed it to convince me of that, I found myself in a much-worse state that I already was and became heavily medicated just to exist.

So while my prayers for better health haven’t been answered yet, something else has. God has provided me with an abundance of food, water, shelter, clothing, and companionship to keep me going. That’s a lot to be said compared to the millions and millions of people in this world who don’t have one or more of those things on any given day. Seeing that from this perspective helped me to alter my prayers along the way, as now I just ask for the strength to endure until God delivers me into a brighter day. And occasionally I’ve gotten glimpses of that in various ways, ever reminding me that something beyond my comprehension is hearing my prayers and working on my behalf.

In all honesty, looking back, I’m kind of glad that my prayers weren’t answered in the way I wanted because it only would have satisfied my ego and not my soul. And the last thing I want to satisfy is my ego on any level right now, as it’s my ego that has always been the one that has led me to ask those questions of why do some prayers go unanswered. It’s my ego that has always tried to convince me that when my prayers aren’t answered in the way it wants, that God must not exist. It’s my ego that’s always tried to convince me that if God was all-loving, then why would God let bad things happen to me. And the more I’ve listen to my ego, the more I’ve lived in anger, resentment, and frustration, the more I’ve blamed God for everything, and the more I’ve questioned whether it’s even worth it to pray or not. Being in that place did nothing good for me and only left me feeling empty and alone, so that’s why I continue to pray and believe my prayers are still being answered.

So why doesn’t prayer work for everyone and why do some prayers go unanswered?

My answer is simple. I believe it’s the ego that says prayer doesn’t work and it’s the ego that makes one think their prayers aren’t getting answered. If we could just get out of our own way and thinking, we might see that something greater is at work in our lives, that our prayers are being answered, and that it’s probably being done in a fashion far better than anything we could ever have imagined for ourselves…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Growing World Problems And $2B Spent On An Election?

Did you know that close to 2 billion dollars will have been spent on the 2016 presidential campaign by the time all is said and done? I was totally amazed when I heard this recently for one reason and one reason only. I thought about the many things it could be better used for that might make a serious impact in some of our world’s problems.

Poverty, hunger, lack of drinking water, and spread of disease are just a few of the things I thought of. So often I hear people say if God really exists, why doesn’t He just take care of all these world problems? Well I’m not God but if I was to make my best guess on why that is? Maybe God is wanting us to do the work. Maybe God is asking us to take a look within ourselves and use what resources we do have for greater purposes.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it takes money to run for president. But, I’m sure that plenty of it is being spent on things that aren’t exactly necessary. But truly, my point is not specifically about the money being spent on this presidential race. It’s more about when one has an abundance of money or some other resource, why is it rarely spent on helping reduce some of these world problems?

I can’t speak for anyone else but myself, so my truth is this. When I had a ton of money to spend, and plenty of money coming in, I only thought about wanting more of it and what I could do with what I had, solely to please myself. In other words, my money and any other abundant resource of mine was focused selfishly on promoting my own life and nothing else.

So maybe that’s why God doesn’t make all these world problems immediately go away. Maybe He keeps seeing everyone use what they’re blessed with for selfish purposes. Maybe He keeps hoping people might wake up and start giving back some of their abundance. Maybe he sees things like this 2 billion dollars being spent on a presidential race while people are dying elsewhere in the world of starvation or sickness. Who knows?

What I do know though is that while I may be currently unable to work or bring in any money, I do have other resources I can give back to others. That’s why I go to a lot of recovery meetings, why I offer rides to those who need them, why I volunteer my time at various institutions, and why I sponsor others. Because God has still given me one resource in abundance that I can offer to the world and that’s my experience, strength, and hope in sobriety and recovery from all my former addictions.

I pray that one day I will have a lot more to offer others though. Until then, may God continue to guide me on how I can give back what abundance has been blessed upon me, so that I may never return to a life of selfishness…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson