Do you recall your first prayer? Perhaps not. Your first prayer may predate your earliest memories. In Psalm 8, David considered the babbling of a child and wrote:
O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is thy name in all the earth!
Thou whose glory above the heavens is chanted
by the mouth of babes and infants. Psalm 8:1-2
I shall never forget the first time I watched my son change the diapers on his baby girl. On this occasion my granddaughter looked into the face of her father as he dried, dusted and diapered her. She smiled and it was not just gas. Her face looked angelic. Her eyes shone with light. And she uttered some of the most beautiful sounds that I had ever heard. My granddaughter may grow up with a voice like mine. Or, hopefully, she may have a fine voice. I like to dream about the possibilities. She may sing in church, or even in Carnegie Hall, or at the Met, however, in my mind no song that passes her lips will ever surpass the beauty of those simple syllables. Like the Psalmist, I believe they were uttered in praise of God.
Now you may not remember your first prayer, but you may remember the first prayer after which you were absolutely, positively certain that you received an answer.
I was in 6th grade. I was playing towel football for South Park Elementary. I was a fullback at the time, but I was slow, and neither my teammates nor my coach would allow me to run with the ball. We were lined-up to receive the second-half kick-off, and I was on the front row. My assignment was to block. As I waited for the kick, I uttered a prayer. I prayed, “O, Lord, let the ball take one bad bounce land in my arms, and let me run a touchdown.” The kicker raced forward and struck the ball. It took a bad bounce, and landed in my arms. I set off down the field. I was not fast, but I twisted, and turned. My towel got caught between my legs. The opposing players were all around me, knocking each other out of my way. No one could grab my towel. I hastened forward as quickly as I could. Someone finally pulled my towel on the ten-yard line. On the next play the quarterback gave me the ball. I lost five yards. Things were back to normal.
That afternoon as I walked home from school, I was certain that God had answered my prayer. I reasoned that God had granted the first half of my prayer, that I might run the ball—just to demonstrate that he was indeed watching over my life, and not the second, that I might make a touch down, just to keep me humble.
Now some will think me simple. They will say that is ludicrous to make God more interested in a towel football game than in the many starving children of Africa. Others will point out that my experience of prayer proves nothing. I was one of eleven boys on the receiving team and I had one chance in eleven of receiving that kick, and it was all just luck. I understand every objection. I make them myself. But for good or ill, that episode has replayed itself in my mind a thousand time since that day almost half-a-century ago.
The truth is that many people pray, and believe that God answers their prayers, and they cannot be persuaded otherwise.
One morning last week, I asked two men of this church if they remembered an instance of answered prayer in their own lives. Both did not hesitate, to answer, “yes,” and they told me their stories.
The first man related that he was in the Army, stationed in Germany. He said that he was an atheist, and that he was living a hard life. He said that he had met an American missionary family, and they invited him into their home. They were an attractive family, and he was lonely. He accepted their invitation, but warned them he was a non-believer. He visited them, and he visited them again. They prayed for him to receive the gift of faith. Eventually, he did, and, as a result of their kindness, and as a result of their prayers, he accepted Christ. It was in answer to their prayer, but it was an answer.
The second man said that he, too, remembered a dramatic answer to prayer. A young child in his family, a nephew, suddenly started having seizures. He feared for the boy’s life. Over a period of weeks he and his wife prayed for the boy’s health. To his delight their prayers were answered. The boy stopped having seizures as suddenly as he had started having them. He never had another.
I think the author of the 86th Psalm certainly had experiences of answered prayer. In verse 10 he says, “the Lord has done wonderful things.” In verse 13 he says that the Lord had delivered his soul “from the depths of Sheol.” This is not about future salvation, but probably refers to a serious illness that the Psalmist had survived. Perhaps that described in Psalm 32?
I believe in prayer, and I believe that God answers prayer. However, I am fully aware that God answers our prayers in a variety of ways.
Sometimes God says “Yes,” to the very thing that we ask of him. The football drops in our arms, a friend becomes a believer, a child is healed of a disease, or a broken man is made whole. I know from personal experience, that when God answers a prayer, it is time to celebrate. Of course, the opposite is also true. God answers our prayer, but the answer to the thing we ask of God is “No.”
I will not list any specific examples of prayers that went unanswered. You can find examples of prayers that were answered, “no,” on every battlefield and in every graveyard. You can examples in unemployment offices and welfare lines. Almost every parent can speak to us of some form of unanswered prayer.
I suppose there are lots of reasons that God says, “No,” to a prayer that seems good enough to us. Here are a number of general answers:
Perhaps God’s “No,” is not really a permanent “No,” but a temporary “No.” 1) In John 5 we read about a cripple who waited to be healed for 38 years until Jesus told him to rise and walk. Likewise, in Luke chapter 8 we read about a woman who suffered an issue of blood for 12 years before she reached out, touched the hem of the Master’s garment, and was healed. 2) Sometimes the thing we pray for just takes time to reveal itself. When our daughter was born with a problem, Elayne and I were terrified at the prospects. We asked Bishop Spaugh to lay hands on her, and pray for her. We believe that God answered our prayer, but she was a young woman before we saw just how completely God had answered our prayer. 3) Sometimes sin and disobedience hinder our prayers. In James 5:6 we read that the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. In Psalm 86, David, called God’s attention to his godliness. Psalm 32 is a different story. Therein David says that when he declared not his sin, his body wasted away through his groaning. There can be little doubt that sin can hinder prayer. John Bailey says that we cry out for some fresh revelation of God and it does not come. “It does not,” he says, “because we have failed to act upon that which we have already received.” 4) Sometimes our prayers are not answered because they are not sincere. No prayer is sincere unless the one who prays is willing to be a part of the answer. “Prayer changes things!” “Prayer changes me!” 5) Sometimes our prayers are not answered because they are selfish. 6) Sometimes our prayers are not answered simply because God wants us to make us stronger. “That which does not kill us does make us stronger.” 7) Or, our prayers may not be answered because God has a higher purpose at work. Three times Paul asked God to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” Three times God answered saying, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:6) 
Prayers may not be answered because they are selfish. We must spread our prayers around. 9) Sometimes our prayers are not answered because God knows what we need better than we ourselves. There are two tragedies with regard to prayer. The first is that sometimes our prayers are not answered. The second is that sometimes our prayers are answered, and we get the thing we asked for, and the thing we get is not at all what we thought it would be.
Though I believe there are general reasons for unanswered prayer, I would never venture a reason for your unanswered prayer. That would be entirely presumptuous of me. Your unanswered prayer is a matter to be settled between you and God. Carl Jung says that every dream has meaning, but dreams have meaning primarily for the dreamer. It is the same with prayer, whether answered in the positive or negative. Every answer to prayer has meaning, but primarily for the one who prays. As your pastor, I would simply ask two things of you with regard to prayer. 1) Pray. You can’t catch a fish unless you have your line in the water. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7) 2) Once you start praying, continue to pray about a thing until you received satisfaction, or until the answer is meaningless in terms of this world. The child born to Bathsheba by David lay ill and dying. King David lay in the dirt. He fasted and prayed for seven days, as long as the child lived. When the boy died, David surprised his servants when he washed, and changed his clothes, and went to the temple to worship—showing his trust in God, took food, and returned to his life. (2nd Samuel 12) The truth is, David set an example for all of us. We must know when it is time to let a prayer go. When God answers our prayer, “Yes,” we celebrate. When God answers our prayer, “No,” we trust. When we trust, we remember that the God we trust is not just the God who sits in the heavens and laughs at the nations because he has them in derision. He is not just the all wise God of the philosophers. He is not just the deist God of those who are generally religious. He is the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God who, in the person of the Incarnate Son, entered into our human life, and shared our every weakness.
In Psalm 86 the Psalmist ask for four things:
First, he asks for God to teach him God way, so that he may walk in God’s truth.
Psalm 86 is presented as a Psalm of David. As we have noted, in this Psalm David does not cry out for forgiveness of sin as he does in Psalm 32, or again in Psalm 51. In this prayer, he calls attention to his godliness. He also mentions that he trusts the Lord, not the false Gods of the nations. He even pulls out all the stops and reminds God that he is the devout son of an equally devout mother begging him to “save the son of (God’s) handmaid.” I confess that I too have asked God to answer one of my prayers for my mother’s sake. Most of us have.
In 1986 Robert Fulghum published a book entitled, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Most of learned all we need to know from our Christian mothers and grandmothers. If we were the person that they taught us to be, and prayed for us to be, we would avoid most of the mistakes and sins and hardships of life, and walk in the way of the Lord with Joy.
Second, he asks God to unite his heart to honor and fear his name.
In the Hebrew Bible the heart is the center of our being. It is a union of body, mind, soul or “emotion,” and will. When we ask God to “unite our hearts,” we are asking God to take away our double-mindedness, and to give us an undivided desire to live for God. Elijah would later accuse the nation of Israel under Ahab as “limping along between two opinions.” He urged them to “choose this day” whom they would serve, saying, “If Baal be God, serve him. If the Lord be God, serve him!” If we believe God is God, then we ought to honor and fear God’s name. In the Beatitudes Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Soren Kierkegaard said, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” The person who “wills one thing,” lives all of life under the loving, watchful eye of his or her heavenly Father. We need not be afraid that God will overlook our gifts, or rob us of opportunities for real satisfaction. God will not. God knows our capabilities better than we do.
Third, David asks God to give him strength.
As I was preparing this sermon, I asked a member of this congregation if she had an instance of answered prayer in her life. She was quite honest. She said that she had asked for things that had never materialized, but that she had received a very specific answer to a very specific prayer quite recently. I said, “And what was that?” She said, “During my father’s recent illness, I was tired, worn-down. I asked God simply to give me strength to go, to serve my father. God did give me strength.” We often pray to be delivered from our trials and tribulations. Failing that we pray to be delivered through our trials and tribulations. This is often what happens. Therefore, time and time again we pray, “O Lord, give me strength.”
Finally, David asks God to show him a sign of his favor so that even his enemies could recognize it.
There are times when we pray for vindication or for the vindication of another—in the eyes of the world, and our prayer is answered. Just last week I received a book by Jo Anne North Goetz as a gift. Jo Anne taught Darryl Hunt when he was in 6th Grade. In 1984 when she read he was incarcerated for the brutal rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, she could not believe it. She knew he had fallen in with a wrong crowd, but she did not think him capable of rape and murder. She had been her champion and she became his. She stood by him when almost no one else did. She visited him in prison. In court, at great risk to herself, she testified to his good character as a child. Believing in his innocence, she prayed for him for almost two decades. You know the rest of that story. How a Winston-Salem Journal investigative reporter by the name of Phoebe Zerwick convinced the governor to run DNA test on 50,000 prisoners. The testing led to the brother of a man who had once been a suspect. It was not a match it was close. The former suspect was tested. It was a match. He confessed to the murder. At long last, after almost twenty years, Hunt was set free. It was an answer to her prayer. What did the poet say:
The mills of God grind slowly,
Yet they grind small.
Though with patience he stands waiting,
With exactness he grinds all.
Friedrich, Freiherr von Logau (1604-1655)
Was David’s prayer answered? Certainly. Though he was guilty of adultery, and murder, and many other crimes besides, he has gone down in history as Israel’s greatest king, a type of Christ. Of course, even Christ suffered—and his vindication before his enemies was delayed. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He was arrested as a blasphemer. He was given a mockery of a trial. He was condemned, scourged, and crucified. But Jesus was vindicated, personally, and before his disciples when God raised from death. Of course, the day is coming when all will know his true identity, for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ. That is when every knee will bow, both in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that, “Jesus is Lord,” to the glory of God the father. (Philipians 2:5-11)
There are times when we are vindicated, publicly, and times when that vindication is a private matter. Our vindication must wait.
Yet, every now and then we are permitted a grace note, a gift that we believe comes from God. As I prepared this sermon, I re-read The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones. I had read it half-a dozen times, and referenced it a hundred. This time I found a note in it. It was from the author. It had been posted from India, and it was addressed to John Greenfield, the Moravian author and evangelist. Jones thanked him for his book probably, Power from on High, the story of the Moravian revival of August 13, 1727, and prayed for his life and ministry. As I read that, I had the feeling that he was praying for my life and ministry. It was a grace note. I hope that God will answer your prayers. And even when the answer is, “No,” I pray that you will receive such grace notes in your own life, too.
Finis