Not long after I wrote the articles on Suffering, Prayer, and Miracle, I received the devastating news that my sister-in-law had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. The prognosis was grim, it suddenly dawned on me that suffering, prayer, and miracle are related. When we suffer, we often pray to God for supernatural miracles. The questions of pain, miracles, and prayer I had been exploring in an intellectual sense suddenly became deeply personal. As a scientist, I grappled with questions about whether I truly believed in the power of prayer and whether supernatural miracles could occur in real life. I revisited what I had written many times, approaching the issue from multiple angles and considering it from different perspectives.
I have to confess that writing about prayer is not my forte. I played it safe with prayer for much of my Christian life, avoiding asking God for anything too extraordinary or expecting any supernatural miracles. Whenever I did pray for such things, my words often rang hollow, and I doubted that God would ever answer my requests. I didn’t want to deal with the disappointment of unanswered prayers, and my lukewarm faith prevented me from experiencing the full potential of God’s power.
Looking back, I realize that God has answered many of my prayers in the past, some quickly and some after a long waiting period. Through writing this website, fasting, and deepening my spiritual practice, God has strengthened my faith and cast aside my doubts. He has assured me that supernatural miracles are possible and that praying for them with all our hearts is perfectly fine.
Now, I am no longer afraid to pray wholeheartedly for God’s intervention in my life and the lives of those around me. My prayers are no longer hollow, and I fully expect God to do great things, knowing His power and love are limitless.
In the post about prayer, I mentioned that when God denies our prayer, He will align our will to accept the answer. However, I’ve heard stories of people losing their faith when God didn’t answer their prayers to heal their loved ones, and it seems like the alignment I mentioned didn’t happen for them. It’s too easy to dismiss their struggles and assume their faith wasn’t genuine. We often judge based on immediate results, but like an underdamped feedback system, they have yet to reach their destination. Perhaps one day, they will find peace with God and accept the outcome.
However, I also know of cases where people lost their faith because God didn’t answer their prayers and they didn’t reconcile with God before passing away. This leads to another theological issue: whether salvation is, once obtained, always secured. Unfortunately, I have no answer for such cases. I believe God intentionally hides the answer so that we don’t abuse our status as His children and instead focus on building a solid relationship with Him daily. We must accept that there are unanswered questions, and we can only know the answers when we meet God face to face. All we can do for those who have struggled is pray for them and listen to their cries.