July: Day 26: Teaching 1: Holy Venerable Martyr Paraskevi

July: Day 26: Teaching 1:
Holy Venerable Martyr Paraskevi
 
(Why Are Our Prayers Often Not Heard by God?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The parents of the Holy Martyr celebrated today Paraskevi, Agathon and Politia, were Romans, who through their fervent prayer to God received an only daughter, whom they named Paraskevi, since she was born on a Friday. Paraskevi suffered cruelly for her confession of Christ during the reign of Antoninus, in the 2nd century. Thrown into a cauldron of oil and resin, she remained unharmed; throwing this liquid into the eyes of the curious emperor, she blinded him, then at his request she granted him sight, and by her sufferings, accompanied by miracles, she converted many to Christ. After her torment she was beheaded.

II. The Holy Martyr Paraskevi was granted to her parents through their prayers. Therefore, their prayers were pleasing to God and, as such, were heard by God. Our sinful prayers are not always heard by God.

The reasons why our prayers are not heard by God mainly lie either in what we pray for or in how we pray.

A. Carnal, short-sighted, self-centered people very often pray to God recklessly, pray for things that are harmful, for things that can be a reason for sin, or are downright sinful.

a) The object of their prayer is unreasonable when they call upon God to satisfy them in something that may be harmful to other people, or to the world in general, for the order and well-being of which He cares paternally. Thus, for example, if any of us, setting out on a long journey, prays to God that the weather may be fine throughout his journey, while at the same time millions of people pray to God for rain, because otherwise all their crops will dry up from drought, and they will be left without bread: is it not unreasonable for such a person to pray to the Lord God?

b) Equally foolish are the prayers of those of us who pray to God unconditionally for something that can very easily become very harmful to our own souls.

You are not content with your poverty, and you pray to God to make you rich: but do you know that wealth will not make you proud, hard-hearted, impious, as very often happens with the rich? Truly, God very often could not punish people more severely than if He faithfully fulfilled all their unreasonable prayers!

c) But there are even worse types of prayer. Some pray to God for a rich harvest of grain, so that they can eat better, drink more, and be merry in this world. These people clearly show themselves to be abusers of God's gifts. Can the All-Holy One fulfill such a prayer? No! "You ask, and receive not, because you ask evil," - you ask, "that you may spend yourselves in your pleasures" (James 4:3).

B. Besides this, our prayers are not heard by God because we do not pray to Him properly.

a) Very many pray to God without humility. He who prays, on the one hand, must be completely imbued with a sense of his own weakness, his need, and his unworthiness; and on the other hand, he must be completely confident in God's omnipotence, in God's grace, in God's omniscience, and in the fact that "every good and every perfect gift comes to us from the Father of lights - God" (James 1:17), as a pure gift of His infinite goodness. But many have neither the said feeling nor the said confidence. They think that they have quite a lot of their own strength, that they acquire much themselves, and that not everything is a gift, "coming down from the Father of lights" - God. Thus their prayers are very naturally not heard; because "God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble."

b) Others pray to God in vain because they have no trust in God. God, as Almighty, All-wise and All-good, truly desires and can do everything for our true good. But He demands that we believe that He really desires good for us, that He can provide every good, and that we trust in Him. Knowing this need for our prayer, Jesus Christ tried very hard to arouse in us faith and trust in God. “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:11)

c) God also does not fulfill our prayer when we pray to Him senselessly. Many pray by reading or listening to printed prayers, paying almost no attention to what is said in those prayers: only the tongue or ear pray, but not the mind and heart. Prayer-books of this kind are for the Lord God the same as the ancient Israelites, about whom He said through the Prophet: “This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matt. 15:8; Isaiah 29:13).

d) Our prayers are not heard when we do not pray with due zeal and constancy. For our prayer to God must be firm, and, so to speak, persistent. We see this partly from the Lord's parable of the godless judge, who granted the petitioning widow only because of her persistence, and partly from His parable of the friend, who at first refused his friend what he asked, because he had already gone to bed; but later granted him his request, because the one asking asked persistently. So we too must constantly pray.

d) Finally, our prayer is not heard when we pray to the Lord God not in the name of Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, that is, not in the spirit of Jesus Christ, not in accordance with His teaching, and not relying on His merits. The Lord Himself set the most important condition of prayer that it be offered to God especially in His name. He said with particular strength and expressiveness to His disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you shall receive” (John 16:23-24).

III. Therefore, Orthodox Christians, avoid the causes that make our prayers unworthy of God, and pray to Him with prayers worthy of Him. Then every prayer of yours, although not immediately, will be heard, and you will never be left without the spiritual strength you need, nor without the material blessings you need, although He often gives us not those for which we pray; because He gives us only those blessings that are saving for us. Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.