"Always be joyful. Always keep on praying. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, always be thankful, for this is GOD's will for you who belong to CHRIST JESUS." ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 [emphasis supplied].

These are hard words for us to understand. Always be joyful...always be thankful...no matter what happens. Those are GOD's words, folks, not mine. But what are we going to do about them?

This page is perhaps the hardest to write. In spite of the fact that we claim to believe there is a GOD up there in heaven somewhere; a GOD who is our Abba, our Father; a GOD who loves us so much He even allowed His only begotten Son to die for us; a GOD who has provided us with all we need to fight our spiritual battles; we often find that He does not respond to our prayers in the exact way we want Him too, He doesn't give us what we ask for.

As Christians we know there are no completely unanswered prayers. GOD always answers, our problem is we see only from a human beings' perspective; so that when we pray for physical healing and the person dies we get upset, and cry out to GOD, "Why?" Or, when we petition for financial prosperity and the recipient gets fired, we feel as if somehow we've, or GOD, let them down and we again cry out "Why, GOD, are you doing this?" Or, we pray for a Christian spouse for one of our children, and they seem to fall in love with a non-believer; etc. What is going on?

GOD wouldn't be a loving Father if He gave us everything we wanted. Just as Christian parents on this earth know what is best for their children - even when the children don't agree - our GOD knows the end from the beginning, He says in His Word: "This plan of Mine is not what you or your family or friends would work out, neither are My thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours, and My thoughts than yours... " ~Isaiah 55:8-11, and so He allows what He knows is best!

His plans for us are not what we would work out. But His plans are the best plans. But are we willing to trust Him, no matter what? Take a look at GOD's plan for Job. It was a good plan according to GOD, but it tested Job's faith to the utmost and staggered his understanding. You remember the account, if not, open your Bible to the Book of Job [it's in the Old Testament between Esther and the Psalms]: Job's adult children were all killed, plus he lost all his cattle, his crops...even his physical health was affected. What was Job's response: "Though He slay me, yet will I ...TRUST Him!..." ~Job 13:15 [Amplified Bible].

"As for GOD, His way is perfect..." ~Psalm 18:30. It is our viewpoint that makes all the difference. GOD's Word tells us that Christians, particularly Prayer Warriors, must have and can have the viewpoint of CHRIST. "Let this mind be in you, which is also in CHRIST JESUS." ~Philippians 2:5. And "...be renewed in your mental attitude, and that you put on the new nature that is created in GOD's likeness..." ~Ephesians 4:23,24 [New Berkley Edition].

This is, unfortunately, the problem with many professed Christians, they are 'fairweather' Christians. In other words, when their prayers and intercessions are answered positively, they are singing the praises of GOD; BUT when there is a negative response or something doesn't happen when they believe it should, then a fist is raised toward heaven and a demand is made, "Why have You [meaning GOD] allowed this?"; or they'll give up what 'faith' they had in GOD.  Also, there are times when even we, as Christians and Prayer Warriors, somehow have the idea that this should exempt us from having trials and tests in our lives.

Yet GOD's Word says that  "ALL things work together for good..." It all goes back to Whom we KNOW! In Luke 2:22-32, we read of of a man named Simeon. He was someone who knew his GOD. Yet Simeon had never seen or heard of a miracle. For four hundred years GOD had been silent. No signs. No wonders. No new assurances delivered by a prophet. All Simeon had was the written Word of GOD. But that was enough for him...he chose to believe!

"Lisa had written in her journal, 'The point of my affliction is the point of His glory.' She was thirty-three years old when she died. Lisa had prayed and trusted and had known God could heal her physically of the cancer that spread through her body. But He didn't. Yet that was all right with Lisa.

It is evident in her journal and in the way she approached death that Lisa knew her God. As she set her heart to spend time with Him, to seek His face in regard to her cancer, to surrender her all, God met her in intimate ways through His Word. So much so that Lisa wrote:

             I am joyously thankful that God has loved me enough and
             desires that I live for Him that He used this cancer to bring
             me back to a fuller knowledge of Him. God is all wise and has
             a perfect plan to help achieve His ultimate goal for us - to be 
             like Christ...

Lisa knew God would take care of and comfort her family, because she had a real relationship with Him." ~Kay Arthur, Our Covenant God.

Barbara Johnson is another person who has a REAL relationship with GOD, one  that has gotten her through several 'valley' experiences. She writes: "We all have to endure troubles in life. My husband was involved in a terrible accident that left him blind and crippled for many months [he recently died of a fast-spreading cancer]; the death of two sons, one in Vietnam, and the other in a car accident; and the homosexuality of another son who disappeared into a gay lifestyle for the better part of 11 years. I was diagnosed with diabetes, and just recently a cancerous brain tumor. We can choose to gather to our hearts the thorns due to our present situation, or we can choose to gather the flowers of God's grace... But the choice is ours!" ~Barbara Johnson, Fresh Elastic for Stretched Out Moms.

Still another story: Faye Goddard was a missionary in the Philippines, working among the Buhid tribe on Mindoro Island. But then one morning she awoke feeling "really rotten," finding that she had almost no strength. Her condition became so grave that she was airlifted to Manila where the examining doctors told her she had polio.

She was stunned. At only twenty-nine, she had been the picture of perfect health; just a week before she had been hiking through the mountains, now she was all but helpless, unable even to hold a glass of water.

Back home she was fitted for a wheelchair and told that she would be severely disabled the rest of her life. What would she be able to do now was uppermost in her mind.

Through the months that followed, she says, "I came to know three truths. First, I was happily conscious of being right square in the middle of God's will. Second, His promises hadn't changed. The grace was still there for the taking; and thirdly, I was aware that God had just changed my mission field. I was invited to join the home staff of the mission team at their headquarters, starting out doing the mundane services that every office requires, stuffing envelopes, and licking stamps. "At first my life began to lose its purpose and meaning, and the devil really attacked my spirit. But then the Lord seemed to say to me, 'If this is what I want you to do, what is that to you. Just follow me.' " And I replied, " Okay, Lord. I'll do it!" From that time onward, she was given the job of producing the mission's magazine. Faye ends the account in her book "When the Roof Caves In" saying: "That was over twenty years ago. The joy is still there. God is with me."

And one more: She was the last person brought out alive from the rubble of what was left of the World Trade Center. Fleeing down the stairs from her office on the 64th flour of the north tower, Genelle Guzman got as far as the thirteenth flour when literally the building came down around her. Suddenly she was in total darkness, buried alive and unable to move, Genelle cried out to GOD for help. He answer her cry by sending a rescuer, who broke through the rubble and grabbed her hand. In her darkest moment, Genelle Guzman promised her life, or death, to JESUS CHRIST.

In his book "Breakthrough Prayer" Jim Cymbala quotes Genelle's bottom line on what happened to her as she told it to her amazed psychiatrist. She said, "The tragedy I suffered was something I needed to go through in order to know Him."

So, why do we get unexpected answers; what I call cesspool, deep pit, or long dark tunnel experiences when we pray? We, Prayer Warriors, believe it has to do with 'growing' into the image of GOD's Son JESUS. GOD's Word says we are to be like Him. But that is impossible if we never experience any of the horrific occurrences that He has.

"At present you are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials and temptations. THIS IS NO ACCIDENT - it is happening to prove your faith, which is infinitely more valuable than gold... which must be purified by fire. This proving of your faith is planned to result in praise and honor and glory in the day when JESUS CHRIST reveals Himself." ~1 Peter 1:6,7 [MLT].

Why can't our faith and character grow without the suffering of family members, friends, acquaintances, etc... Because it is only in the purifying that we are challenged to believe, trust, and rely on GOD's Word, in spite of what we are feeling. Remember, FAITH means a deliberate determination to believe something we can't see or feel the evidence of.

As Merlin Carothers puts it in 'POWER IN PRAISE' "So if GOD TELLS US he's working everything out for our good, and we see everything go wrong, our faith grows when we stand on God's Word and thank Him for everything that is happening."

The question that remains for us is: Will we trust GOD no matter what  - even though it may mean a beloved child or spouse gets a terminal disease, or is injured in an accident, and dies; even if folks we're battling in prayer for turn their backs on GOD; even if we or someone we're praying for loses their job and gets in a financial bind, etc...WILL WE STICK WITH OUR GOD BECAUSE WE KNOW HIM and He is trustworthy? Prayer Warriors cannot be fairweather Christians. It is all or nothing!