Answered/Unanswered Prayers

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SeanTom

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Thought this might be of interest to some on this forum.

ANSWERED/UNANSWERED PRAYERS

The following is a true story:

On November 28, 1942, Boston College football team was scheduled to play Holy Cross as their last game of the season. Boston College was undefeated - Holy Cross was winless. As you can guess, Boston College was HEAVILY favored to win.

Right before the game started, the Coach for Boston College gathered his team in the locker room and told them that if they win this last game, they will have an undefeated season, and he will take them all out for a steak dinner that night at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. Then they proceeded to say a prayer - and they prayed to God that they would win this last game.

It was a hard fought game, but Boston College suffered its only loss of the season, to a college that had won not even one single game. Needless to say the coach was very dejected and the team did not go to the Cocoanut Grove for dinner that night. The players were very disappointed that their prayers weren’t answered.

That night, the Cocoanut Grove had a big fire. This nightclub was authorized by the city to hold no more than 460 people, but that night it was jam packed with a count of approximately 1,000 customers. As a result of the fire, 492 people were killed, some by the fire, some by smoke, and some were just trampled to death by the crowd trying to get out of the building…

Now, if Boston College’s prayer to win the game was granted to them by God, I wonder how many of the players would have been killed in the fire.

Conclusion: SOMETIMES GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS BY NOT ANSWERING PRAYERS, (or at least not what we had asked for). I am sure this thought ran through the minds of all the Boston College players. They probably all wondered, “What if we did win?). Scary thought.

As a sideline, the cowboy “Buck Jones” was a popular cowboy in the 30’s and 40’s, and made a lot a movies. He was like a Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers etc. Well, he was also killed in that fire. The story is that he really didn’t want to go out that night, but since the Cocoanut Grove was expecting an exceptionally large crowd, his Public Relation’s man talked him into going - said it would be good for his image. (How wrong he was!)

I often use the above story when I get into a conversation on why God does not always answer prayers. God ALWAYS answers prayers, but I’m afraid His answers may not be the answer we expected; and we may not understand His answer until maybe days or years later! God has a plan for all of us, and, if things don’t always go our way, even though we may be disappointed, we should remember, He is in charge.
 
Pardon my cynicism, but what about the people that died in the fire at the Cocoanut Grove in Boston who may have prayed for safety in their comings and goings that day? It irks the heck out of me when people say at the time of a life threatening tragedy that they are alive only because God was looking out for them. What about the people who lose their lives at the same event when others lives are saved? Does it mean that God was not looking out for the ones whose lives were lost? I truly believe that most of the time stuff happens and that God has no direct hand in them. Being in Kansas and familiar with tornadoes, I will never believe that God will EVER direct the path of a tornado so that some lives are lost and others are saved. Likewise for any disaster.
 
Beno,

I think you are missing the point here. Put yourself in the shoes of those football players who prayed that they would win and then lost - possibly thereby saving themselves from a horrible death. I am reasonably sure that they were glad their prayers weren’t answered.

The point here is to leave your destiny up to God. He already knows your destiny and thy will be done. No one knows if God decided “not” to answer their prayers so that they would not face a horrible death. But as human beings with our small minds, I could see where we might think that way. None of us really knows how our prayers, whether they are granted or not, may effect our lives. God has a plan for all of us and His plan will take precedence over our desires.

This story I posted does have a message. The message may mean different things to each of us, and that is ok. My last word is that we should definitely pray to God for our needs and desires and then let it up to God to either grant or deny our wishes. I do believe that God does answer prayers in a way that God knows what is best for us. Why He allowed some of those people to die, and some not, none of us really knows. But we know that God does hear our prayers and that should give us hope that He is looking out for us. We must trust Him - and never give up hope by sending up prayers to Him.

Remember, prayer is communicating with God. Regardless of how He answers our prayers, He is happy to receive them.
 
well said!

when you put it into perspective it’s really humbling. i feel like a pawn! yet thankful that i’m not a poker chip. i wonder if Isaac felt like a poker chip:shrug:
 
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