The hardest thing about praying hard is enduring unanswered prayers. If you don’t guard your heart, unresolved anger toward God can undermine faith. Sometimes your only option is trust because it is the last card in your hand, but it’s the wild card. If you can trust God when the answer is no, you’re likely to give Him praise when the answer is yes. You need to press in and press on. By definition, praying hard is praying when it’s hard to pray. And it’s the hard times that teach us to pray hard. But if you keep praying through, the peace that transcends understanding will guard your heart and your mind.
So sometimes the answer to our prayers is no and you’ll never understand why. But here’s some good news: What we perceive as unanswered prayers are often the greatest answers.
What’s Going On, God?
During our first two years of church planting, our church office was in the spare bedroom in our home. It was an awfully convenient commute, but it eventually became a huge inconvenience when our daughter, Summer, was born. Our spare bedroom turned into her bedroom by night and my office by day. I would set up her porta-crib at night and tear it down in the morning. That got real old real fast, so we started looking for office space.
After a few months of searching, I finally found a row house in the 400 block of F Street NE that we could convert into offices. It was perfectly situated halfway between our home and Union Station, and it had the ideal floor plan. We prayed that God would give us that contract, but when we presented the offer the next morning, we discovered that someone beat us to the punch the night before. It felt like a sucker punch that knocks the wind out of you. I was sure that this row house was the answer we were looking for, so it was both confusing and frustrating.
It took a few days to recuperate from that disappointment, but we resumed our search. A few weeks later, we found a row home in the 600 block of 3rd Street NE, just two blocks from Union Station. It was even more perfect than the previous place, so we prayed even harder. Once again, when we presented the offer the next morning, we discovered that someone got in ahead of us the night before. It felt like a second sucker punch that knocked the faith out of us.
After two bitter disappointments, I threw my arms up in the air. It was one of those “What’s going on, God?” moments. Not only was God not answering our prayers; it felt like He was opposing our efforts. It felt like God was actually getting in the way. And He was. And I’m glad He was.
The Greatest Answers
Two weeks later, after those two unanswered prayers, I was walking home from Union Station. As I passed by 205 F Street, the Holy Spirit jogged my memory, and a name surfaced out of the deep recesses of my long-term memory. I had met the owner a year before, but I’m not very good at remembering names. I honestly wondered if it really was Robert Thomas. But one way or another, I felt prompted to call him.
There was no For Sale sign on the property, but I knew I needed to obey that prayer prompting, so I looked up his name in the Yellow Pages and found several listings for Robert Thomas. I made an educated guess and dialed the number. When he answered, I said, “Hi, this is Mark Batterson. I don’t know if you remember me, but —” He didn’t even let me finish my sentence. He interrupted me. “I was just thinking about you. I’m thinking about selling 205 F Street, and I wanted to know if you want to buy it before I put it on the market.”
Only God.
That row home became our first office, but even more significant than its function was its location. 205 F Street abuts 201 F Street. We started laying hands on those abutting walls and asking God to give us the old crack house next door. I refused to believe that it was coincidental. I chose to believe it was providential. And it was.
If God had answered our prayers for the row homes in the 400 Block of F or 600 Block of 3rd, He would have given us second or third best. I was frustrated and confused because they seemed like good options, but they weren’t the best option. And God doesn’t settle for what is good. In His providence, God knew that we needed 205 F Street if we were going to eventually get 201 F Street. Because of construction and zoning complications, it would have been impossible for us to build our coffeehouse at 201 F if we hadn’t owned 205 F.
Thank God for unanswered prayers!
Our heavenly Father is far too wise and loves us far too much to give us everything we ask for. Someday we’ll thank God for the prayers He didn’t answer as much or more than the ones He did. Our frustration will turn to celebration if we patiently and persistently pray through. It may not make sense for a few years. In fact, it may never make sense on this side of eternity. But I’ve learned a valuable lesson about unanswered prayer: Sometimes God gets in the way to show us the way.
Talking Donkeys
One of the wackiest miracles in the Bible involves a talking donkey. A prophet named Balaam is headed to Moab because he has been offered an honorarium to curse the Israelites. On his way, an angel of the Lord gets in the way. Balaam doesn’t see the angel, but his donkey does. Three times the donkey saves Balaam’s life by stopping, but Balaam is infuriated at his dumb donkey. That’s when God opens the donkey’s mouth, and it says to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam’s response to this donkey that saved his life three times? “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
In all fairness, I don’t think any one of us knows how we would respond if one of our pets started talking to us! But Balaam is so enraged that he is not thinking straight. Dude, if you have a talking donkey on your hands, the last thing you want to do is kill it! You don’t even need that honorarium anymore. You’re going to make a fortune. You can take your talking donkey show on the road. Do a gig in Vegas.
I love the donkey’s rational response. And I can’t help but wonder if he had a distinguished British accent to go along with his superior intellect. “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”
The most respected prophet in the ancient world has no comeback. His only response to his erudite donkey is, “No.” And he probably mumbled it.
Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes to see the angel of the Lord, who said this to Balaam:
“I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
Sometimes we get as ticked off as Balaam when we can’t get to where we want to go. We hate detours! They are frustrating. They are confusing. But the divine detours often get us where God wants us to go. The real miracle in this story isn’t the talking donkey; the real miracle is a God who loves us enough to get in the way when we’re going the wrong way. These are the miracles we don’t want, but these are the miracles we need. And when I look back on my own life, I’m grateful for the moments God got in the way of my plans and rerouted me. What seems like an unanswered prayer means that God has a better answer.
When I was a senior in college, I was offered a staff position with one of my heroes in ministry. He was an incredibly charismatic leader and communicator. It felt like a dream job, but as I paced our chapel balcony praying about it, I felt a check in my spirit. It felt like God was getting in the way. I knew I needed to say no, but I didn’t know why. I turned down the offer and went to graduate school instead. Less than a year later, this pastor had an affair, left his family and his church, and eventually committed suicide. I have no doubt that God could have protected me in that situation, but he kept me from it altogether. He rerouted me from Missouri to Illinois.
Then, while I was in seminary in the Chicago area, I tried to plant a church, but once again, it felt like God got in the way. It was the wrong time and the wrong place. That church plant imploded, and God rerouted us from Illinois to Washington, DC. And I’m so glad He did. I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else doing anything else with anyone else. Ou
r destiny was in DC, but God had to get in the way a few times to get us there. He had to leave a few prayers unanswered so that He could give a better answer.
I’m so grateful that God doesn’t answer all of my prayers. Who knows where I would be? But part of praying hard is persisting in prayer even when we don’t get the answer we want. It’s choosing to believe that God has a better plan. And He always does!
The Key of David
“These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”
One of my most circled promises is Revelation 3:7 – 8. I’ve prayed this promise hundreds of times in hundreds of different ways. I’ve seen God open doors that I never imagined I would have access to. I’ve done things and gone places and met people that I had no business doing, going to, or meeting. I recently had lunch with a former president and thought to myself, You can’t never always sometimes tell. That certainly isn’t something I could have orchestrated, but when you follow in the footsteps of Jesus, you never know what door He may open.
The key of David is an allusion to Eliakim, the mayor of David’s palace. The key wasn’t just a means of access; it was a symbol of authority. There was nothing that Eliakim could not close or open, lock or unlock. The Son of David, Jesus Christ, now holds the key of David and gives us access to this promise and every other promise.
The picture that comes to mind when I think about this open door promise is the opening sequence of the television series Get Smart. I can even hear the theme music. Maxwell Smart walks through seven different types of doors that automatically open on his way into the high-security CONTROL headquarters. Prayer is like that. It has a way of opening the right doors at the right time, even if we’re sometimes as clueless as Agent 86.
The first time I circled this open door promise was in 1996.
Let me retrace the circle.
The Red Carpet
We had just received notice that the DC public school where National Community Church met was being closed because of fire code violations. We were on the verge of becoming a homeless church, and we had nowhere to go. We looked into at least twenty-five options, but every door we knocked on was slammed in our face. That’s when I dared to dream big and pray hard. And while I’ve already shared the story of approaching the manager of the movie theaters at Union Station, here’s the rest of the story.
Before asking the manager if we could rent the movie theaters on Sunday mornings, I prayed seven circles around Union Station. It was no easy task weaving through commuters, taxicabs, and tourist buses. Actually, I prayed seven circles around Union Station on several occasions. The more courage I need the more circles I draw. Finally, after circling Union Station long enough to build up enough courage, I walked in the front doors, through the Great Hall, down the escalator, under the marquee, and into the theater.
When the doors to that DC public school closed, it felt like the church was going to fall apart. I should have known that God was setting us up. Three days before I walked into the theater, AMC Theatres rolled out a nationwide program recruiting businesses and nonprofits to use their theaters when the screens were dark. As far as I know, we were the first group to respond to that initiative, and we had no idea it was going on. But God did. And God didn’t just open an amazing door of opportunity; He rolled out the red carpet.
On the way out of Union Station, after signing a lease with the theater, I picked up A History of Washington’s Grand Terminal. I immediately opened it, and the first thing I saw was an italicized phrase on the first page: “and for other purposes.”
That phrase was part of the Bill of Congress signed by Teddy Roosevelt on February 28, 1903. It stated simply, “A Bill of Congress to create a Union Station and for other purposes.” It’s that last phrase, and for other purposes, that jumped off the page and into my spirit. Nearly a hundred years after that bill passed, Union Station started serving God’s purposes through the ministry of National Community Church. Roosevelt thought he was building a train station. He had no idea that he was building a church—a church with a mass transportation system, parking garage, and forty-restaurant food court, no less! And our capital campaign was funded by Congress!
As I look back, I laugh at the fact that we were so scared when the doors to Giddings School closed. If God hadn’t closed those doors, we would have never looked for the open door at Union Station. And that’s the way it works: God closes doors in order to open bigger and better doors.
In recent years, I’ve realized that I only circled half of the promise in Revelation 3:8. I prayed for open doors but not closed doors. Quite frankly, we love it when God opens doors for us! When God slams a door in our face? Not so much! But you can’t half-circle the promise. It’s a package deal. You can’t pray for open doors if you aren’t willing accept closed doors, because one leads to the other.
For what it’s worth, that DC public school eventually reopened as Results Gym, where I have a membership. Every time I walk through those doors, I thank God that He closed them on us. It all worked out, literally.
Stand Still
Thirteen years after walking through the open doors at Union Station, those doors were slammed shut. On a Monday morning in October 2009, I got a phone call from the theater manager at Union Station informing me that Union Station management was shutting down the theaters. As if that wasn’t a big enough blow, she told me that the next Sunday would be our last Sunday. We didn’t even have time to mourn because we had six days to figure out how to share the news with our congregation and decipher what was next. My mind was on spin cycle.
Part of the reason the phone call was so devastating is that we had prayed hard that God would miraculously help us buy those movie theaters. Instead, we lost the lease. We knew in our hearts that God was the only one who could close the doors He had miraculously opened, but it still felt like an anti-miracle. We had no idea where to go or what to do, but that’s when God has us right where He wants us.
That week, our entire team was scheduled to attend the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I was tempted to cancel the trip to keep working on an emergency evacuation plan for Union Station. It seemed like terrible timing, but it was perfect timing. Sometimes you have to get out of your routine so God can speak to you in a nonroutine ways. I knew that I couldn’t just preach a sermon that weekend; I needed a word from the Lord. And God gave me one. During one of the teaching sessions, God gave me a promise to stand on and I put every ounce of my weight on Exodus 14:13 – 14:
“Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”
What would be the hardest thing to do with the Egyptian army charging straight at you at full speed? The hardest thing to do is precisely what God told them to do: stand still. God doesn’t just play chicken; He also plays flinch. When we find ourselves in this kind of situation, we want to do something, anything. We have a nervous energy that wants to solve the problem as quickly as possible. But God tells them to do nothing but pray. The closer the Egyptian army got, the more intense their prayers became. They clenched their jaws. They stood their holy ground. They prayed like they had never prayed before.
Just in Time
All of us love miracles. We just don’t like being in a situation that necessitates one. We hate finding ourselves between an Egyptian army and a Red Sea, but this is how God reveals His glory. We want God to part the Red Sea when the Egyptian army is still in Egypt. We want God to provide for our need before we even need it. But sometimes God waits. And then He waits longer. At first, the Israelites can see a dust cloud in the distance. Then they can hear the hooves of their horses and the wheels of their chariots. Then they are so close that they can recognize the faces of their former taskmasters.
The Israe
lites are sitting ducks, and God is the one who led them to this place. It seems like a tactical error, doesn’t it? I’m no general, but I’ve TPed enough houses to know that you always plan your escape route. Yet God sets up camp where there is no means of retreat. I think it reveals something about His mysterious maneuverings. Sometimes God leads us to a place where we have nowhere to turn but to Him; our only option is to trust Him.
So why does God wait until the very last second to make His move? Why does He let the Egyptian army get that close? Because you could make a movie about that someday! And we love those kinds of movies, don’t we? Unless, of course, we’re in the middle of them. Once again, the God who provides just enough parts the Red Sea just in time.
Praying hard is trusting that God will fight our battles for us. It’s the way we take our hands off the challenges we face and put them into the hands of God Almighty. And He can handle them. The hard thing is keeping our hands off.
When Union Station closed, I wanted to solve the problem, but I couldn’t. All I could do was stand still. I had never felt more helpless as a leader, but I had never felt more energized as well. I felt like Moses as I stood before our congregation that day and stood on this promise: “I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I do know what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to be afraid. We’re going to stand still. And we’re going to see the deliverance of the Lord.”
And God delivered.
Less than a year after closing that door, God opened two sets of doors at the Gala Theatre in Columbia Heights and Potomac Yard in Crystal City, our fifth and sixth locations. That closed door prompted a search for property that led to us purchasing the last piece of property on Capitol Hill. And what I didn’t know then is that those closed doors at Union Station would lead to the biggest miracle in the history of National Community Church. God opened a door that had a dead bolt on it.
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