According to Hollywood versions of the incident, the pre-disaster worship service aboard the Titanic included the singing of the traditional 1860 hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”.
The lyrics of this hymn acknowledges God’s sovereignty over the awesome oceanic environment, and makes a plea for God to hear (and to respond) to the prayers uttered by folks who find themselves “in peril on the sea.”
Like so many hymns and prayers, they are often sung or recited by rote, with little if any, focus of attention on the significance of the words.
That is, until the issues they address come to our own proverbial doorstep.
Hours after colliding with an iceberg, the Titanic would sink to the ocean’s floor, taking some 700 lives from among the passengers and crew members with it.
No doubt, prayers for divine intervention were made as it became more and more evident that not only would the ship soon sink, but that many aboard would be going down into the ice-cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean with it.
Hollywood versions have a violinist playing another hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee,” up to final minutes before the ship would sink, offering some degree of consolation to spiritually mature believers present who had the discernment to perceive that they were about to go to their eternal home.
From human viewpoint, there were a few things that contributed to why, how many, and whom among all the passengers and crew, would survive and who perish.
Gender, age, social standing, and passenger classification all played a part in who would have, and who were be denied, access to the limited number of available lifeboats.
Although everyone aboard was in the same situation, and likely made the same prayer requests, there would be different answers forthcoming.
This same principle can be applied to individuals who share many of the same experiences and activities in which they, and others, have prayed for their safety and deliverance, but received different answers.
According to secular statistics, approximately 150,000 souls depart this world every day for a variety of different reasons. Some departures are expected; others are not.
But what they ALL have in common is that it was their divinely appointed time of departure, in keeping with the individual plan that God had in mind for the souls involved.
I, having benefited many times in response to prayer requests of my own and prayer requests made by others in my behalf, would never dispute the significance, the need, or the power of prayer.
Never-the-less, there have been times when my prayer requests received a disappointing, crushing, and bewildering “No,” or a “Not right now,” answer from God. Some of my most darkest moments were made even painfully worse when I received “No” answers to my prayer requests.
Prayer is a means of communication between God and Man, but is not to be seen as a full-proof problem-solving device. To qualify as such, the problem-solving device must produce the desired end result 100% of the time, as it does in the 1John 1: 9 and John 3: 16 scenarios.
In prayer, we do most of the talking while God does most of the listening. In Bible study, God does most of talking while disciples do most of the listening.
Through Biblical discipleship, the answers to many of the issues raised in prayer could have been already been received and would be on hand at our disposal before there is the need to apply them.
In the middle of the storms of life is not the time to be searching for answers (1). It is the time to apply (2) what we claim to believe to all that we think, do, and say.
Advancing disciples will learn that all prayer requests are just that (a request), and that the answers received are subject to God’s timing, will, and being (or not being) in line with the individual plan that He has in mind for ourselves and or others for whom we pray.
The advancing disciple will learn to follow our Lord’s example (3), and present all prayer requests with the foregoing phrase, “If it is Your will, then (insert prayer request)”.
In doing so, the advancing disciple trains himself and glorifies God by acknowledging His sovereignty, and is better prepared to accept His response, no matter what that response turns out to be.
The concept that by making prayer requests in Jesus’ name obligates God to respond accordingly is a misunderstanding of Scripture (4). Such misunderstandings are often the result of isolating a single verse of Scripture while disregarding what other verses have to say about the same subject.
Eccl. 3: 1-8 list many different examples of how and why divine responses to similar prayer requests can be diametrically different.
Based upon God’s timing and God’s will, there is an appointed time for everything, including a time to be born into and a time to depart (5) this world. It will take place no matter where we are, or what we are otherwise doing, or having done, at the moment.
Christians frequently pray for God’s will to be done here on Earth (6) , but then develop issues with God when that takes place concerning such things the earthly departure of loved ones, or when His answers to some of our prayer requests are “No” or “Not right now.”
What they really meant to pray was for My will to be done with God’s intervention
For an advancing disciple, his or her primary desire will be to learn and do His will, having put aside his or her independent plans and desires along the road to spiritual maturity.
There was an appointed time for each one of us to come into this world, and was (or will be) an appointed time for each one of us to depart.
Regarding prayer requests for the earthly things we desire, God’s Word (7) assures us that He comes through with all that advancing disciples needs to accomplish His will, not ours.
Concluding our prayers with such phrases as, “in Jesus’ name we pray…”, is not for the purpose of securing the requests that we have made. It is for the purpose of acknowledging that our access to the throne of grace, in order to make such requests was given to Church Age, born-again believers by the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) Matt. 7: 24-27(2) James 1: 22 (3) Luke 22: 42 (4) John 14: 14 (5) Eccl. 3: 2 (6) Matt. 6: 1O (7) Phil. 4: 19