Dearest Family,

No one is surprised when the problems of unanswered asking are raised, but given that answered asking far exceeds what is unanswered, perhaps we should be surprised at how weak our response often is to these answers, whether measured by little gratitude, limited worship, by a lack of appreciation for what was effected and what it took to effect it, or by a lack of consideration about what further responses these answers require of us. The pain of what is unanswered usually shouts louder than the praise for what has been answered. This lack of response to asking when it is answered should be as significant a concern to us as our unanswered asking, and on Sunday, I suggested that we need to stop and take stock once in a while. The first thing that should move us, and uncork our gratitude, is how gracious God is in answering us at all, given the inconsistency and infrequency of our asking, what Spurgeon described as “the intermittent spasms of our importunity.” Just to realize that our weak asking got such a strong response, because of the strength of the One asked, not the one asking, should be sufficient to unstop the wells of worship of the character of God, particularly His kindness and grace. I covered a lot of ground on Sunday, and shared significant meditation from an OT and NT passage: 1 Samuel 1 and Luke 17. I have no space to rehearse all the points, so why don’t you take these passages and make them the subject of your own meditation in homegroup this week, and ask the question: what are the returns of answered asking? The Samuel passage is a brilliant insight into this, illustrating that our answers are not about our gratification but God’s glorification.

We are familiar with Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers, only one of whom “came back” (Luke 17:11- 19). He is described as “praising God in a loud voice.” Given the responsiveness of our Father to what we ask of Him, He should be hearing a lot more noise! I have argued in teaching over many years for a ‘return of asking’ (bringing back specific asking) but what I emphasized on Sunday was that there should be a ‘return’ from our answers, in the same sense as a return on an investment. The words of Jesus have a disturbing echo: “Was no one found to return” (Luke 17:18). If this incident was a rough guide to the returns of our responsiveness to our answer, to the return God gets out of all that He invests in us, then we are all, including God, in a place of sad deficit. Someone might look at this and say, ‘Hey, one in ten ain’t bad – that’s a 10% return on the invested healing power of God!’ Unfortunately, it’s nothing of the kind. They were all healed. It should be seen as a 90% loss. The thought that only one in ten God-given answers may provoke a volley of God-worthy thanksgiving, and God-pleasing returns, is hard to take and unacceptable. The nonreturn of the other nine lepers was an awful and unacceptably bad return on the answer.

My appeal to you was to continue to ask of the Lord, regardless, as all ten lepers did in their need. They were all motivated to be obedient and satisfy the requirement of the law to show themselves to the priest. Of course, grace outran the obedience to the law, and they were all cleansed on the way. But was this going to be a compliance, that obtained for them the answer they wanted, namely their health, or would it be a spiritual obedience that would secure for the Father what Jesus hoped the answer would bring – namely His glory? Goodwin sums it up: “A thing obtained by prayer, as it came from God, so a man will return it to God, and use it for His glory.”

My appeal on Sunday was that we observe and consider the meaning of His answers, as much as we express concern over apparently unanswered prayers. Let us savor and steward the grace January 17, 2017 of His answers, with the expectation that this grace will abound in us more and more, so that our asking and God’s answering will be ceaseless, and all the ‘returns’ will be to His glory, with thanksgiving. Thomas Goodwin was clear: “If you observe not his answers, how shall you bless God and return thanks to him for hearing your prayers? ... The reason you pray so much and give thanks so little is that you observe not God’s answers.” To put it another way, the answer is never the end of the story. The answer that may have ended our need, is but the means to re-introduce us to what our Father God needs of us.

The leper who did offer a return on the answer he received, was referred to by Jesus as a “foreigner” because he was a Samaritan. He should not have qualified for attention, for access to ask. That is a second reason why Jesus should have had nothing to do with him. There are as many good reasons for why Jesus should not answer our asking, as there were for this man. He was a leper so Jesus should have stayed away from him. There was a distance that they shouted over, but believe it or not, Jesus can answer from a distance – even when we are more distant because of our spiritual unhealth. Realize that when he returns to give thanks to Jesus, he is already healed. Yet Jesus says to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (17:19). This was not spoken to any of the other nine, who equally got healed and thus got their answer. I think this is telling us that it is not just all about the answer we wanted and received. That is not in fact the end of it. Only in this returning one, was there the returns of faith, and a personal deepening of relationship with Jesus. The return here was that the ex-leper, in throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, worshiped Him for who He was, not just thanked Him for what He did in the answer He had given.

Nine of the ten did not steward their answer, were not changed as they could and should have been, and their return was simply to life without a deeper revelation of Jesus, to life as was considered normal, or life as it had been before that need. I referred to such ‘bad returns’ on Sunday that can happen after we have received the grace of God’s answers. Having asked for and received the answer of:

forgiveness, let there not be a return of unforgiveness in towards others, or a return to the confessed sin; 
revelation let us not return to willful ignorance; 
blessing on our life let us not return to cursing on our lips; 
mercy let us not return to mean-spiritedness; 
joy let us not return to self-piteous misery; 
assurance let us not return to anxiety;
faith let us not return to unbelief; 
cleansing let us not return to compromising; 
humility let us not return to pridefulness of heart; 
deliverance, let us not return to a “yoke of bondage”; 
guidance, let us not return to a pattern of self-direction; 
provision, let us not return to any indiscipline that accounted for unnecessary lack; 
wisdom, let us not return like a fool to his folly; 
escape from ungodly cultural influences, let us not look back like Lot’s wife.

These are clearly bad ‘returns’ on good answers. It is the primary return of thanksgiving that one of the lepers experienced and expressed that is the obvious first response to answered asking, the first return, completing the circle of asking that began with “asking with thanksgiving” (Phil. 4:6). Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” (17:17) Who knows what they returned to, and what returns there were on their miraculous answer. For the nine, there were no Godward returns apparently. Equally, the Lord says to us, “Have you not all received answers to your asking? Where are the returns?”

Inquiringly yours,

Stuart