The Meaning of “Prayers Not
Answered”
Prayers
not answered” simply means “expectations not fulfilled.”
But
what’re your “expectations”? And where do they come from?
You
experience your own life experiences through your five senses (seeing, hearing,
tasting, touching and smelling) as a result of the choices of your actions,
inactions, and reactions in your everyday life.
Your
sensations often become your own perceptions,
which then form your own assumptions and
predictions; for example, a good
education will lead to a successful career, and bring about a happy
relationship.
All
your “expectations” are only the personal
and the subjective perceptions of
your mind. But your “expectations” are often unreal and even self-delusive.
Even
what you think you see with your own
eyes may not necessarily be the reality.
To illustrate, in 1997, Richard
Alexander from Indiana
was convicted as a serial rapist, because one of the victims and her fiancé
insisted that he was the perpetrator
based on what the victim and her fiancé claimed that “they saw with their own eyes.”
But the convicted man was later exonerated and subsequently
released in 2001, based on the new DNA science and other forensic evidence.
Experts explained that a traumatic emotional experience, such as a rape, could
“distort” the perception of an individual. That explains why the woman and her
fiancé “swore” that Richard Alexander was the rapist, but evidently he wasn’t.
To illustrate “unreal expectations”: Helen Keller, celebrated author, political activist, and
philanthropist, was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts
degree; she became deaf and blind at an early age of less than two.
Imagine you were Helen’s parents: would you have “darkened
expectations” of the future of Helen when she suddenly became deaf and blind?
Another illustration of “unreal expectations”: Shon
Robert Hopwood, a
young American
convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to prison, became well-known as a
jailhouse lawyer. While serving time in prison, Shon started spending time in
the law library, became a jailhouse lawyer for the inmates, and ultimately a
very accomplished United States Supreme Court practitioner by the time he left
prison in 2009. Currently, he is professor of law at Georgetown University
Law Center.
If you were the parents of Shon, would your own expectations of
your son have fallen short after his conviction of 12 years of imprisonment?
The truth of the matter
Your perceptions—whether true or untrue—become your realities, and are then stored in your
subconscious mind as your memories.
Whenever you want to make a choice or decision, it’s your
subconscious mind that provides your conscious mind with your many attitudes,
beliefs, and predictions—all based on your memories of your past experiences. Your thinking mind then begins
to process and project them into the future as your “expectations to be
fulfilled.”
Points to Remember
Perceptions may easily become distorted
and unreal. So, don’t let your own perceptions become your assumptive
predictions.
Expectations are in the future, and their
timeline is indefinite. So, don’t jump to any conclusion yet.
The past was gone; the future is yet to
come; only the present is real. So, don’t use the past to predict the future as
“expectations to be fulfilled.”
Click here to get Why Prayers Are Seldom Answered.
Stephen Lau
Copyright
© Stephen Lau
