Return To Sender

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Matthew 2: 1-3, NKJV. Emphasis provided.

Most Gracious God, here we are again, expecting a blessing from You. We know that we will not be disappointed as we sit at Your feet and learn of, and from, You. So please stay with us. In the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.

As we begin this new day, I have a question that I would like to ask us – will we recognize the answer to our prayers when it is granted, or, like the people of Jerusalem, will we be “troubled”?

A strange question I know, but one that it would do us good to answer as soon as possible. I believe that I am talking to people who may have some unanswered prayers. These prayers could be categorized as, urgent, not so urgent, or, not urgent at all. For the people of Jerusalem, the coming of the Messiah was urgent!

They were captives in their own land – occupied by pagans. It was true that they had their own religious-political ruling body – the Sanhedrin – but they needed Rome’s permission in  many legal matters. Many of their country men and women were still living in foreign lands as a result of the Diaspora. For a Jew in those days, the coming of the Messiah meant regaining their status as the favored people; defeating their enemies; once more being the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28: 1-14). There was an urgent need for Messiah to come and set them free.

I am sure that, most of us, when there is an urgency in our lives, when things are not going very well, at least not the way we had hoped that it would, we pray a lot. There is no need for anyone to remind us to, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5: 17). We do that naturally.

Nevertheless, many Jews in the time of Christ, like most of us, did not recognize the answer to their prayer – for one particular reason:  the answer did not fit their description, their specifications. Perhaps some of us are not even aware that, underlying our prayers is our own idea of how we want God to answer those prayers.  Therefore, if the answer we receive is not a perfect match of our mental picture, it is immediately rejected.

And so it was in the time of Christ, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1: 11). In our day – we write a mental note on our answer to some prayers – “Return to sender.” Without even un-packing, and at least, trying it out, we set it aside, and continue to wait. Then oftentimes, we reach the sad conclusion that, God did not answer our prayers – at least, not yet.

I believe it would be a good idea for us to spend some thoughtful, prayerful, time, reflecting on the answers we receive in response to prayer. Before discarding any, here is a suggestion:  Let us ask yourselves, why are we discarding them? Is it because they do not look the way we believe they should? Remember, we will not recognize something that we are not expecting. Obviously, the wise men from the East were looking for “His star” in accordance with God’s Word (see verses 4-7). They recognized it when they saw it, because it was what God had promised, not their personal expectation.

I believe that the more time we spend in the study of His Word – the less prayers we will be returning to the Heavenly Sender. Today is a good day to begin studying!