God, Are U There? 神啊，祢在吗？

The article below is authored by Tim Challis and thanks to my friend Edmund who passed this on. Read this and then you may want to read the following Wiki stories with the same theme: “Are you there, God? It’s Me, Margaret.” by Judy Blume https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_There_God%3F_It%27s_Me,_Margaret. and “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Ellen” by Ellen Coyne https://books.google.ie/books/about/Are_You_There_God_It_s_Me_Ellen.html?id=sG0CEAAAQBAJ

下面的文章由 Tim Challis 撰写，并感谢我的朋友 Edmund 将这篇文章传递下去。阅读此内容，然后您可能想阅读以下主题相同的 Wiki 故事：“你在吗，上帝？是我，玛格丽特。” 朱迪布鲁姆.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_There_God%3F_It%27s_Me,_Margaret。和 Ellen Coyne 的“你在吗，上帝？是我，Ellen” https://books.google.ie/books/about/Are_You_There_God_It_s_Me_Ellen.html?id=sG0CEAAAQBAJ

Back to the article by Tim Challis:

There are times when it seems like God does not hear us. There are times when it seems that God has become deaf to our prayers and unresponsive to our cries (for help). There are times when we see but do not find, knock but do not find the door opening up. Why is it that God sometimes does not answer our prayers?

回到 Tim Challis 的文章：有时上帝似乎没有听到我们的声音。有时，上帝似乎对我们的祈祷充耳不闻，对我们的呼求（寻求帮助）毫无反应。有时我们看到却找不到，敲门却找不到打开的门。为什么神有时不回应我们的祷告？  

There may be any number of reasons, but before we consider a few of them, we need to acknowledge that often God actually does answer our prayers, though either in a way we cannot yet see or in a way we do not accept. He sometimes answers invisibly or imperceptibly and He sometimes answers in a way we simply fail to see or, worse, fail to acknowledge. Then there are times when God gives us not exactly what we had pleaded for but what He, in His wisdom, has determined we need. Either way, we should always take great care before we conclude that “God has not answered my prayer.”

可能有很多原因，但在我们考虑其中一些之前，我们需要承认，上帝经常确实回应了我们的祈祷，尽管是以我们还看不到的方式或以我们不接受的方式。祂有时不为人知或不知不觉地回答，有时祂回答的方式我们根本看不到，或者更糟的是，我们无法承认。有时，上帝给我们的并不是我们所祈求的，而是祂以祂的智慧决定我们需要的。无论哪种方式，在得出“上帝没有回应我的祈祷”的结论之前，我们都应该非常小心。

Yet there actually are times when He does not answer. This should not surprise us if we have an appropriate assessment of our own sinfulness, our own selfishness, our own simplicity. We know that God has power that is vast, holiness that is perfect, wisdom that is complete, and plans and purposes that encompass all of time and space. Our lives and the world around would be in woeful condition if God was beholden to each and every one of our petitions.

然而，实际上祂也有不回答的时候。如果我们对自己的罪恶、自私和单纯有适当的评估，这应该不会让我们感到惊讶。我们知道，上帝拥有浩瀚的力量，完美的圣洁，完整的智慧，以及涵盖所有时间和空间的计划和目的。如果上帝对我们的每一个请求都心存感激，我们的生活和周围的世界将处于悲惨的境地。

Let me perhaps put in an analogy this way. You own an aquarium tank full of beautiful goldfishes. You have the power, beyond the goldfishes’ mental understanding, of keeping the gold fishes alive by feeding them and changing the water in the tank often to give them fresh oxygen. You also have the power to take out any one of those goldfishes and leave that goldfish to die without water to swim in. To the goldfishes then, you are their God. You can see that the world is much bigger than the aquarium tank. You know how to take care of them, especially when the pussy cat comes near to threaten them with her paws.

让我或许以这种方式进行类比。你拥有一个装满美丽金鱼的水族箱。您拥有超越金鱼心理理解的能力，可以通过喂食金鱼并经常更换水箱中的水为它们提供新鲜氧气来保持金鱼的生命。你也有能力把那些金鱼中的任何一条拿出来，让那条金鱼没有水游泳就死了。那么，对于金鱼来说，你就是他们的上帝。你可以看到这个世界比水族箱大得多。你知道如何照顾它们，尤其是当猫咪靠近用爪子威胁它们时。

Our confidence, then, is not in God answering every one of our prayers just as we prayed them, but in God hearing those prayers and determining if, when, and how to best respond. If God is truly who He says He is, if He is truly our good Heavenly Father and we the children He loves, we can be certain that, if He does not answer, it is only because He knows of better plans for us. He is never cruel, nor arbitrary, nor apathetic. Hence, His inaction must be for our good, not for our harm.

因此，我们的信心不在于上帝会像我们祈祷时那样回应我们的每一个祈祷，而是相信上帝会聆听这些祈祷并确定是否、何时以及如何最好地回应。如果上帝真的是祂所说的那个人，如果祂真的是我们的好天父，我们是祂所爱的孩子，我们可以肯定，如果祂不回答，那只是因为祂知道对我们更好的计划。祂从不残忍，也不专横，也不冷漠。祂的不作为一定是为了我们的好处，而不是为了我们的伤害。

So what are some of the ways God expresses His love and His goodness through unanswered prayers?

God may not answer our prayers when to answer then would be to rob us of a blessing. This is especially true when we pray to be relieved of suffering or delivered from a burden. The Bible, and our own experiences make it clear that God often works mightily through hardships, not apart from them. This being the case, to deliver us too quickly would actually be to rob us of a blessing. It would take away the very circumstance through which God is conforming us to his image. There are some flowers that can be plucked only in the depths of valleys and only on the peak of mountains, and there are some blessings that can only be harvested only in adversity. God will not rob us of experiencing blessings by lifting us past the means through which they can be ours.

那么，上帝通过没有得到回应的祈祷来表达祂的爱和祂的良善有哪些方式呢？
上帝可能不会回应我们的祈祷，而那时回应将是剥夺我们的祝福。当我们祈祷摆脱痛苦或摆脱负担时，尤其如此。圣经和我们自己的经历清楚地表明，上帝经常在困难中大有作为，而不是离开他们。既然如此，太快救我们，其实就是剥夺了我们的福分。它会消除上帝使我们符合祂的形象的环境。有些花只能在山谷深处，山峰上才能采摘，有些福气，只有在逆境中才能收获。上帝不会通过让我们超越可以成为我们的方式来剥夺我们体验祝福的机会。

Then, God may not answer our prayers when they are selfish. If we pray in such a way that we account only for ourselves and not for others, God may not grant our request. God’s mind is much greater than our own and His plan much more expansive. He always accounts for all of his children and will hardly do injury to one in order to bless another. Whether our prayers are knowingly selfish or ignorantly selfish, God may not answer them if giving a blessing to us would prove a sorrow to another.

那么，当我们的祷告是自私的时候，上帝可能不会回应我们的祷告。如果我们只为自己而不为他人祷告，上帝可能不会答应我们的请求。神的心意比我们的大得多，祂的计划也更广阔。他总是为祂所有的孩子负责，几乎不会为了祝福另一个孩子而伤害一个孩子。无论我们的祈祷是明知自私还是无知自私，如果祝福我们会证明他人悲伤，上帝可能不会回应他们。

Of course, God may not answer our prayers when what they request is sinful or when we ourselves are living in unrepentant state. God will not grant prayers that demand what He has forbidden or that reject what delights His heart. He will not grant prayers to those who are living in unrepentant sin and are rejecting the prompting and pleading of His holy spirit. God may close His ears to our pleads as a means of fatherly chastisement that is meant to awaken us to our sinfulness, soften our hearts, and steer us back to Him.

当然，当我们的祷告是有罪的，或者当我们自己生活在不悔改的状态时，上帝可能不会回应我们的祷告。上帝不会允许那些要求祂禁止的东西或拒绝祂的心所喜悦的东西的祈祷。祂不会向那些生活在不悔改的罪中并拒绝他圣灵的提示和恳求的人祈祷。上帝可能会对我们的恳求闭上耳朵，作为父亲惩罚的一种方式，旨在唤醒我们对罪恶的认识，软化我们的心，并引导我们回到他身边。

Then there are times when our prayers are unanswered only because they are delayed. The God who sees the end from the beginning is not refusing to answer, but is simply waiting until the time is right. We may not yet have character that is prepared or circumstances that are appropriate to receive what we have prayed for. Just as a child cannot take advanced mathematics before he has mastered the basics, we may need divine preparation to be able to receive and appreciate some of God’s blessings. Many who plead for success would be ruined if they received it, so God lovingly delays until their hearts and lives have been made ready.

然后有时我们的祈祷没有得到回应，只是因为它们被延迟了。从一开始就看到结局的上帝不是拒绝回答，而是等待时机成熟。我们可能还没有准备好的品格或适合接受我们所祈求的东西的环境。就像一个孩子在掌握基础知识之前不能学习高等数学一样，我们可能需要神圣的准备才能接受和欣赏上帝的一些祝福。许多祈求成功的人如果得到它就会毁了，所以上帝慈爱地拖延，直到他们的心和生活都准备好。

Then, it could also be that the blessings we want have not yet been fully prepared. We may plant an apple tree and immediately pray for it to bear fruit, but it will take many seasons for it to grow and mature and only then can it satisfy our hunger. And this is true of many of the blessings we long for. There may be a long time of preparation in which we need to wait patiently as those blessings are readied by His hand. God’s silence does not flow from apathy or indifference, but from love. He is not refusing to grant us the blessing, but simply preparing it, nurturing it from seed to sapling to fruitfulness. https://youtu.be/WrcwRt6J32o

那么，也可能是我们想要的祝福还没有准备好。我们可以种上一棵苹果树，并立即祈求它结果子，但它需要许多季节才能生长成熟，才能满足我们的饥饿感。我们渴望的许多祝福也是如此。可能有很长的准备时间，我们需要耐心等待，因为这些祝福是由祂的手准备好的。上帝的沉默不是出于冷漠，而是出于爱。祂不是拒绝赐予我们祝福，而是简单地准备它，培育它从种子到树苗，再到结果子。

Where we so often go wrong is in failing to believe that God truly means to bless us, failing to believe that His motives are only and always LOVE. Our task is to trust Him in what He will grant in a moment and what He will grant only in time. Our task is to pray and wait, pray and trust, pray and watch for Him to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond all we can ask or even imagine. https://youtu.be/TtFDDCgU8oQ

我们经常出错的地方是不相信上帝真的要祝福我们，不相信祂的动机只是爱，而且永远都是爱。我们的任务是相信他会在某一刻给予的，以及祂只会在时间里给予的。我们的任务是祈祷和等待，祈祷和信任，祈祷并观察他做的非常丰富，超出我们所能要求甚至想象的一切。

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
I’m on your side. When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

When you’re down and out,
When you’re on the street,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I’ll take your part.
When darkness comes
And pain is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
See how they shine.
If you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind.