Why Won’t God Answer my Prayer When it Means so Much?

 

When we ask God for something and the petition is a deep cry of the heart, we want some acknowledgement that God understands, and that He will give us what we desire without much delay. But God just doesn’t work on our timetable and He just doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we pray them.

I have lived a long time, and I have learned the hard way that giving up on God is not the answer. Some people do. They have not received the answers they have sought in prayer, so they have given up on asking for anything–figuring God either doesn’t really exist or doesn’t care. That is the worst outcome for this situation.

I have suffered through times I never thought I would have to see, and at the same time I have been given undeserved grace when I least expected it. I guess what I have learned is that Jesus–the God who has lived through everything a human can experience and who understands me better than I understand myself–loves me too much to give me what I ask. He almost always gives me something better–and I am almost never able to see that when it is happening. Jesus, sees what I see, hears what I hear, knows my thoughts, and intimately knows my greatest needs. And I know that I know that He loves me. But I have cried and prayed sometimes for years for Him to do something and I seem to get silence on that subject.

I had a wise old pastor tell me that Jesus is a God who sees around corners–something we cannot do. When we ask Jesus to do a thing–He sees what the fulfillment would mean, not only to us, but to other people we love. Jesus can see every possible outcome–something we can never do. If we had a God who always gave us what we wanted we would have a God who doesn’t know any more than we do. I don’t want a God like that, either.

I wish I could tell you there is something you can do to get God to act, but I cannot, because there is no such answer. But you can pray that He will draw you closer to His heart, and I believe that prayer will be answered, because that is His desire also.

How can I stop worrying?

You asked the right person, for sure! I have always been an anxious person myself, but I’m doing immeasurably better than before. I have had to learn to change my thinking. Instead of trying to anticipate every bad thing that can happen and try to prepare for it, I have learned to think instead of trusting Jesus. Since I asked Jesus to be my savior, he lives in my life. His Holy Spirit lives within me. I know that nothing can happen that Jesus doesn’t know about and he already has it covered. He has ME covered. When I catch myself getting worried or scared, I offer a quick prayer and remember I am loved, I am protected, I am cared for. Its habit training to learn to think thoughts of confidence in Jesus instead of fear, and prayerful planning instead of worry. I have to rely on Jesus for everything–we all do. So I only need to do what Jesus directs–I don’t need to do his job or worry about whether he is paying attention. Looking at it that way, I can feel the peace of knowing its not my job to supervise Jesus.

Something else I did that helped me was to read the 4 gospels again. I just read the red words–the words of Jesus. Then I underlined every part that was a promise I could claim. Sometimes I just read those verses over and over. They became part of my thinking, and that helped.