I’d like to reflect on how God goes goes before us. I have been so scared in daily situations and at work not knowing what the outcome will be and as I face things and it’s over I realize how God has gone before me and worked it all out. I was worried for nothing. Recently I took a test to get certified for my job and I prayed the whole time asking God to help me and he showed me a different way to take it, he cleared the atmosphere and I passed this time, even though I could take it two more times. I prayed to only take it once and he blessed me. I’m so Thankful for Gods Grace and Mercy.
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I believe that God doesn’t look at our words in prayer, but He looks at and hears our hearts in prayer. Is it no wonder that He answered you? You asked Him for help. He helped you. You asked Him to show you a different way and He answered you with a different way. This is who our God is. He answers the heart felt prayers of His children. Even in times where it seems God has not answered, He has an answer for us that may look different than what we’re expecting. When that answer comes, we see that it is good. This is one of the greatest blessings we have as children of God. To confidently know that He hears us and will answer us when we bare our hearts before Him.
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Amen @maryc65 for some though…
… Scripture is painfully honest about long seasons of unanswered prayer and divine silence, and it does not treat those seasons as evidence of weak faith. Quite the opposite. Many of the most faithful figures experience silence as part of their formation.
Here are the clearest biblical witnesses, read plainly.
David speaks repeatedly of prolonged silence, not momentary delay.
Psalm 13:1–2[1]
This is not poetic impatience. The Hebrew syntax stacks “how long” four times, indicating sustained duration, not a bad afternoon. David is praying and receiving nothing back.
Psalm 22 intensifies this experience.
Psalm 22:1–2[2]
Notice the paradox. The psalmist is not silent, but God is. Prayer continues, silence remains.
Job lives inside unanswered prayer for most of the book.
Job 30:20[3]
Job is explicitly righteous by God’s own declaration in Job 1, which removes the easy explanation that unanswered prayer equals hidden sin.
Habakkuk frames silence as a theological crisis.
Habakkuk 1:2[4]
This is prophetic speech, not rebellion. Scripture preserves it without correction, which matters.
Lamentations presents silence as part of judgment, not abandonment.
Lamentations 3:8[5]
Later in the same chapter, hope returns, but only after silence is acknowledged as real.
Even Jesus enters this tradition of silence.
Matthew 27:46[6]
The Son quotes Psalm 22 from within the silence, not above it. The cross stands at the center of unanswered prayer, and the resurrection comes after, not instead of, that silence.
So why does YHWH not answer every prayer?
Scripture gives several reasons, none of them simplistic.
First, silence is sometimes formative rather than punitive.
Psalm 66:10[7]
Testing assumes time and pressure, not instant relief.
Second, God’s purposes may exceed the petitioner’s horizon.
Isaiah 55:8–9[8]
This is not an excuse verse; it is an explanation of asymmetry between human urgency and divine governance.
Third, delay is sometimes bound to future redemption.
Psalm 30:5[9]
Endure implies duration. Morning implies waiting.
How many Christians have prayed for someone, only to see their prayers go seemingly unanswered? How many have prayed and perhaps have “given up” because they have become discouraged at how long it has taken to have their prayer answered? God hears our prayers and will respond, but He will do so in His timing which is for our good and His glory. How we deal with unanswered prayer is not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of others as well.
When we pray, we are engaging in the most precious and God-given act of communication with the One to whom we are accountable for all we do. Yet, when we pray or speak to the One in heaven, there are times when He seems not to answer. In one sense, God answers every prayer with a “yes,” a “no,” or a “wait.” In every case, though, Scripture suggests that our prayers are being dealt with. The Lord Jesus is tender and loving; He loves our communing with God the Father, for He, Himself, is our representative (Hebrews 4:15).
Often, but not always, prayer is unanswered because of unconfessed sin. God cannot be mocked or deceived, and He who sits enthroned above knows us intimately, down to our every thought (Psalm 139:1-4). If we are not walking in the Spirit or we harbor enmity in our hearts toward our brother or we ask for things with the wrong motives (such as from selfish desires), our prayers are negatively impacted (2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 66:18; James 4:3). Sin hinders our ability to be in fellowship with God, and it hinders our prayers. Unbelief (Proverbs 15:8) and hypocrisy (Mark 12:40) also negatively impact our prayers.
Another reason why prayer seems to go unanswered is that the Lord is drawing out of our faith a deeper reliance and trust in Him, which should bring out of us a deeper sense of gratitude, love and humility. In turn, this causes us to benefit spiritually, for He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34). Oh, how one feels for that poor Canaanite woman, who cried out incessantly to our Lord for mercy when He was visiting the region of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21-28)! She was hardly the person a Jewish rabbi would pay attention to. She was not a Jew and she was a woman, two reasons that Jews ignored her. The Lord doesn’t seem to answer her petitions, but He knew all about her situation. He may not have answered her stated needs immediately, but still He heard and granted her request.
For those struggling re unanswered prayers in the midst of afflictions.
J.
How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? - KJV ↩︎
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. - KJV ↩︎
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. - KJV ↩︎
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! - KJV ↩︎
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. - KJV ↩︎
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? - KJV ↩︎
For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. - KJV ↩︎
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. - KJV ↩︎
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - KJV ↩︎
I have experienced this recently. I’m trying to quit vaping. I used to smoke but now I vape, and when I pray for something for myself, which is rare, I always hear “quit vaping”. God wants me to quit this harmful, yet addictive, behavior, so I’ve asked Him to help me quit. Anytime I want to vape, I hear Him say “put that down”. So I do. I have great days with this, and I have complete failures with this. So, I pray for strength. God is never really silent..not in my experience. He’s always speaking and moving in my life. I just have to listen..and obey.
I could use some prayers in this.
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