Trusting God when He doesn't seem to answer your prayer

Sometimes God answers prayer in what we perceive is a mighty way and we praise Him! 

Sometimes we pray and pray about a situation we care deeply about only to find that God chose not to answer our prayer - well, that is, He chose not to answer our prayer in the way we hoped. The fact is, every prayer IS answered, it's just that sometimes the answer is "wait" or "no". Those are hard answers to live with at times.

Why?

A "no" or "not yet" answer usually means we have to wait with broken health, a broken heart, or a broken situation that we are convinced that God would get glory out of if He fixed. We trust in His divine justice and goodness. In our human nature we call out to him to deliver us from the midst of the proverbial fire hoping that deliverance IS God's plan for us. Sometimes though, it is not.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 Paul writes that he was burdened excessively, beyond his strength. Have you ever felt like that? I have.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;  indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; (2 Cor 1:8-9 NASB)

Why? Why does God let us become burdened beyond our strength to bear it? One reason Scripture gives us is in verse 9. So that we will not trust in ourselves but in GOD who raises the dead.

God values the deepening of our faith and walk with Him so much that He may allow our lives to be cleansed of anything in the world we might rely on instead of the LORD God: health, jobs, relationships, or possessions.

The Christian has no need to fear though, God always gives us more than he lets be taken from us. 

Sometimes He will restore the situations we pray about, and sometimes He gives us the precious gift of more faith, more perseverance, and  more holiness, taking one step forward to being transformed into His likeness. 

Paul pens:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NASB)

The best gift we can ever be given is to grow in our faith and our knowledge of God becoming closer to our creator each day.

Child of God - whatever your situation is today, God has you and God loves you.  God will always do what is right - even when it doesn't feel like it. In eternity it will all make sense. For now, we see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12). In eternity, there will be no more crying, no more pain and God will wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4).

Meanwhile, the Lord is our strength on this earth. He will see us through. Amen.

“I love You, O Lord, my strength.”
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1-2 NASB)