Unanswered Prayers - God Will Surely Come To Your Aid

God tells us to pray continuously about all our concerns, but he grants only those petitions that align with his will.

Since we cannot fully comprehend God’s will from our earthly viewpoint, we often ask him for things that are outside the scope of his intentions.

Unanswered prayers raise doubts about God’s trustworthiness.

So, why does he tell us to pray about everything when he knows many of our petitions will seemingly go unanswered and diminish our trust in him?

Primary Purpose

God does not encourage us to pray so he can stay informed of our latest wishes. He already knows our desires before we disclose them.

God tells us to pray because prayer is integral to our communion with him. It positions us to experience true contentment.

Prayer turns our attention from ourselves to God. It gives us the opportunity to worship him humbly, align with him morally, convey gratitude for his blessings, and express faith in his goodness.

The model prayer that Jesus introduced—The Lord’s Prayer—indicates God wants us to incorporate these themes into our prayers whenever we can, especially amid affliction.

Expressing these thoughts to God, even when submitting requests or lodging complaints, conditions our heart to commune with him and experience true contentment.

God tells us to pray about everything because he considers the true contentment we derive through communion with him more critical than the distrust that may arise in the wake of unanswered prayers.

Volitional Freedom

What should we conclude about God when he seemingly disregards petitions that we know coincide with his will?

For example:

We know God wants everyone to be reborn spiritually, so we pray that a friend will comply with his salvation plan. But, instead, they die as an unbeliever.
We know God condemns hate, so we ask him to protect the weak from the bigotry of the strong. But, instead, their oppression continues.
We know God detests rank hypocrisy, so we pray that his public advocates will forsake their sinfulness and live righteously. But, instead, their duplicity persists.

Unanswered prayers like these do not signify that God is aloof, powerless, malevolent, or non-existent.

Instead, they evidence his utmost respect for the moral autonomy of the will.

God so esteems the volitional freedom of those we lift up in prayer that he willingly subordinates his preferences and our desires to their moral choices.

He gives them opportunities to refrain from unrighteousness. He prompts them to choose virtue over vice. But in the end, he defers to their will.

God likewise respects our will when we make moral choices that conflict with his preferences and deviate from the desires of those who pray for us.

Personal Circumstances

So, does God ever change our circumstances in response to prayer? Or does he only use prayer to change us?

God does indeed improve individual situations in response to prayer. Perhaps, not as often as we would like. Or in the way we want. Or as quickly as we prefer.

But if we could see everything he was doing in the lives of reborn believers worldwide, we would realize that he frequently makes life better, providently and miraculously, in answer to prayer.

Amid affliction, we should ask God to change our circumstances and us. He responds to both requests as he deems best.

God’s Best

But here is the caveat.

God’s best encompasses more than the goodness of our current circumstances. It also includes our understanding of his excellence and the effectiveness of our ministry—now and in the future.

God may allow our suffering to endure because our perception of his goodness is still conditioned on the goodness of our circumstances. We have yet to learn experientially that he is thoroughly good—even amid affliction.

God may let our distress linger despite pleas for relief because he is using it to build a unique message into our lives about his excellence that he intends for us to share with others.

God redeems our suffering by producing redemptive goodness in us as we walk in harmony with him. And he likewise uses our response to suffering to produce goodness in the lives of those within our orbit.

God may allow our misery to persist after this goodness blossoms in our lives because it has yet to germinate in theirs. He is still using our example to produce redemptive goodness in others.

Walk By Faith

Once we settle into heaven, we will understand the rationale behind God’s responses to all our prayers, including the seemingly unanswered ones. We will agree with his logic.

Until then, we reconcile the disparity between our requests and God’s replies by faith.

We believe God truly is good and benevolent—even though we may not feel this way—because we choose to base our judgment on what he has revealed about himself through nature and in the Bible rather than on what we might infer about him from his seeming indifference to our desires.

We walk in harmony with God through the aftermath of unanswered prayer because we presume he is executing a plan that is superior to ours.

We trust that God will help us endure the resulting distress and produce goodness through it until he brings about his intended outcome.

God Cherishes Faith

God delights in the warm sentiments we express about his excellence during good times, but he cherishes the faith in him we exhibit in the wake of unanswered prayer.