Unanswered Prayer
Have you ever stopped praying, just because you felt like heaven remained silent for far too long? Have you ever felt like a broken record repeating your plea to God over and over. Maybe he can't hear you? Maybe you are praying wrong?
The silence of God. It's maddening, it's painful, it's hard. What if heaven remains silent when you so desperately need God to answer?
What do we do with unanswered prayers?
A Quick fix?
When someone is hurting or sad you often want to cheer someone up right? Say something that makes them feel better. Give them a little boost. Life is hard, sometimes you experience such difficult things in life that you don’t want to feel better at all. Well-meaning Bible texts may fly by your ears. People want things to get better for you!
So what do about when prayers are unanswered for months, years, decades? We are not here with clichès and seemingly trite bible verses to make you feel better. We want to dive in right to the heart of this difficult topic.
Hello, is anyone there?
Prayer is not a quick fix. Not just a pick-me-up to make you feel better. Praying is communication or communion with the living God. In the Bible Jesus says that we are both children of God and friends of God.
So when we come to Him, we should keep this in mind. We can share our heart. Are these not the best conversations? When you can take off your mask and no longer have to keep up appearances? Especially with all your frustrations, anger, disappointment and sadness. Even if things aren't fix, sharing what's on our hearts is important and even comforting.
Yet we often think that God doesn't want to hear that from us, that we need to filter our anger or hurt. But if we are not real, do not show our true emotions, how can God comfort us?
The Silence of God
The Silence of God
It’s enough to drive a man crazy, it’ll break a man’s faith
It’s enough to make him wonder if he’s ever been sane
When he’s bleating for comfort from thy staff and thy rod
And heaven’s only answer is the silence of God
Am I the Only One?
'I pray and pray, but I get no answers– am I the only one?" When you don’t experience a connection with God, it can feel very isolating. You feel alone. Misunderstood. By God but also sometimes also by other people too. You may hear stories from people about their experiences with God and answered prayers, and you only think, "Good for you, but I’m not hearing God …" These stories can strengthen your feelings of loneliness and isolation. But there are other stories too, from people who also experience that heaven is closed. They cry out to God and wait to hear back.
Even Jesus shouts out to God on the cross: Why have you forsaken me? It may surprise you, but the Bible contains stories like this. When you hear their story, it can almost depress you. And the sky seems silent. That is how rejected they feel by God.
Being Honest
David Cries Out
Job is Honest with God
Being Honest
It is so dark around me,
that it seems I am already dead and buried.
I don’t see a way out anymore.
He has put me in chains.
I cry out to Him for help,
but He doesn’t listen to me.
I can’t go any further,
For He is blocking my way.
Yes, this is really from the Bible, from the book of Lamentations. The name says it all…there’s a lot of complaining. There are people who would rather skip this book for a while. It doesn’t really make you happy. Maybe we think we are supposed to just "suck it up"? Just swallow and carry on. Yet the book is in the Bible for a reason. Apparently God allows us to complain. As long as we complain to God! Shout it out!
David Cries Out
David cries out:
God, listen to my prayer!
Don’t pretend that You don’t hear me.
Please listen to me and answer me.
I cry out to You.
Do you recognize this feeling of David? The writer of this psalm is on the run at the time. He has been betrayed by his friends. His life is in chaos. He doesn’t understand a thing and cries out to God. While pleading and crying, his prayer changes because the same psalm ends with: “I trust in You.” Not because he feels that way, but because he chooses to trust God. Even if you don’t experience God in your life, sometimes you have to make a conscious choice to trust him. Even if you don’t feel him.
Job is Honest with God
“What is the use of praying anymore?”, cries Job. His story is described in detail in the Bible. How he is a prosperous and very religious man. But he loses everything. His job, possessions and his family. And then he also gets sick. God suddenly seems very far away. Heaven closed. He doesn’t understand why this is happening to him now. Why should he pray anymore?
Job is very honest with God, but also with his friends. He no longer keeps up appearances. And God? Is He abandoning him completely, now that he is no longer crying out in glory hallelujah? The opposite! It is at this moment that God begins to speak. He shows how God is present in everything and that Job may trust Him. With Job, fortunately, all is well again. And his relationship with God becomes deeper and more intense. Precisely because of the heavy tests that their relationship has gone through.
Jesus' Unanswered Prayer
How could Jesus, the perfect human, and Son of God have unanswered prayer? The night before Jesus was going to be crucified Good Friday, he took his friends to a garden to pray. He was in anguish, not fearful of torture and death, but something so much worse! He knew the suffering he would experience taking in the punishment for all the sins of all mankind, and the pain that separation from his Father would cause. So he prayed, "Father let this cup of suffering pass from me." Matt 26:39
Later, while Jesus was hanging on the cross he cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." Matt 27:46
Even if you feel like God is not answering your prayer, the reality is that Jesus unanswered prayer, means that we will always be heard by God and he will always answer (even if it's not the answer we are hopping for). Jesus took on the true silence of Heaven for us. Even though you may feel alone and abandoned by God, you are not and if you are in Jesus, you never will be.
God Hears and Answers
We can rest assured, if Jesus is our Lord and saviour, that God does hear all of our prayers , even the prayers we have no words to express. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf Romans 8:34 tells us. Not only that but if we have the Holy Spirit in us (and all Christians do!) than the Spirit also interceded for us Romans 8:26
Scottish theologian and author P. T. Forsyth wrote, "We shall one day come to a heaven where we shall gratefully know that God's great refusals were sometimes the true answers to our truest prayer."
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Don't Go it Alone
You’re not the only one who sometimes feels like heaven stays silent. As we saw, Jesus himself experienced this. You don’t have to remain alone with this feeling either. Perhaps you know people in your community who have a relationship with God? Ask for help. Share your desire to connect with God. You can ask them to pray for you or if you trust them enough, to pray together. Let their story give you hope. Because even when we don't experience the answer we are looking for to our prayers, God hears us! The Jesus knows how you feel, he takes your prayers to the Father.
Trust in that. Don’t give up. Even though heaven seems silent.
Let us pray for you!
Do you need a conversation or would you like us to pray for you? Send us a message here and our e-coaches will be happy to talk with you further.
