Why doesn’t God always answer our prayers?
In a letter to Father Peter Bide dated 29 April 1959, CS Lewis wrote: “I don’t see how any degree of faith can exclude the dismay, since Christ’s faith did not save Him from dismay in Gethsemane. We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
Lewis understood what many of us have felt, that the hardest part of prayer isn’t believing that God can answer, but trusting Him when He doesn’t answer the way we asked.
So, let me say it plainly: unanswered prayer is not unheard prayer. And unanswered prayer does not mean an unloving God.
We often want rescue from a situation, but God may be offering refinement through it forging character in the very fire we wish He’d extinguish. Remember Paul? He pleaded for the thorn to be removed. God didn’t take it away but He did speak into it: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
We want the storm stilled, but sometimes God offers strength to stand in it. Remember Peter? Jesus didn’t silence the waves straight away He called Peter to walk on top of them. And when Peter sank, Jesus didn’t scold him for trying. He reached out and caught him.
And if you want the clearest example, look to the cross. How many prayers rose that day? From Mary? From the disciples? From Jesus Himself: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34)
Did the Father hear? Yes. Did He stop it? No. But was God at work in that moment? Absolutely. For as Paul writes, “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Cor. 5:19)
Prayer, then, is less cause-and-effect and more cause-and-confidence. God did not remove the cup in Gethsemane… But three days later, He moved the stone.
And that tells me something: Prayer may not always change my situation, but it always invites the One who raises the dead right into the middle of it.
Maybe that’s the great paradox of prayer… That sometimes the very prayer we feel didn’t work is the very place where God is actually working.
