“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5:14
“Prayer is powerful,” and, “prayer is essential to spiritual growth,” are a few of the many statements we hear as Christians. However, it can be hard to believe when you have been praying for years about the same thing and nothing has changed. I get it. That is why it is so important for Christians to share their prayer journeys, either to show God’s faithfulness through answered prayers or God’s love and comfort through their waiting season.
Here are two stories from my prayer journey — one that was answered immediately and one that took awhile to see its fruits:
Story #1:
In 2011, my mom was in the middle of a hiring process within her office. They had narrowed it down to two candidates, but both were equally great for the job. Wanting God to be the decision maker, she asked our family to sit down with each other and pray. She didn’t give us any names. She just asked us to pray and trust God would answer. As a middle school student, this made me pretty uncomfortable. I knew God answered prayers in miraculous ways. I knew He would hear my requests. But this was scary because it required for me to actually listen to His voice.
After what felt like an eternity waiting for God, the name, Joanne, popped into my head. Whoa God. This made me extremely nervous because there were only two possible names. I wrestled with God and myself for a bit. Was this actually Him or did I just make up a name so that we could move on? Finally, I gave up and hesitantly told my family about what I had heard. Immediately when I told them I heard, Joanne, my mom started to cry. This was one of the candidate’s names! I was so shocked and overwhelmed by the goodness of God. He was with us, heard our prayers, and graciously answered them!
Story #2:
My collegiate soccer career went nothing like how I had planned. I endured many injuries and struggled to get playing time. You can bet that each year, I prayed for God to heal my injuries, protect me from any other injuries, and to give me favor with my coaches. It was hard not to be discouraged when these prayers continued to go on unanswered.
It took me all the way until the end of my fifth season to really see how God was answering my prayers. While each season of difficulties and painful experiences, God was shaping me and maturing me in my faith. Looking back, I can see how my response to an injury or lack of playing time slowly became less about questioning God and more about trusting His process. I was less angry with Him and was more willing to run to Him when trials came my way.
By my fifth year, when playing time made absolutely no sense (I would go from not playing at all, to playing a lot, and back to barely getting any minutes), I saw how God had transformed my heart. It was not an immediate realization, but one that slowly revealed itself as I used my time to focus less on myself and more on my teammates. He gave me the heart and eyes to notice when my teammates were experiencing similar frustrations I had gone through. I was asking God to show me how I could love them rather than asking Him to make things better for myself. He gave me a deeper trust in His sovereignty — being ok with Him blessing me and also with Him withholding things from my life. While I did get a lot of playing time towards the end of the season, He did not answer my prayers in the way I thought I wanted Him to. My collegiate career was never about soccer. It was all about transforming my heart and having a deeper trust in Him!
I hope my stories are encouraging to you and that you are able to see the joys that come from the process of prayer. While I believe God desires to answer our prayers right away, I also believe He puts those prayers on hold so we are able to go through a refinement process. I have way more stories like the second one, and I am so much better off because of it. We need to remember our perspective is so limited. What we believe to be the best things for ourselves may not actually be what is best in God’s eyes. Knowing He is a sovereign Father who works everything out for our good, we can be confident that unanswered prayers are just a closed door allowing us to walk through a much grander and God-ordained door in the future!
Dear Father, thank you for the journey you have me on. I acknowledge it is challenging to be encouraged when my prayers go unanswered. However, I trust You are working everything out for my good. The end result may not be what I asked for, but you see the bigger picture. Thank you for these stories of prayer. I ask that more people would share how you are working in their life through their prayer journey. In Jesus' name, amen!
