I cried aloud to Adonai, and He answered me from His holy mountain.
~ Psalm 3.4

Unanswered Prayers.

There aren’t any. Not even one.

From that position on your knees, the floor soaking up your tears, you might be wondering if He hears you, wondering if He can possibly understand how broken your heart is, or how desperate you feel.

But your prayer is heard.

It has been carefully considered and thoroughly evaluated. It has been well thought through. Your thoughts and your heart and your motives for petitioning have been examined.

Then Adonai in His omniscience and with His omnipotence and in His omnibenevolence, He answers.

He may not have answered how you wanted Him to answer.

He may not have answered how you thought was fair or best or right.

He may not have answered how you hoped He would or responded how you expected Him to respond.

But He answered.

And in His perfect will and with His perfect timing, He will proceed with His perfect plan.

Lamenting is fine. It is appropriate to mourn and grieve what is lost – whatever it may be – as long as we remember that God and His will are always good and always perfect. Our response is always to be praise. Our response is to count it all joy.

Every trial we encounter. Every sadness and every gladness. Every answered prayer, however it is answered, even when we cannot understand His ways. Even when we do not receive what we want. Because His answers are about refinement and about holiness and about conforming us to Yeshua’s image. And He is the only One who can do these things.

So before you get up and dust off the dog hair from your pajamas and wash your tear-streaked face, praise Him and thank Him. Thank Him for His love and His goodness and His mercy and His grace. Thank Him for His peace which surpasses all understanding. And thank Him that He answers every single prayer we pray in the perfect way that only He can.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
~ Isaiah 26.3