Navigating the less than “Yes” answer to your Prayers

What happens when your prayers don’t yield the result you were hoping for in life? I mean you took the matter to the Lord and it was the desire of your heart that He would provide a different answer than you got. It sure is easy to stay on the faith wagon when God is opening doors and answering your prayers, but how do we navigate the less than “Yes” answer to prayers?

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it’s happened to me. I have prayed for healing and it hasn’t come, I have prayed that God would release us from a financial burden, but it hasn’t lifted. I could go on and on with the list, but I will spare you the details because it starts to sound like I’m having a pity party and that’s not the attitude I want to entertain.  If I am really honest about my less than “Yes” answers to prayer, I can see the hand of God in these circumstances. He has been faithful to bring the right people and resources to help me move forward in faith in spite of the challenges that I am facing. That’s just how He rolls, “He works all things together for good.”

When it seems like God is saying “NO,” literally slamming the door shut in your face, we have a choice to make. We can doubt God or we can trust Him. We can get bitter about it or we can trust that God has something better. God typically has three answers to our prayers. He says “Yes” and gives us the desire of our heart. He says “No” and gives us something better or He says “Not yet” and gives us something even better yet. I am learning that when the answer isn’t yes, it’s still going to be good. In fact, in may be even better than I could have asked for or imagined.   The truth of the matter is God works behind the scenes, even when we can’t see it or feel it. When life is looking bleak, God is still working to answer our prayers. He may not answer them in the way that we would expect or on the timetable we had planned, but God is faithful. What is supposed to happen will come to pass! Believe it, Claim it, and stand strong while you wait on Him to show up in a way that you will know that only He could have pulled it off!

So today, if you are navigating a less than “Yes” answer to a prayer that is near and dear to your heart, remember that God has got it all under control. He knows what needs to happen and when it needs to happen to fulfill His plans and purposes for your life and the lives of the people you touch. Choose to trust that God knows what is BEST, even better than we could know for ourselves.