UNANSWERED PRAYER
O My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One.
Psalm 22:2-3
Never be tempted to give up your hold upon your only strength, upon your solitary hope. Under no conceivable circumstances ever give place for an instant to the dark thought that God is not true and faithful to His promises. Though a prayer is unanswered for seven years, say to the Lord, “still You are enthroned as the Holy One.” Settle that in your mind. Never allow the faintest breath of suspicion to come upon the fame of the Most High, for He never warrants it. He is true; He is faithful. In this apparently worst of all cases, He did finally deliver His Son and come to rescue in due time. You may not know why He deals with you so strangely, but never think that He is unfaithful for an instant. Never cease your prayers. No time is wrong for prayer. The glare of daylight should not tempt you to cease, and the gloom of midnight should not make you stop your cries. One of Satan’s chief objects is to get the believer to put away the weapon of all-prayer. As long as we continue to cry to the Most High, Satan knows he cannot devour the very weakest lamb of the flock. Prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it has but time.
Let your faith be still more resolved to give up all dependence anywhere but upon God, and let your cry grow more and more vehement. It is not every knock at mercy’s door that will open it. He who would prevail must handle the knocker well, and dash it down again, and again, and again. As the old Puritan says, “Cold prayers ask for a denial, but it is the red-hot prayers which prevail.” Bring your prayers as some ancient battering ram against the gate of heaven and force it open with a sacred violence. The whole army of your soul must come into the conflict, and you must besiege the mercy seat, determined to win the day, and then you shall prevail. If there are delays, take them as good and sound advice to be more firm in your faith and more fervent in your cry.
Lord Jesus, even the cross of Calvary could not prevent the final victory of resurrection. With that confidence I pray. Amen.
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