Faith Even If He Doesn’t: Trusting God When Prayers Go Unanswered

What if God doesn’t answer my prayer even when I pray in faith? How can I trust Him in my disappointments?

Maybe you are like me and have wrestled with questions like these and more. Recently, I have found trusting God in my prayer life to be very difficult. Through my questioning, God has been teaching me several important truths about prayer.

Have Faith No Matter the Outcome

In the book of Daniel, three friends stood in opposition to a king’s command to worship idols. Their obedience led them to the edge of a fiery furnace, where they boldly proclaimed their faith in God (Daniel 3:17–18).

Can you imagine seeing your impending death right before your eyes and still boldly proclaiming that God is able to save you—yet declaring that even if He does not, your devotion to Him will not change?

God did save these three men while they were in the furnace. But what if He had not? If you were reading that version of the story in Scripture, would your devotion to Him change?

These men claimed that their commitment to God would not waver, and they proved their faith by refusing to worship an idol even though it meant death. They literally walked by faith into the fire. And it was in that furnace that God met them and worked an incredible miracle for His glory.

Submit to the Father’s Will

Jesus experienced a similar moment of testing. In the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing the suffering He would soon endure for the sake of sinners, He prayed to the Father (Luke 22:41–44).

Jesus knew that God had the power to take away the suffering that lay ahead of Him. Yet He prayed with complete submission: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Unlike the story in Daniel, God did not rescue Jesus from the suffering of death. Instead, He used Jesus’ suffering and death to accomplish the greatest act of redemption the world has ever known.

Learn As Jesus Did

What do we do when we fail to speak with the same faith as Daniel’s friends or pray with the same submission as Jesus?

The first step is to look closely at how our perfect Savior lived.

Hebrews 5:7–11 reminds us that during His life on earth, Jesus offered up prayers with fervent cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death. Yet through His suffering, He learned obedience to the Father.

This truth brings incredible encouragement. Even Jesus walked through the process of obedience through suffering. Obedience is something we grow in and learn over time.

Jesus is our perfect example of how to live in faithful submission to God. And although He is perfect, He also understands our weaknesses and sympathizes with us (Hebrews 4:15).

Learning to Trust God in Prayer

Vulnerably, I admit that I love God, but I still struggle with prayer. Yet I take great comfort in knowing that I am learning.

And so, I invite you into the process with me. Each day we can commit to praying with both faith and submission, just as Jesus did.

And when we struggle in our prayer life—and we will—we can ask for forgiveness and lean into the grace given to us through our perfect Savior. It is only because of Him that we can do anything at all.

After all, Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Reflect and Connect

1. In what ways have you struggled with prayer? How have you worked through those struggles?

2. What roles do faith and submission play in your prayers?

3. Does praying for God’s will to be done mean you are not praying in faith?