I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT PRAYERS THAT GO UNANSWERED.

Consider the words of a very godly man from history. This man said of the Lord, "I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.... He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.... When I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer" (Lamentations 3:1-8).

Jeremiah's words here speak for many believers as we face our own trying crisis. At such times it seems God has shut the heavens and our prayers are lost. Yet if we do not believe in Holy Ghost timing, we will never understand why our prayers seem delayed. The truth is that each of God's
promises will rise up to test us unless we rest in his timing.

Scripture says of Joseph, "Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him" (Psalm 105:19, my italics). Joseph sat helpless in prison at the time, and his trial of waiting broke his heart. Consider his pathetic plea to the cupbearer who was about to be released from the same cell: "Think on me when it shall be well with thee...and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house" (Genesis 40:14). He was crying, in essence, "Please, sir, when you go free, talk to Pharaoh about me. Help me get out of this awful place!"

Some readers would ask where Joseph's faith was. This man was so close to God he could interpret dreams and mysteries. Why didn't he just rest now, praying in trust that God would deliver him? The answer is Joseph was being tried by God's Word.

God knew all the time he was going to deliver Joseph. Yet his servant had to be tried by the Word for his faith to mature unto life. You see, we can read God's Word, pray it and preach it, but until it is tested in us it will not produce life.

Right now you may be severely tested by God's Word. You've seen him answer many prayers in your lifetime, but now you face a longstanding unanswered prayer. Your sorrow, tears and travail have seemed to go unheard. After all this time you see no evidence of an answer.

We must stand on every promise, praying fervently in faith. Then we must wait on God, trusting him to do what is right in his time and his way. This patient waiting is the most difficult matter of all. You can be sure the Lord means it when he declares, "I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Do not think Jeremiah gave up in despair. In the midst of his trial, he remembered that God was full of compassion and tender mercies: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.... For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies"
(Lamentations 3:21-26, 31-32).

Your heavenly Father has bottled every tear, received every cry, listened attentively to every request. If you are going through a hot furnace of affliction, you can know he stands there with you. God has a purpose for everything he allows. And for every difficult trial he gives special grace.

Our thanks to all who remember our missions to the poor,
fatherless, widows and orphans around the world. For
information on these many outreaches visit our website:
worldchallenge.org.

In Christ,
DAVID WILKERSON