There is a particular kind of loneliness
that settles in when you have prayed the
same prayer for years and received only
silence in return. Not ambiguous signs,
not mysterious nose wrapped in spiritual
language.
Silence, the kind that makes you wonder
if the line is actually connected. Paul
knew this silence. In 2 Corinthians 12,
he tells us he pleaded with God three
times. Three to remove what he called
his thorn in the flesh. We don't know
what it was. That detail doesn't matter.
What matters is that he asked and asking
became asking again and asking again
became something like desperation and
desperation
eventually became something like
acceptance. But notice what changed. Not
his circumstances. God didn't remove the
thorn. Instead, God said, "My grace is
sufficient for you. For my power is made
perfect in weakness." Paul's answer
wasn't relief. It was a reframing of
what strength actually means. Here is
what most people miss. When your prayer
goes unanswered for a decade, when the
diagnosis doesn't change, when the
relationship doesn't heal, when the job
doesn't materialize,
God is not ignoring you. He is doing
something slower and stranger and more
valuable than giving you what you asked
for. He is teaching you that his
presence is not a reward for getting
what you want. It is the deepest good in
itself. This is the trial that produces
endurance, not the trial that resolves
neatly, the one that stretches you thin,
the one that forces you to choose. Will
I trust God even when trusting costs
everything, even when the cost is
measured in years? The person who has
prayed unanswered prayers and chosen to
believe anyway. That person has learned
something the fortunate can never know.
That God is worth more than comfort.
That faith means something. Can you say
that yet? Or are you still waiting for
the answer?