Praying When You Don't Believe Your Prayers Are Getting Through

There are stretches of the Christian life when you pray and it feels like nothing is happening. The words come out of your mouth and vanish into the room, with no sense that anyone is on the other end. You start to wonder if you're doing it wrong, or whether God is listening at all. That kind of stretch can make you want to quit praying, because talking to the ceiling starts to feel pointless.This episode opens with Amy Carmichael, who spent 35 years rescuing children in southern India and was almost impossible to keep still. In 1931 she fell into an unlit pit, shattered her leg, and twisted her spine, and she spent the last 20 years of her life confined to bed in constant pain. She did what she had always done. She prayed, asking God for the one thing she wanted most, to be well enough to get back to her children and her work. And she waited for the answer.The psalmist knew that place. Psalm 88:1-2 says, "O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry." What makes this psalm different from almost every other one is that it never turns the corner. Most psalms that start in the dark climb toward hope by the end. This one doesn't. The writer cries out day and night, and the last line leaves him in the dark with no answer in hand.Now think about that. The people who assembled the Bible could have left this one out, a prayer with no resolution and no lesson tied up in a bow. They kept it. God kept it, so you would know that a prayer like yours, the kind that seems to go nowhere, belongs in Scripture right alongside the ones that got answered. Your unanswered prayer belongs in the faith. It's printed right in the middle of it.Here is the truth Psalm 88 holds open for you. Some prayers don't get answered in the room where they're prayed. You may hear nothing back. And still, God heard every word you said. The silence in the room was never silence in heaven. Amy Carmichael learned it from a bed she never got up from, and out of those years came a line people still repeat: in acceptance lieth peace.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why a stretch of unanswered prayer is not a sign you're doing it wrongWhat Psalm 88 reveals by ending in the dark, with no resolution, on purposeHow to keep bringing God the prayer that feels like it's going nowhere, and leave the answer with HimGod hears every prayer you pray, even the ones that seem to vanish. The silence in the room was never silence in heaven.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/294Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/subscribe.