But God isn’t silent. God isn’t ignoring us. God isn’t blind to our pain. What God is doing is for our good. Sometimes what we want is not good for us. God, as the Heavenly Father, knows that and only allows what we need.

Even Jesus, during His time on earth, had unanswered prayers. Didn’t He pray in the garden that God would remove the cup from Him? What if God had answered that prayer? We wouldn’t have been rescued from sin at the cross. We wouldn’t have the promise of eternal salvation. We wouldn’t have the joy of restoring our right relationship with God.

Paul’s prayer went unanswered. Three times he asked the Lord to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” But I wonder, if God had removed that thorn, would we have a book like Philippians, which has brought Christians down thru the centuries such joy in the midst of their trials? I wonder.