Unanswered Prayer -When Your Prayers Feel Like They Hit The Ceiling

Do you ever feel like you have unanswered prayers? That they slip from your lips only to collide gracelessly with the ceiling? It feels there is no petition, no hope, no whisper ever makes it to heavenly ears. Much like talking to a brick wall, your words fall on deaf ears. 

They ascend to the ceiling- only to fall like shards of glass, painful reminders of the silence. The unanswered questions, the problems glaring back at you. It’s too big. He won’t answer. He doesn’t care. He’s got other people to worry about other problems that need his attention.

I wonder how Jonah felt, sitting in the belly of that fish. Alone, in the dark, life looking pretty hopeless. I wonder if he felt like his prayers were pinging off the hulking, smelly carcass of that beast. Each taunting him. The hours ticking by,

SILENCE…

Deafening, hopeless, lonely, silence.

He didn’t know that fish was going to spit him out again, only that it seemed that God had forgotten him in his darkness.

I have to say I’ve had many “belly of the fish” moments. In a stinking, lonely place where my prayers seem to barely reach the ceiling as I wrap myself in the darkness of my hopelessness.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18 NIV

The loneliest places are the ones where you can’t hear His voice, and the devil whispers in our ears you’re alone. You’re unheard. He doesn’t care…

but, His promises are there and I must tuck into them. Immerse myself in them and cling to the hope He promises.

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.” And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.” Psalms 27:8 NLT

As I write this it was a big day for many, people flocked to our area to see The Great American Eclipse. For several moments the sun disappeared behind the moon leaving middle all of Tennessee bathed in darkness and awe.

The God who created the universe and this little world, and perfectly timed the rotation of the moon and the sun that only a new moon can cause… He harkens His ear to us. He listens to you and me in our darkness.

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Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Psalm 116:2 NLT 

He bends down…

He leans close to hear about my struggles, my pain, my joys and my heartache. He holds me close like a Father as I cry my eyes out, even when I can’t feel his presence, He is with me He’s there.

 “For I am with you, wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9)

“I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5), 

“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). 

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