Prayer is a significant part of our lives.

However, when God doesn’t seem to respond in a way we want or expect, we can start to question him.

When that happens—and even when it doesn’t—we need to trust in God’s wisdom and timing. He truly knows better than we do.

A helpful verse that reminds us of this fact is Romans 11:33. While reminding his readers about God’s big-picture plans in human history Paul writes: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

When Job questions God, the Lord responds with a reminder about his sovereignty: “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?” (Job 40:8-9)

One of my favourite quotes about prayer when we feel frustrated because God doesn’t respond in a way we want or expect is from theologian J.I. Packer. He writes: “God always reserves the right to answer our requests in a better way than we make them.”*

I have three children. When they were toddlers, they would often ask for things that they either didn’t need or were bad for them. Sometimes the timing wasn’t right. I would respond in their best interest, even if they couldn’t yet understand.

Well, our heavenly Father is putting the pieces together, even when we cannot see how it could possibly make sense.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

In prayer, let’s trust the wisdom and timing of God.

Notes:

-“How can I pray more effectively?” Click here. Sermon.

-*J.I. Packer, Rediscovering Holiness: Know the Fullness of Life with God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021), 2nd ed., 269.

-Bible quotes are from the ESV.