Overcoming LonelinessPrøve

The Loneliness of Unanswered Prayers

In my early twenties, I found myself being pursued by a man whom I thought I wanted to marry. That relationship and the hope of marriage were constant prayers of mine. When our relationship ended in heartbreak, I spiraled into a season of intense loneliness and self-isolation.

Have any of your unanswered prayers cast a shadow of loneliness over your heart and life? Maybe you’re praying for the birth of a child, healing for a diagnosis, or a job opportunity, but in the wake of your unanswered prayers, you find yourself feeling abandoned by God and forgotten by others.

It’s a feeling I am familiar with, but even more, it’s a feeling Jesus knows because He had unanswered prayers too.

As Jesus approached the time of His crucifixion, He went to pray with some of His closest friends, and He asked God to make a different way for Him that didn’t mean dying on the cross. Spoiler alert: God did not answer that prayer and Jesus went to the cross hours later. Even worse, while on the cross, Jesus experienced intense loneliness in a way Christians will never know because our sin caused Jesus to be separated from God entirely.

The lie we tend to believe in our unanswered prayers is that "God has forgotten me and rejected me." That can't be further from the truth! When you feel yourself slipping into the loneliness of unanswered prayers, remind yourself of God’s truth: God sees you, God understands the depth of your pain, and God is present and good, even in your unanswered prayers.