Introduction: When the Prayer Remains Unanswered

Over the past several weeks, we’ve talked about quiet seasons—about hurry, shame, returning, and learning to trust God even when nothing dramatic seems to be happening.

But there’s another layer beneath all of that.

What if the quiet isn’t just slow…
What if it’s unresolved?

What if the prayer isn’t answered the way we hoped?

What if the healing doesn’t come?

What if the situation remains exactly as it is?

What grows in us then?

Frustration? Impatience? Disappointment?

Or Trust?

A Scene That Wouldn’t Let Me Go

This week, I listened to a podcast (In Totality with Megan Ashley) interview with Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, my favorite show.

He talked about a powerful scene involving Little James, who lives with a physical disability. In the episode, James wrestles with a question many of us have felt but rarely say out loud:

How can I go out and tell others that Jesus heals… if He won’t heal me?

It’s honest.
It’s vulnerable.
It’s painfully real.

In the scene, Jesus makes something unmistakably clear: He can heal James. There is no question of power. But He also makes it clear that healing him now is not the Father’s plan.

At one point, Jesus says:

“I love you. And the Father and I have a different plan for you.”

In interviews, Jenkins has summarized the heart of that moment this way:

Believe that Jesus can heal you. Trust Him if He doesn’t.

That distinction has stayed with me all week.

Believe That He Can

Faith often begins with belief in what God can do.

He can heal.
He can restore.
He can resolve.
He can fix.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Genesis 18:14 (NIV)

And sometimes He does.

But there are seasons when He doesn’t.

And in those seasons, something else begins to grow.

When God Doesn’t Remove the Struggle

If hurry is about control, and returning without shame is about grace, then this next layer of faith is about surrender.

It’s about trusting God’s heart even when His hand does not move the way we hoped.

The quiet seasons—especially the unresolved ones—shift our faith from outcome-based trust to character-based trust.

Not:

“I trust You because You fixed it.”

But:

“I trust You because You are good.”

That kind of trust doesn’t grow in dramatic moments.

It grows slowly.
Often invisibly.
Like roots underground.

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What the Quiet Forms in Us

When God does not remove the struggle, the quiet can grow things in us that comfort never could.

Dependence.
Humility.
Compassion.
Steadiness.

Paul described it this way:

“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Romans 5:3–4

We begin to love God not only for what He does, but for who He is.

We begin to follow Him not because every prayer resolves the way we hoped, but because we have come to trust His character more than our expectations.

And that is deeper faith.

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The Strength That Only Forms Here

Over the past year, I’ve experienced moments when I believed God could change my circumstances—and sometimes He did.

But there were also moments when He didn’t remove the weight.

Instead, He strengthened me beneath it.
And in hindsight, that strength has lasted longer than the relief would have.

That difference matters.

Because when God doesn’t change the situation, He is still at work—often changing us.

And that change is rarely loud.

It grows quietly.
It grows slowly.
It grows in the quiet.

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Go Deeper

Power vs. Trust

Most of us are comfortable believing in God’s power.

But Scripture consistently invites us into something deeper than belief in what God can do. It invites us to trust who God is.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed:

“Yet not my will, but yours be done.”
Luke 22:42

That prayer holds both truths:

Confidence in God’s ability.
Surrender to God’s wisdom.

Trust matures when we stop tying it exclusively to outcomes.

A gentle question to sit with this week:

Is my faith anchored more in what I want God to do…
or in who I know Him to be?

Learning to trust the quiet doesn’t mean we stop asking.

It means we release the demand that trust depends on the answer we prefer.

And sometimes the deepest growth in our lives happens not when the situation changes—but when our trust does.

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Closing Encouragement

If you are in a season where you believe God can change something—and He hasn’t—

You are not unseen.
You are not forgotten.

Something is growing.

Believe that He can.

And trust Him if He doesn’t.

Same God.
Same goodness.
Still forming you—even in the quiet.

Especially in the quiet.