May the Lord bless you and encourage you with His truth and answers.
Scripture gives a wealth of encouragement and beautiful perspectives. Christians of old went through terrible heartbreaking experiences and were alone, sometimes without much written Word at all to hang on to. I'm sure the Lord gave them grace, but by comparison, I feel like we have it so good today.
While we still have to take things by faith, we now have more understanding of how the Lord works and the good He alone can bring out of any situation. Whenever things are rough, when you feel that they're not turning out the way you'd hoped, when you feel your prayers aren't being answered, when the trials of life are a little too much to bear, when the battle seems too long, when your faith is under attack, when you're feeling weary and aren't sure if you can endure much longer, CLIMB UP onto the wonderful foundation the Lord has built for your faith through His many promises and encouraging words, and rest in that safe haven.
Don't try to answer all the Enemy's lies and accusations yourself, let the Word answer for you. Rest in the assurance that this isn't a strange or unique battle -- it's one that every Christian thru time has had to reckon with, and the answer is the same today as it has ever been - trust in the Lord and His wonderful ways. You can't figure it all out. It's a matter of faith, and you don't have to work up faith. Instead, encourage yourself in the Word and relax in the comfort of knowing that the Lord Jesus has everything in His hands. Rest in Jesus' arms, let Him shield you and support you, and the storm will pass.
There is no easy answer to the question of why Jesus doesn't always answer your prayers as you wish. There are so many beautiful, wonderful, satisfying, encouraging perspectives that you can take when you are face with these situations in which everything seems to be going wrong and you wonder why the Lord isn't answering or intervening and it seems like Lord is not doing what He promised in the Word, but in the end it all comes down to faith. In order to have strong faith, it must be sorely tested, refined, and purified. It's the testing and refining and purifying that is hard -- so hard to endure, so hard to understand, so hard to accept. The Lord is Just, He keeps His Word. He is faithful. But His ways are so much higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9). His priorities are so different from our priorities. We want quick answers, visible results. The Lord is always after something deeper, even more precious and long-lasting -- the kind of results that takes time.
This Earth and your short life here is a testing ground, there are no two ways about it. That's why what you learn during your life is so valuable -- irreplaceable, really, because it's so hard earned. Yes, we have brothers and sisters in the Lord, we have prayer as well. But there are limits to how much I can deliver you from the difficulties without taking away honor, your reward, your testimony, your privilege. Look back at some of the missionaries in the last 500 years and all of what they went through. You're in good company! The rewards that come with your service to Jesus are so valuable, eternal, and beyond compare. The Lord can't spare you from all the difficulties or it wouldn't be a test, or a testimony. You would be cheated out of what you signed up to do for the Lord, amen?
Review Hebrews chapter 11, the "faith" chapter. It's not call the "faith" chapter for nothing. It's about the great men and women who gave their lives for their faith. They didn't just endure for a space and then got rescued. They endured, and endured, and endured, and in the end, they gave their lives. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented -- "of whom the world was not worthy." They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. "These all, having received a god report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." (Heb. 11:37-40). And the very next verses go on to say, "wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience, the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." (Heb. 12: 1-2) There's no "secret answer" that I can give you that is going to see you through the tough times you're experiencing now, or the ones you're going to go through in the future. But what will see you through is Faith! Faith that never lets go, never gives up. You don't have to feel like you have great faith. You don't have to feel like a spiritual giant. All you have to do is stick it out, clinging to the anchor of My Word, no matter what things look like around you, and eventually you will win the reward of the promise. Keep on keeping on and you will see the victory!
