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When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayers

lexi behrndt prayer

Lexi Behrndt is the mind behind On Coming Alive, a blog that shares the stories of people who have experienced things like the soul-crushing loss of a child or walked through the hell of a drug addiction. In the following video, Behrndt shares the story behind her own loss, which prompted her to ask a question we all would like an answer to: Why doesn’t God answer some of our most desperate prayers?

Behrndt shares the story of an emotionally and verbally abusive marriage, made more complicated by the birth of a very sick child. During her marriage, Behrndt prayed time and again for God to change her situation. Then when her second son was born, she prayed time and again for God to save his life and allow him to stay with her. Neither of those prayers were answered the way Behrndt hoped they would be.

In the face of a failed marriage and the loss of the son she prayed so earnestly for, Behrndt says “it would make sense for me to think that God couldn’t possibly be good. It would make so much sense to believe that he gave up on me. Or that he didn’t care about me. Or that maybe he wasn’t real.”

But this is not what happened. Instead, Behrndt was determined that “every last ounce of good” came out of her son’s life and death, and “every last ounce of good” came from her failed marriage. Behrndt says she has spent the last two years watching God redeem every piece of her story, “in ways that I could never fathom.”

Behrndt says “the pivotal thing that I have learned and the way I can still have faith and trust him is by realizing we were never promised an easy life here. We were promised him to go through the mess, to go through the heartache, to go through the pain. We were promised that redemption would come—even if it’s not on this earth. That redemption is in eternity with him.”

This video could make a perfect addition to a sermon about unanswered prayer or disappointment. It reminds us that God has never denied anyone a positive answer to this prayer: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

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Megan Briggs is a writer and editor for churchleaders.com. Her experience in ministry, an extensive amount of which was garnered overseas, gives her a unique perspective on the global church. She has the longsuffering and altruistic nature of foreign friends and missionaries to humbly thank for this experience. Megan is passionate about seeking and proclaiming the truth. When she’s not writing, Megan likes to explore God’s magnificent creation.