Unanswered Prayers: Explaining God’s Seeming Silence to Teens

2. Be Honest.

Never be afraid to say, “I don’t claim to understand.” I always tell students I’ll never comprehend how sin fully affects our day-to-day lives. Yes, there is sinning against each other, but what about disease and natural disasters?

Remind kids that while God saves us each individually, we still live in a fallen world with fallen people. It doesn’t make sense to us. What does make sense is that God wants more for us than this. We don’t always have to have the perfect thing to say.

3. Focus on God’s Character.

Another person told me, “Everything that happens comes through God’s filter.” Again, this is a concept I don’t understand. I would think, “I hear all these stories of disabled people being healed. Why doesn’t He heal my sister who has so many disorders?” It made me feel like my prayers were never good enough for God to hear them. Other people must “pray better,” and that’s why God answered their prayers.

Then I started to seek the Lord with my whole heart. I sought Him and learned a lot about Him. His nature is one that genuinely will do whatever it takes to show us how much He loves us. Trusting that this is true is up to us, and it takes us getting to know Him.

Prayer is hard. At times it does indeed feel like God is silent. Maybe He is, but maybe we aren’t listening. Isaiah announced the coming of the Messiah almost 700 years before His arrival here on earth. Then He didn’t come as the hoped-for king on a physical throne but as a baby. God was more concerned for our souls and lives than for our power position.

Simeon and Anna had been promised to see this Savior with their eyes before they died. They waited their whole lives and then saw Him not as the Resurrected one but as a regular infant. They didn’t see him until the end.

The Purpose of Prayer

I think you get my point. We aren’t the only ones who have prayed for something and it didn’t happen the way we wanted. The point of prayer is connection and hope. This is why we pray. It isn’t about what we “get” at all but who we’re spending time with.

Tell that to teens as the new year begins. Remind them to keep praying and see how God shows up. He isn’t a lunatic or a liar. When you seek Him with your whole heart, you get to know Him better and you trust He is Lord.

How do you talk with students about unanswered prayers?

This article by Leneita Fix originally appeared here.