In the life of every believer, time and circumstance will present to test us. Here, amidst tribulation, what we believe about God, ourselves, and others shows up in the fruit that our life has produced. While we don’t particularly savor trials, these along with temptation can reveal the posture of our hearts.

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit reveals areas of sin and error. Other times, He reveals strength and endurance. It is often in these moments when we desire to hear the Lord’s Heart as circumstances are cloudy and direction is unclear.

The Lord knows the challenges we face, but He’s gifted us with prayer as the communication system where we hear from Heaven and speak from our hearts. Intimacy is borne from our response to come to Him, unburdening ourselves from the weight of sin, shame, and striving (Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:16). We begin with the Source and go to Him directly.

It is in this two-way conversation that we work through limiting beliefs about ourselves and Truth conquers the lies we’ve come to believe about Him. Our emotions encompass a range and require deep healing, but like any relationship worth having, we grow through time and experience, getting to know the real God.

While some religious tradition suggests that it is irreverent to unveil our true feelings, when we pretend to be submitted externally, it mismatches with the internal condition of our hearts. God is already aware of our feelings and knows when our hearts are far from Him, whether due to hurt or haughtiness (Psalm 139:2).

Here, in this awkward and uncomfortable place, the Holy Spirit wants to console us and offer counsel from the Father’s Heart. Bringing them to Him is the way that we sort out and sift through the complexities that color our heart condition and external behavior. This is part of what makes us uniquely human, and at the same time, divinely formed and eternally loved.

Longevity

The Lord wants to answer desires that align with His perfect will for us. We are to concern ourselves with asking, seeking, and knocking (Matthew 7:7). The longevity of prayer is revealed in our earnest pursuit. Abiding in His Presence draws us deeper into awareness of what delights or grieves His Heart, but that is a process that unfolds in relationship. He is faithful to answer, direct, and release, according to His Sovereign will and timing.

The hard facts of our circumstances will always bow to the comprehensive Truth of Scripture. Although initially difficult to embrace, the greater principle where we may need to fix our eyes and hearts is found in being loved beyond our comprehension. The reality that He loves us and hears has been confidently settled once and for all in Christ.

If the Father is not answering what we want, in the way we want it, or within the time that we prefer, He has a reason. His Sovereignty can feel like punishment when we feel it lacks purpose, but God intersects our prayers. His answers are part of the eternal tapestry of what He knows is best for now and later.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. – 1 John 5:14-15, NIV

Love

What is true here, regardless of His answer to a particular prayer, is that His love for us governs all He is and does. If the Father offered his only Son, then why would He withhold anything else good from us (Romans 8:32)?

God’s love is unrestricted, but that doesn’t translate to being a wish granter. God’s yes, His no, or not yet are for our benefit and protection. When we come to Him with that hunger to know Him better, we take on the humble nature of children who can be trusted to steward what He whispers in the stillness.

Love trusts, even when it’s difficult. Love submits, even when it could go its own way. Love allows God to be God. He is Sovereign, and though it requires the Holy Spirit to help, we can’t align with God’s plans and still retain control. We will not always be able to shift the outcome. Instead of fretting about this, our willing surrender transfers faith from dependence on our strength to His.

“Righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” – John 17:25-26, NASB2020

We need to rely on the One who does the impossible. He won’t wrestle us for first place in our hearts, where we are continually growing in the fruit of love and faith.

Where we don’t trust, He is present and desires to be what we cannot. Where we have been traumatized by abandonment and feel that we have to command every circumstance, He wants to grace us with the gift of rest.

Ceasing from striving establishes an uncommon reality. Love permits God to care for us as our good Father who knows best, even when our prayer answers don’t look like what we envisioned.

Legacy

Because we don’t see the other side of eternity, we don’t know how the fruit that is produced and matured by challenge yields the glory of God. Our wrestling becomes a place where God beautifies, infusing us with patience, sobriety, and a willingness to pause and listen for His voice before advancing.

Even in the wounds that delay progress, we can deepen our dependence on Him. He redeems what seems beyond hope and help. He upgrades us into what we didn’t know to pray for and didn’t realize was available.

As a result, our lives testify on the earth among family, friends, and strangers, and in the heavens, before the Lord, His angels, and the forces of darkness that have to bow to what God does in and through us (Philippians 2:10-11).

The prayers that the Lord delights in never die. Although we don’t always see the fruit of each one within our lifetime, they eternally come up before the Father’s throne along with sweet incense. There are ways that God transforms our prayers to shift realities that we may not even be aware of until we are face-to-face with Him in Heaven.

Sometimes, He will manifest and make the obscure clear in our earthly timeline, but not always. Often, we have to rest in the peace that surpasses our comprehension to receive rest for our minds, comfort for our questions, and empathy for our emotions to be healed by His loving touch (Philippians 4:6-7).

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. – Revelation 8:3-4, NIV

Next Steps

Life can be a rollercoaster of a journey. Prayer is how you can engage with the Holy Spirit to guide you through each twist and turn of turmoil and turbulence. It can be especially helpful to have a counselor’s support with emotional and mental fatigue, as well as spiritual weariness.

Search this site to locate and schedule an appointment with a professional. The Holy Spirit wants to speak to your heart, causing you to encounter Him, through adventures in prayer.