Prayers That God Didn't Answer (& The Ones He Did) | Stefanie Raj

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Because I work in marketing, here's my clickbig title for today.

Prayers that God didn't answer and some that he did.

As a child, growing up in a Christian family, I

was taught to bring everything to God in prayer, right,

and that's what all of us do, right, That's what

all of us Christians are supposed to do and sometimes don't.

Christians will do that. You know, when you're stuck in

trouble the God, please help me. I need to pass

an important exam. Dear God, I'm so sorry I didn't

study the last three months, but please help me pass

this important exam I have tomorrow. I really need to

get a good job offered. Dear God, please give me

the job offer. Stuck trying to find parking in some

way pyramid more for the last twenty minutes, you pray.

Dear God, please give me a pucking lot next to

the lives so I don't need walk so far. Stand

a chatter kre Marlton tomorrow and we really don't want

it to rain. Dear God, please do not let it

rain tomorrow, but don't let it be too hot. Let

me just be cloudy so that you know we can

run easily smoothly, don't sweat too much. But it doesn't rain,

we don't fall sick. As a youth, I prayed, and

I told God, God, I really want a godly husband. Okay.

I thought that I would marry a quiet, nerdy guy

who loves video games. We could chill together introvert style.

Yeah you're laughing already, right, because instead I fell in

love with that loud extrovertsitting over there, who's an excellent

drummer with great paper skills, religion provider, and whose idea

of chill right is waking up at six am on

a weekend morning just to go cycling for eighty km.

He thinks that's a chill We can Okay, but what

can I say? God has a sense of humor, and

he also understood who I needed, what I needed as

a live partner. So God does answer prayers. I think

you've heard maybe the three ways that God answers prayers. Yes, no,

and wait, some prayers God answers immediately You pray for it,

and he answers right now. Some he takes his time,

maybe a day a week, a month, a year. Sometimes

he just goes silent. So today I'm actually gonna share

a few three stories of when I had one of each.

So when God said no. So, when I was twelve

years old, a close cousin of mine who we grew

up together, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Yeah, we're starting

with the deep subjects. First we had we were only

about a month apart, and when he got diagnosed with

this uh leukemia, we were all devastated. Of course, twelve

years old and you're told that you have this cancer.

And his parents did everything they could to get him treated, chemotherapy,

all the care that he needed, and they just went

on with life as much as they could. But during

this time, his entire family actually came to Christ every

autar call, every prayer time, every healing rally, every time

a speaker opened up the altar, they will be right

there right in front asking for prayer, asking God please

heal my son, my brother, my cousin, please heal him.

My family was very fervent in supporting them in prayer.

I was young, I was as they say on fire

for God.

Right.

So I was so confident, you know, we just pray,

We just need to pray, and I believe, child like,

child like believe nothing wrong with that, that God will

do a miracle, that he will heal my cousin Matthews

seven seven to eight. I think this is a very

well known word step we always use when we're praying

for something desperately for us, and will be given to you.

Seek and you will find not, and it will be

open to you. For everyone who asks received, and the

one who seeks fines, and to the one who knocks,

it will be open. So I claim these verses. I

claim these verses for my cousin. A week after he

turned fifteen, he passed away in the hospital. God had

not answered our prayers, and he was a milestone. He

was honestly a milestone in my spiritual life because this

is the first time when I prayed for something that

I really wanted so badly. I wanted my cousin to live.

I wanted him to be healed. And I didn't get it.

We didn't get it. We didn't get the answers that

we wanted for our prayers. And we couldn't understand why.

I asked, God, why didn't you heal him? Didn't you

see how much his family is grieving? He was so young.

Is it because we didn't pray enough, we didn't pray

hard enough, we didn't pray long enough. Is it because

we didn't fast, we'll be praying the wrong prayers? Or

was God simply just death. It's been more than two

decades now since my cousin has passed. I still don't

understand why God didn't step in and perform that miracle,

but chose to take my cousin home. But with hindsight

now and if I had to guess at a reason,

it is because that true he's suffering and true his death,

several of my extended family actually accepted Christ, including my grandparents.

God used his suffering and his death to bring eternal

life to my family. And it's very timely. Also that

Vanessa was preaching, being a family preacher, and I saw

the words came out, I was like, I know I'm

on the right path because I have the same verse

as well as her. And these verses have become the

mantra of my life in everything that I do. Just

trust God. It's not about leaning on your own understanding.

We can't understand. There are some things that are just

beyond our human understanding. We don't know why God would

do the things he do or not do the things

that he should do that we think he should do.

But it's not about us. It's not about our understanding

because we can't see the big picture. Only God has

the big picture. So all God asks us to do

is trust him. Trust him, and in all your ways

acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Here's

my second story when God said yes. But so, when

I was a campus student, I had these dreams of

I'm gonna graduate and then I'm gonna work in a

multinational corporation. My big dream was actually Google. Google wasn't

in Malayia that time, but you know, I thought, I

will go and Google. I'll just go overseas to whichever

country at Google. I'm not gonna work there. I'm not

in Google. But some years ago I was hired at

a PR agency and I was one of the early

pioneers of the digital team that I later ended up leading.

I was proud. I was very proud. I still am

proud of my career achievements. I was actively trying to

climb that corporate leader. There were so many challenges that

you face, as I think most of us here who

are in the corporate sector you can understand. And one

of the challenges I had was my boss. I learned

a lot from her about how to run a business,

but she had a reputation for being very hot tempered

and difficult to please. Boss. Her tantrums and scoldings and

screams and tongue lashings in the office with legendary. Everybody

in the office knew about it. She was the type

that when she was angry, she will just start yelling

at you and said, Mark, you come up here to

my table right now, and then she was start giving

you a tongue lashing in front of everybody. And it's

open office nowadays, right you don't have cubicles. She won't

pull me into a room and tell me off. She'll

just start yelling at you in front the whole office

because she couldn't care less. And you don't get to

argue back with her. You just have to listen to her.

And there were many days where I would just after work,

I'll go home, I'll sit in the car, and I'll

just cry because she just screamed at me again in

front of everybody. But I stayed on, thinking, that's what

you do, right, that's how you climb the corporate letter.

That's how that you just have to go through it.

You just have to endure it. Even though my husband,

my friends, my family, you're telling me leave, leave, leave,

its toxic workplace. And every time she would scream, every

time she will score me. I'll just pray and ask God, God,

please just give me patience. Just can you hear me,

Please help me to endure this, maybe give me a

new boss. So God say, yeah, sure, just not in

a way I thought he would. God actually led me

to a meeting with two friends and I was sitting

down with them, we'll catching up, and they actually made

an offer to me to join them to start a

new business. I told them I need to think about it,

because you see, I never ever envisioned running my own business.

I always wanted to just stay in corporate. And it's

terrifying because what if I fail, what if I go bankrupt?

What if I can't do this? It's scary, what if

what if it doesn't work out? It's just disappointing. I

was facing disappointment, failure, humiliation. I was afraid that I

do not run a business. I don't even know how

to get new clients. During this time, I was listening

to the speaker in church and he was speaking on Joshua,

on how Joshua was anointed by God after Moses death,

and how God charged him to lead the Israelized into

the Promised Land. And these verses sprang out to me,

to be strong and courageous, for you shall cause these

people to inherit the land that I sware to their

fathers to give them. Have I not commanded you be

strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, do not be dismayed,

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Actually,

in that passage, if you want to go and read

that particular passage, God actually tells Joshua three times, do

not be afraid. And I knew that God was speaking

to me to not be afraid to just step out

into this promised land. This coming December, it will have

been seven years since I said yes to my now

business partners and started my own digital marketing agency. While

it's never been a goal of mine, to become a

business owner. I can see now that God has orchestrated

my life, my entire career, so that the skills that

I learned, the experience that I gain, they were exactly

what I needed to do what I'm doing right now

to be where I am right now. So when you

tell God, God, this is what I want, and then

you tell God, but die will be done, be sure

you're ready to truly let his will be done, because

it's his will, not your will. Because we can dream dreams,

but our dreams are small compared to what God has

in store for us. And God can bring you to

places that you never thought you could reach. You never

imagine you could be there. But God knows you better

than you know yourself. As my own life has been

demonstrated over and over again, He's brought me to the

places that I never thought I could even be. At

last story, when God said wait, I mentioned earlier about

some of my youthful dreams. I had it all planned out.

I was going to work at Google. I was going

to get paid to travel the world for work. I

was going to marry a godly man. I was going

to start a family, and then we live happily ever after.

Very simple, and I think you can see, for those

of you who know me, you can see which ones

God has answered so far. My husband and I have

been married for thirteen years this year, and we've been

trying for kids for that long. We've tried diets, medication,

exercise supplements, traditional medication, multiple doctors, surgery, even IVF. Three

years ago. I suffered an early miscarriage. Just one year ago,

our last IVF implantation failed again. Like Jacob wrestling with God,

I have struggled so much with God. I have fought

with him. I have screamed at him. I have sworn

and cursed at him. Where are you? Lord? Why are

you not listening to me? Do you not see how

much I'm suffering? Do you not see my pain? Am

I not faithful? Have I not done enough? And for

all those times, God has been silent. And I think

that's how we see God during difficult times. Right, He's distant,

he's cold, he's uncaring, he's silent. But actually God does speak,

it's just maybe not the one that are words that

you want to hear during my heartbreak, God send me

Isaiah fifty four one to three sing Old baron one

who did not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud,

you who have not been in labor, For the children

of the desolate one will be more than the children

of her who is married, says the Lord. When I

beg God to answer my prayer. Now, now, God, now

I can't wait anymore, he sent me romans aid for

in this hope we were safe. Now, hope that is

seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he

can see. But if we hope for what we do

not see, we wait for it in patience. And then

when I cried out to God, God, I can't take

this anymore. Maybe just remove this dream from me. I

don't want to dream about this anymore. I don't hope

about this anymore. Just let me move on, Let me

be content. I'm happy. We don't need to wait for

this dream anymore. He again sent me this worse to

trust in the Lord with all your heart. I wish

I could tell you now that I have an answer

to my prayer, because wouldn't that You're a wonderful ending. Hey, guys,

guess what, that's not how life works. I still don't

have an answer. We still don't have an answer instead.

What I'm here to tell you is that we're still

waiting patiently, faithfully, painfully, joyfully contentedly. Is it foolish? Should

I have given up on this dream? Maybe? But God

has never gone by our ways. To God, what is

time years to us? Eternity to us is nothing to him?

He has eternity. So why am I still waiting? Why

am I still waiting on this dream? Why am I

still praying this prayer? Because God has been faithful to me.

He is faithful, He will always be faithful. I don't

know when God will answer our prayer. Maybe we'll be

like Abraham and Sarah, like when we are so old,

a kids will come. I don't know, but I know

that He will answer, but in his time. We all

have prayers that we're waiting for God to answer, or

for God to change his mind. Maybe God has told

you no, or maybe he told you wait, or maybe

He hasn't even answered you yet. Whatever the answer is,

you are not satisfied. We all have those prayers. We

all have that hopes and dreams and wishes that desperate desire.

Philippians four six. Do not be anxious about anything, but

in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your

requests be made known to God. If you have that

one prayer, or maybe many prayers, but that one prayer

that you've been constantly praying for in your heart, that

you've been begging God for, or maybe you haven't even

expressed it out because it's so deep, it's so personal,

it's so painful to express it out to God. I

want to ask you. I want to invite you to

write here right now, offer up that prayer to God,

to put it before him on the altar. Tell God.

Tell God exactly what is it that you are hungering for.

What is it you are desiring for? What is it

that you really wish He would answer you for. I'm

not guaranteeing you any answers. I'm still waiting for my answer,

but I can tell you this that once you're done praying,

you tell God die will be done, and then leave

it at the altar. Wait for God to show up.

Wait for God to show up, and He will do

amazing things beyond what you can believe, beyond what you

can see, beyond what you can even imagine, because that's

how our God works. God has infinite resources. We are

limited by our own but our own mind, our own resources.

But God has everything. God knows exactly what we need,

not what you. He knows what you want, but He

will give you what you need. So right now I

want to open this time for prayer.

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Until next time, godless,