What a difficult issue this is to come through, when we feel that our prayers are not being answered. We may feel sad or disappointed about God’s perceived lack of action.

Here are some thoughts that have helped me:

Love comes first
When we pray for someone who is ill, first and foremost we show them that there is a God of love who loves them deeply and cares about their painful. Showing love and compassion is more important even than victory, because God is love and love heals the soul.

Trust God’s plan 
Have you ever seen a cross stitch? – it’s a type of embroidery that is messy and tangled on the underside, with a beautiful pattern on top. In this life, we may only see the messy chaotic side of what is happening, but God is working to create something beautiful that may only be revealed afterwards or when we reach Heaven. Sometimes his ways are too deep for us to understand in this life, and we should just trust that he understands how we feel.

Keep going
When some disciples deserted Jesus and gave up on him because the going got tough, Jesus asked Peter if he was going to do the same. Peter replied: To whom shall we go Lord, you have the words of eternal life? No matter how hard a situation, let’s determine in our hearts to say ‘this will not defeat me or rob me of my precious relationship with my father in heaven’.

God is faithful
God promises us his faithfulness through everything: I will never leave you, or forsake you, Hebrews 13:5. Even if we temporarily give up on him, he will always be faithful to us: If we are faithless, he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself, 2 Timothy 2:13.

God brings his hope 
God will always bring good out of every difficult situation – this may seem like small consolation but it is a promise that brings us hope for the future. We also gain hope by seeing him move lovingly in our darkest times.

To understand why, submit and apply
When we have big questions, we should submit to the loving care of our heavenly father, through Jesus our advocate.  Trust him with all our hearts. Then we are able to apply all the sound truths that we know about him. This will keep us connected to him, and our relationship will deepen and grow.