Trusting God When Nothing Seems to Work: Faith During Hard Times

You have prayed, fasted, and praised for months, but nothing seems to be working. Rather, it’s getting worse.

You now start to ask yourself, 'Am I not praying hard enough?' Are my sins so great that my prayers and fasting are unanswered? Or do I lack the tiny faith required?

But faith is believing in God. Believing He exists. Believing He is capable of doing whatever He says. So if you pray to God sincerely, you have faith. (Hebrews 11:6)

Is it because of doubt? Can doubt stop God from doing what He says He will? Can faith and doubt co-exist?

Doubt comes from our inability to understand how God will do what He promised. It sounds too wonderful. It’s not that we don’t believe He can, but our limited human capacity can’t see how He will do it.

Abraham, the father of faith, once doubted God. When God told Abraham that Sarah would have a child, he laughed and said in his heart, “How could I become a father at the age of 100?”- Gen 17:17

Yet though he doubted, God still did what He promised, and Isaac was born. So, doubt does not stop God from doing what He said.

So if it’s not a lack of faith or doubt, why are the answers to some prayers delayed?

While there’s no blanket explanation, here are a few reasons for delayed prayers: timing, preparation, training, and disobedience.

God’s Timing

Have you ever had one particular prayer unanswered, but got immediate answers to other prayers?

When God called Abraham, He promised to make him a great nation. Yet, Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac. During these 25 years, God blessed him and made his name great. Even defeated 5 kings for his sake. But Abraham waited 25 years for Isaac.

While waiting on God for a specific job He promised me, He gave me specific instructions to heal my stomach ulcers (which worked) and provided in one day enough funds to pay my kids’ school fees. Yet I was still waiting for that specific job He promised me.

This is not something we like to hear, but God will do it when it’s time. He said to me, “Those who trust the Lord must learn how to wait for Him”. He also asked, “If you want to build a skyscraper, how deep will the foundation be?”

Preparation: God is Putting Things in Place

Isaiah 45:2 “I will go before you and make the crooked places straight.”

Just as God spent the first 4 days of creation preparing the earth to be livable, certain things need to be in place before we can inherit God’s promises.

In Genesis 15, God told Abraham that his children would be slaves for 400 years in a foreign land, and after that, they would inherit the land of Canaan.

The land was already theirs, but they needed to be a nation to displace the Canaanites who lived there.

So He sent Joseph to prepare a place for them in Egypt, where they would grow into a nation. Seventy people went into Egypt, and a nation of about 2 million (six hundred thousand men) left Egypt.

It makes no sense at the moment, but God is working on His plan. He is gathering the needed resources and setting the right conditions for it to work. He is also preparing you.

Training: God Is Preparing Us for His Promises

Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

God does not just hand over opportunities on a platter; He prepares you for them by giving you gifts and placing you in places where those gifts are relevant.

When combined with our natural skills and talent, challenges and trials prepare us for God’s purpose.

Joseph learned to use his administrative abilities first as a slave in Potiphar’s house and then as a prisoner. His gift of interpretation of dreams brought him before Pharaoh, but it was his administrative experience that helped him rule Egypt successfully.

The point of the training is to make us understand that without God, we can do nothing. It is to teach us to rely on and to learn to wait on Him.

Saul tried to do it on his own and failed. David, on the other hand, sought God at every point. Always waiting on God’s instructions, and was successful. The real test is our willingness to obey His instructions.

Obedience: Learning to follow His Instructions

“To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” - I Samuel 15:22 - 23 NKJV

Obedience to God is key to answered prayers. God is a king. When He gives an order, He expects it to be carried out exactly as He says.

Rebellion is refusing to do what He says or doing it your way.

Saul was told to kill all the Amalekites and their livestock. He killed everyone but spared their king and the best of the livestock for ‘sacrifice’. And because he did not do exactly as commanded, he was rejected by God.

Obedience can be learned. Start by obeying the little things. If the Holy Spirit says “Don’t go out”, don’t. If He says “Take a left”, take a left. Even if it makes no sense to you, do it.

This teaches you to obey and also to hear him clearly. So when He tells you to do something ‘big’, you will know if He is the one.

Answers to some prayers will be delayed. The real question is, can you trust God through the waiting period? Can you maintain hope in God when all seems lost?

I pray Yahweh brings to pass everything you are trusting him for in Jesus’ name.r