“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14).

This is a fact taken straight from the Bible. It’s something I believe to be true as a child of God. God hears His children.

Even with this confidence, the strongest Christians have a hard time with prayer at times, wondering if God hears us.

It’s hard when our prayers aren’t answered in the way we want them to be.

Disclaimer: I am not God. I do not know how His mind works, why He does everything that He does and I do not know enough about each individual situation to say why God answers prayers differently; all I can do is tell you what I’ve found in the Bible and what I have learned from my relatively short time on Earth. 

I am telling you right now to go read the Bible for any and all questions. 

God is not cruel to His own children.  He doesn’t leave us to fend for ourselves. “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8).

Contemporary Christian artist, Jeremy Camp, married his wife Melissa in 2000. At the time of their wedding, Melissa was thought to be in remission after a grueling battle with ovarian cancer.

After their honeymoon, Melissa’s cancer returned in full force.

Camp was facedown on the floor, pleading with God to heal his wife, for freedom from the excruciating pain. 

Melissa’s response to her disease was to tell her husband that if just one person, even one, came to know Jesus because of what she was going through “it would all be worth it.”

Melissa died on February 5, 2001, not quite four months after their wedding.

She lived long enough to see her statement of faith carried out. Her nurse at the hospital, seeing the faith in the young couple and their families, accepted Jesus as her Savior. 

Jeremy Camp is dedicated to sharing his wife’s story. Not just one person came to know Jesus because of Melissa, but thousands have heard the Gospel of Christ.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

To pull an example from the Bible, the book of Job in the Old Testament serves a powerful lesson to everyone who thinks we deserve everything we pray for.

Job was one of the richest men in the world at the time when Satan asked God to let him into Job’s life. He claimed Job’s faith was weak, that if Job didn’t have all these blessings, that Job would curse God.

God allowed him to take away Job’s wealth, health and children, knowing that Job would never abandon his faith.

Job asked God why, like anyone would in his situation. 

God didn’t answer Job’s question. He didn’t explain He had a greater plan. He didn’t even tell Job that his frustration was justified. God merely asked Job if he was wiser than God Almighty.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-6).

God questioned Job, then in His mercy, He restored what was lost. And Job never cursed God. Even in the midst of disaster, Job held tightly to what he knew to be true: God hears His children.

God is always good. “The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 145:9). It is against God’s nature to be bad. Nothing we say, do, think or feel can change the nature of God. 

When our answer is NO, that doesn’t mean God hates us. He’s not being cruel or spiteful. He is still listening; He just has a bigger plan that we might not understand at the time.

Maybe your situation looks like Jeremy and Melissa Camp. The loss of something or someone is devastating. It’s hard to still trust and praise in these times.

Melissa sang praises from her hospital bed. She encouraged Jeremy to write worship songs during her chemotherapy treatments. Up until her last breath, she was encouraging those around her to praise the God she loved and she knew loved her (read Jeremy Camp’s biography “I Still Believe” to hear their entire story).

After his wife’s funeral, Jeremy wrote the song “I Still Believe” in about ten minutes, his loss pouring out in prayer.

Jeremy has used his public platform to spread the Gospel, inspired by the faith of his first wife. Melissa had a divine understanding that is hard for even the strongest Christians to grasp: that our pain can be used to help others.

Some of our stories are closer to Job; situations come up that we might never understand this side of heaven. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 8-9). 

I don’t know what God is doing in everyone’s lives. I can’t speak for Him, so I encourage you to seek Him in reading your Bible.

Letting go of what we want and trusting God is one of the hardest things to do. He wants you to come to Him and will not turn you away.