Question

Answer

Dear friend,

The answer is both simple and a bit complicated. Actually, when we pray he generally answers in one of three ways, at least.

First, he could keep silent and allow you to suffer for the sake of being sanctified. He may wait in such a case till you have learned some lessons from your suffering. Think of Job. It took time before God restored him, but in the meantime he learned to repent of sin and to accept God’s will for his life and then repent of his pride. Job learned to fear God.

The second possible answer is that he is seeking you to put your trust in Jesus, to see your suffering and deterioration of life as a warning that there is a judgment where worse awaits if you have not yet repented of your sin and trusted in Christ.

The third answer is he wants us to wait for reasons he has not given us, and we may never know till we appear before him on the last day. And even then he may not explain, but if we have trusted in Christ it will not matter very much or not at all then for the joy of being in his presence.

At this point, my friend, I need to ask you if you have trusted in Christ, confessing your sin and repenting of it. NO need to answer me. But be sure you have.