With a Subtitle: A candid look at how unmet prayers breed discontent – and gratitude restores trust.
A brief Excerpt: When prayers go unanswered, discontent creeps in fast. This writer traces that spiral – and the gratitude that leads back to God.
Editor’s note – Discontent rarely announces itself; it slips in through one unanswered prayer and slowly colors everything else. The author traces that descent honestly, from questioning God’s character to catching herself against His unchanging faithfulness. We’re running this piece because it names a struggle many believers keep hidden, and because its answer is gratitude and honest prayer, not a slogan.
The Spiral of Discontent
Will the Lord walk off and leave us for good? Will he never smile again? Is his love worn threadbare? Has his salvation promise burned out? Has God forgotten his manners? Has he angrily stomped off and left us? “Just my luck,” I said. “The High God retires just the moment I need him” (Psalms 77:7-10).
“Just my luck,” I said. “The High God retires just the moment I need him.”
I’ve often felt like this, especially when I had waited for answers to prayers. I start to feel ignored, neglected, and worthless. I feel bleak, unimportant, unloved, and discarded. When I continue on this path, it becomes worse. I start to feel sad, down, dejected, and eventually depressed. It’s a dark spiral down a very dark and deep pit.
I reach a point where I think that God doesn’t care, He’s not near, and He laughs in my face, treating me like a fool for daring to hope for a ray of light in my darkness. This struggle is continuous and merciless. Eventually, I start accusing God of evil deeds, actions, and thoughts toward me. I’m confusing God with the enemy of our souls. How did I get here?
Editor’s note – Notice the honest turn here: she names the exact moment discontent slides into accusation, confusing God with “the enemy of our souls.” Scripture doesn’t hide from that struggle – the psalmist asks these same questions in Psalm 77.
Counting Blessings I Almost Missed
It starts innocently. I start to focus on the one thing I don’t have, forgetting about all the other blessings I enjoy daily. May I add, blessings that are too numerous to count. Which blessings, you may ask? Well, I can start with waking up, being alive, breathing, and enjoying my five senses. I can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. I’m mobile. I have the use of my legs and hands. I’m relatively healthy, not on any medication, and as I sit here typing, it’s on a tablet, comfortably in a warm bed on a frosty cold winter morning. I have a roof over my head. I went to bed on a full stomach, and I have warm clothes to wear. I have a husband who loves me, a dog who follows me like my shadow, and family and friends who care for me.
The sun is shining. It’s a new day. God is still in control.
I think by now, you get the picture. If I start counting my blessings, I never reach the end of my list, but I choose to listen to the enemy of my soul and focus on the one thing I don’t have.
Editor’s note – This turn toward gratitude works because focusing on what we lack always crowds out what we’ve been given. Paul makes the same move in Philippians 4, pairing contentment with a mind fixed on what is true and good.
Bringing the Struggle to God
Focusing on the things I don’t have is an easy path to take, but it’s a path that leads to discontentment. I feel angry and disappointed with God. I don’t even want to talk to Him, but I don’t believe in giving anyone the silent treatment. I used to keep everything to myself, but I’ve learned that it’s better to discuss problems than hold on to resentment. Bitterness results in a bitter life.
I have discovered that God can handle honesty. He can handle my outbursts and times when I throw my toys out of the box. He’d much rather have me be honest about my struggles than pretend that everything is fine. Rather than talking and complaining to people who can’t do anything about it, it’s better to talk to God. His peace is worth more than anything the world can offer.
Editor’s note – Bringing a complaint straight to God, rather than burying it, is itself an act of faith. The Psalms are full of this same raw honesty, and He never asks us to pretend otherwise.
The God Who Does Not Change
I believe that I have learned through the years that God is faithful, and He remains faithful, even when I’m not. This is something I really appreciate about God. His personality and character don’t change based on how He is treated. He remains true to Himself. He can’t be manipulated. He doesn’t become impatient, and unlike what the psalmist says, He doesn’t stalk off and leave me alone.
I thank God that there’s not even a shadow of turning in Him (James 1:17). He’s not evil. When I’m tempted to follow the path of discontent, I can remind myself of God’s unchanging character. I can trust in His love, His plan, and His purpose for me even though I don’t understand why some things are allowed to happen and why some prayers seemingly remain unanswered.
So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of Heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures (James 1:16-18).
A Word from the Editor
Discontent whispers that God has changed toward us; Scripture insists otherwise – His mercies “are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). The fight against discontent is really a fight to keep believing that when the evidence in front of us says otherwise. That’s worth remembering the next time an unanswered prayer tempts you toward the pit this author describes.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.