I’m thankful for some unanswered prayers. Ok, in a sense, there are no unanswered prayers but those where God chooses not to give what we ask or not to give when we ask. There are God’s silences when the answer is much too big for us to handle at that moment.

But I’m thankful that God didn’t give me most of what I asked Him for.

I see just a tiny bit of the future, but God sees the entire thing. When I get a “no,” I can trust that God sees something I don’t. Or maybe God knows that the very request I’m desiring would also be the instrument of my destruction if I got it.

Elisabeth Elliott once said that God gives the very best to those who leave the choice with Him. Not to say that prayers aren’t important or that voicing petitions doesn’t matter. God specifically tells us to ask, seek, and knock continually for those things we need.

But still I have a puny, finite mind. I pray for stupid, selfish stuff quite often. We all do. But sometimes God gives us what lies at the heart of that silly request. Above all, God gives no gifts apart from Himself, the greatest Gift.

I think it was the fictional character Tim Kavanaugh in Jan Karon’s series of Mitford novels who came up with the phrase “praying the prayer that never fails.” That prayer is “Your will be done.” When in doubt, go with that.