The Gift of Unanswered Prayer
Looking back, most of us can point to a prayer God said no to that we are now grateful He didn't answer. In this episode, discover why God's refusals are not rejections, and how His no is often the most loving thing He does for us.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan went to work in her office on the 64th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. When the building collapsed, she was pinned in the rubble on the 13th floor, alone in the dark, unable to move, with no way of knowing that every coworker she had been descending with was gone.
Genelle had not been a woman of faith before that morning. But in the darkness, she began to pray. And then a hand reached through the rubble and took hers. A man's voice told her his name was Paul. He told her to hold on. He told her she was going to make it.
She was pulled out twenty-seven hours after the towers fell, the last living person removed from the rubble of the World Trade Center. When she asked about the man named Paul, nobody could find him. Nobody had seen him. Nobody knew who he was.
Genelle did not get what she would have prayed for that morning. She would have prayed to never be there. She would have prayed for the building not to fall. None of those prayers were answered the way she wanted. But what she found in the rubble, that hand, that presence, that encounter with a God she had not been looking for, became the turning point of her life.
Her story is one of the most striking illustrations of what this episode is really about: that God's refusals are not rejections. They are often the most strategic, most loving, most carefully considered responses He gives us.
The Apostle Paul experienced this firsthand. In 2 Corinthians 12, he describes a painful, persistent thorn in his flesh that he begged God three times to remove. God said no. Not because He didn't hear, but because what the thorn was producing in Paul was worth more than the relief Paul was asking for. God's answer was direct: my grace is enough, and my power works best in weakness.
Through Genelle's story and Paul's thorn, this episode takes an honest look at the prayers God chose not to answer the way we wanted, and what His refusals can produce in us that His yes never could.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
- Why God's no is often the most loving and purposeful response He can give, and what it is designed to produce
- What 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 reveals about the relationship between unanswered prayer, weakness, and God's power
- A practical challenge to help you look back at one prayer God refused, and find His hand in the refusal
God is not careless with your prayers. He sees the full picture when you can only see the corner you're standing in. And sometimes the most loving thing a Father can do is refuse to give His child what the child is convinced they cannot live without.
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Hey, my name is Jim Dugan. On the morning of
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September 11, 2001, Janelle Guzman McMillan went to work
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like she always did. Her office was on the 64th floor of the
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North Tower of the World Trade Center. She worked for the Port
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Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was a Tuesday, and by
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all accounts, it was a normal morning. When the first plane
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hit, Janelle and her co-workers eventually made their way to the
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stairs and started down. They had reached the 13th floor when
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the building collapsed. She woke up in the dark, pinned,
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completely unable to move. The rubble around her was so dense,
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she couldn't see or reach anything. She could hear her own
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heartbeat, and she had no way of knowing whether it was day or
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night. didn't know that every co-worker who had been walking
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down those stairs with her was gone. She didn't know rescuers
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were working through the debris of what had been two of the
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world's tallest buildings. She didn't know she had already been
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buried for more than a day. Janelle hadn't been a woman of
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faith before that morning, but alone in the dark, she began to
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pray. And then something she didn't expect happened. A hand
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reached through the rubble and took hers. A man's voice told
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her his name was Paul. He told her to hold on, and he told her
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she was going to make it. Every time she started to lose hope,
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the hand tightened and the voice came again. When the rescuers
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finally broke through to her, Janelle called out just as Paul
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had told her to do. They pulled her out, and she was the last
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living person removed from the rubble of the World Train Center
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27 after the towers fell. The End And when she asked about the
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man named Paul, the one who had held her hand through it all,
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nobody could find him. Nobody had seen him, and nobody knew
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who he was. We'll come back to what happened next. But
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welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. want
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you to think about something. Is there a prayer God said no to
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that you're now grateful He didn't answer? Maybe it was a
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relationship that would have taken you somewhere you didn't
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need to go. A job you didn't get that opened the door you
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wouldn't have found otherwise. A plan that fell apart and cleared
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the way for something better. Most of us can look back and
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find at least one moment when God's "no" turned out to be one
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of the most careful, loving things He ever did. But in the
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middle of it, it didn't feel loving, did it? It probably felt
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like silence, or maybe felt like rejection. Today, we're talking
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about unanswered prayer. The kind where God said no, or not
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yet, or something entirely different from what you asked,
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and you had to figure out what to do with that.
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Even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God,
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so to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in
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the flesh, a messenger from Satan, to torment me and keep me
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from becoming proud. Three different times, I begged the
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Lord to take it away. Each time, he said, "My grace is all you
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need; my power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to
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boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can
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work through me." This is the Apostle Paul, the man who wrote
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most of the New Testament. The man who had been caught up to
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the third heaven and received revelations most believers will
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never experience in this life. And he had a thorn; something
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painful and persistent; something that didn't go away.
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Scholars have debated for centuries what it was, but Paul
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knew, and he hated it enough to beg God three separate times to
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remove it. And God, he said no. God heard him, and God cared.
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But what the thorn was producing in Paul was worth more than the
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relief Paul was asking for. The thorn kept him dependent. It
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kept him humble. And it created the exact conditions under which
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God's power could work most clearly. Because when Paul had
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nothing left in his own strength, what remained was Christ. That's
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one of the hardest things to accept about prayer. God's
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refusals They are specific to you, to what you need, to what
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he can see, that you can't. He is not a vending machine that
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malfunctions when the prayer doesn't drop. He sees the full
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picture when you can only see the corner you're standing in.
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Now, I want to be careful here. This is not a dismissal of your
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pain. If you prayed for a loved one's healing and they died,
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that loss is real, and it's devastating.
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you prayed for a marriage to survive and it didn't, that
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wound is genuine. being purposeful doesn't mean it
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doesn't hurt. It means the hurt isn't the whole story. Romans 8:
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28 tells us that God is working all things together for good to
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those who love him. All things. That includes the unanswered
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prayers and it includes the closed doors. It also includes
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the seasons that felt like God abandoned you. The question
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isn't whether you can trust God's answers. The question is
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whether you can trust his character when his answer isn't
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the one you wanted. I've had to sit with that question myself
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more than once and I won't pretend it's always easy. Now,
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back to Janelle. She spent months recovering in the
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hospital. Her leg, which doctors feared they might have to
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amputate, eventually healed. None of the co-workers who had
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descended those stairs with her made it out. She had no
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explanation for the hand. She had no explanation for Paul. But
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she said that in the rubble something changed in her.
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any real intention, and the darkness and the waiting had
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produced something she couldn't have found any other way.
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Janelle gave her life to Christ after 9/11. She became an active
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member of Brooklyn Tabernacle Church and began traveling,
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sharing her telling anyone who would listen what God had done
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in 27 hours of darkness. She didn't get what she would have
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prayed for that morning. She would have prayed to never be
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there. She would have prayed for the building not to fall. She
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would have prayed for her co-workers. None of those
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prayers were answered the way she would have wanted. But she
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said that what she found in the rubble, that hand and that
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presence, and that encounter with a God she hadn't been
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looking for, was worth more than she knew how to say. That's your
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challenge for today. Think of a prayer God said no to. Sit with
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it for a few minutes and ask honestly. What did that "no"
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produce? Is there anything in your life today? Any growth or
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redirection? Or an encounter with God that wouldn't exist
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otherwise? You may not be able to see it yet, especially if the
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wound is still fresh. But ask the question, if you can see
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even a trace of his hand in the refusal, thank him for it. Lord,
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unanswered prayer is hard. Your silence sometimes feels like
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absence, and your "no" sometimes feels like rejection. But you
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are not careless with us. You see what we can't see, and you
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love us too much to give us everything we ask for. Help us
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trust your character, even when we don't understand your answer.
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Give us eyes to see, even in the rubble, the evidence of your
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hand. In Jesus' name, amen. This podcast depends on the
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generosity of listeners just like you. if Daily Devotions for
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Busy Lives has encouraged you or helped you grow, would you
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consider supporting it with a one-time gift or becoming a
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monthly supporter? you can give at www.
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dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support Thank you so much. And thanks
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for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.
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Remember, God's refusals are often the most loving thing He
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does for us. Come back next time for more encouragement to help
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you live grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless, and have
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a great day.
