I am a person of prayer.
I pray for my family. I pray for my patients. I pray for people I know well and sometimes for people I have never met.
But after decades in medicine, I also know something that can be difficult to admit.
We do not always receive the answer we prayed for.
I have prayed for healing when healing did not come. I have prayed for more time when there was not more time. I have watched faithful people face circumstances they desperately wanted God to change.
So why do I keep praying?
Because somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that prayer was simply about convincing God to give me the outcome I wanted.
Prayer is relationship.
It is where I bring my fear, gratitude, confusion, hope, and questions to the One who already knows them.
Scripture tells us to “pray without ceasing” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. It does not say to pray only when we are confident about the outcome.
Sometimes prayer changes circumstances. Sometimes prayer changes us. And sometimes the greatest answer is the peace of knowing that we are not walking through something alone.
If you have been praying for something that has not changed, please do not assume your prayers have been wasted.
Keep talking to God. Keep bringing Him the honest version of what you are feeling.
Faith is not pretending that disappointment does not hurt. Faith is trusting that God remains God even when we do not understand what He is doing.
I wrote more about what medicine, science, and my own faith have taught me about prayer in Does Prayer Really Work?
If you have ever wrestled with that question, I hope it encourages you.
