“Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer” (Psalms 66:20)  

If you look back on some of the prayers God answered, you’ll wonder, “why did He give me, ‘that thing’, seeing how it didn’t turn out well?” Was it something, you know now, you shouldn’t have asked for? You’ve learned a lesson. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). If God allowed you to get that thing, don’t just blame Satan, for if you’re a saint, there’s a hedge of protection around you that God can lower to teach you a lesson (Job 1:10). God causes and allows things to happen to you, so you’ll mature spiritually, and become one, “who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). 

 There’s three ways God teaches you a lesson: 1) He tells you “No”. 2) He tells you “No”, and lets you burn yourself. 3) He tells you “No”, and lets you burn yourself, and just so this doesn’t happen again, He holds your hand to the fire to create a scar. Your scar will be a precious token of His love to remind you to choose the fear of the Lord. 

 “Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil” (Proverbs 1:29-33). 

 You begged God for that “thing”, and He kept saying “No, No, No”. Finally, He let you have it, and you ate the fruit of your own way. “Whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives ... for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:6-11).

The mature Christian weeps over his prayers, and prays, to the best of his knowledge, according to what God wants, not what his Old Man and flesh want. Remember, Christian, how selfish your prayers have been. Reflect also, most of your prayers have been when you were in trouble, when you’re supposed to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It’s marvelous that God answers prayers of desperation, but He’d rather you had an ongoing conversation with Him, so you’d experience, “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” as a normal state of being (Romans 14:17).