"When is God Going to Answer My Prayers?"

A couple of week ago, I met a girl named Joanna at the runaway shelter. She came up to me after I was done sharing for the evening and wanted to talk.  

“When is God going to answer my prayers?” she asked.

Joanna went on to tell me that she has trusted Christ as her Savior and that she reads the Bible and prays every day. But for as long as she can remember, she has been asking God for one good day. One day without pain, one day without hurt. Because that is all she had ever known in her life.

Joanna had been abused by her stepdad from as early as she could remember. When she moved in with her biological father, she was abused by her stepmom. When Joanna was taken out of that home and placed into foster care, she was abused again by her foster parents. 

“For most of my life, I have been in court testifying, and now I am here at the shelter with no family and no place to live,” Joanna said. “I believe in God. I have a Bible and pray, and I listened to every word you said, but my question to you is, when is God going to hear my prayers and give me one good day without pain? When is God going to answer me? Do you know?”  

I was speechless. I didn’t know how to answer her. Sure, I could give Joanna the pat “Christian answer” — something like how all things work together for good for those who trust in God or that God is in control and that we just need to trust Him.  

All those answers are true, but they did not seem like enough. Joanna wanted a real answer, not some platitude that we tell people to be kind.  

I paused for a moment, and then I said, “Joanna, I don’t know the answer to your question. I wish I had a magic wand so that I could make it all better and give you a do-over in life. But the fact of the matter is that I cannot, and nobody else can either.”

She looked at me and said that mine was the first honest answer she had ever received from what she calls the “Bible people.”  

What I did tell her was not to let the past dictate her future and that God created her with desires to have a relationship with Him. I gave her one verse to read from her Bible: 1 John 5:13. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Please pray for Joanna ,and please pray for the staff of Leverage Ministries—that we will have wisdom on how to speak the truth as we face difficult questions like Joanna’s every day and that we will continue to point hurting youth to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

In His Service, 

Scott