Ice, Wind, and Unanswered Prayers

Spring is coming!

My favorite time of year is spring. It’s the season of new life and warmth after a long dormant winter of cold. Since we live on the banks of a river, we have a front row seat to watch the annual transition from winter to spring. Around here, spring is official when the ice runs and the river is open.

The passage from frozen deadness to free-flowing water is different each year. Some years it is a slow, gradual, barely-noticeable transition as more and more glades form and join together to become open runways of moving water. Other years, it’s much more dramatic as the ice creaks and groans, often shaking our house as it shifts. Then, out of nowhere, a vast flow of ice from up river charges, jolts, and rips winter’s hold.

I remember vividly one year I awoke in the night, startled by the crack and groan of ice. My husband and I got up to watch from our second story deck as icebergs three feet thick pressed against each other and gashed the shoreline. Vibrations reached our cold bare feet as the ice thundered with a deafening roar. A large elm tree towered at the tip of a peninsula just upriver from where we stood. As immense chunks of ice raced toward this elm, one piece reared up like a wild horse and hurled toward the tree. The elm’s thick trunk and majestic crown of branches crashed to the ground, splintered like a toothpick, and was carried away in the aftermath. My body trembled as the frigid night air encircled and the power of God humbled me.

Not every year is quite that dramatic. One thing is certain—no matter how the transition happens—the river always opens.  A once frozen barren landscape becomes a life-giving channel as it flows to its destination.

As I write, I see the signs of winter’s grip release and warmth fills me as I anticipate spring’s arrival. The river stirs from its winter’s rest. Almost imperceptibly, the sun gains strength and the snow melts. The vast whitescape is dappled with a light clear gray—a sign water is breaking through. It occurs to me that answered prayer resembles winter’s transition to spring. Sometimes answers to prayer come quickly and suddenly. Other times they come much slower like the glade that breaks through gradually. Much of the work being done by God in answer to these prayers is unseen—the transition subtle, slow. Just because it’s unnoticed, doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

Christians pray. It is our joy and delight to talk to our heavenly Father. We pray for his kingdom to come, his name to be great. We pray for our daily needs to be met, our sanctification to progress. We pray for strength when we find ourselves on difficult, sovereignly appointed paths of trial, and we pray for those we love who do not know the Lord. The Lord answers our prayers in his wisdom and gracious mercy for his glory and our good. But sometimes his answer is wait, my child.

I’m sure we all have what seem to be unanswered prayers, even for years. Sometimes (oftentimes, if we’re honest) it appears in all our fervent pleading that God is not answering. There is no noticeable change in our situation—whether it be an illness, a trial or a lost loved one. The trial persists, or those we care for remain determined in their unbelief and sin. We pray fervently for the Lord to move, yet we wait. 

Waiting can make us grow weary and lose heart. I know about fervent prayers and weary discouragement as I wait upon the Lord for answers—seventeen years is a long time to wait in this wilderness journey. The Lord graciously (and regularly) reminds me, as I stir with impatience, that he is not in our time zone, nor is he operating on our calendar.

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. This Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us…”  2 Peter 3:8–9a  

How can we persevere in prayer when waiting is so difficult?

Remember and praise. We can remember what God has already done for us—he saved us with his mighty arm and keeps us daily by his grace. Remember all the prayers he has already answered, then thank him. God often commanded the Israelites in the wilderness to remember his deeds so they would remain steadfast in difficulty. Psalm 77 is cry to God in trying times, and the psalmist’s consolation is remembrance:

“I will remember the works of the Lord;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is in holiness;
Who is so great a God as our God?”
Psalm 77:11–13

Psalm 103 is a beautiful song of praise to our prayer-answering Father. It begins with these words of blessing:

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Psalm 103:1–2

Trust and obey, just like the Sunday school song so simply implores. We complicate things when we attempt to figure out what God might be doing as he makes us wait. Yet his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways, and aren’t we glad for that? Jesus once said to a puzzled Nicodemus who was not understanding God’s work of salvation,

“The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” John 3:8

We don’t know where the wind comes from or what it is doing, but we see its effects—leaves rustle, branches bow and sway. Wind can neither be controlled nor directed by us mere humans, and so it is with the Holy Spirit. He will heal whom he wills, and whom he doesn’t he promises his grace will be enough; he will strengthen weary faith as we endure great trials for the good purpose of his will; and he will work in lost sinners according to his eternal plan. 

We have been called only to trust and obey—rest in his grace daily, love others, and pray continually. God, through the Spirit, who blows however and wherever he wishes, will do the rest in his time. We might not know or see the beginnings of the work, it may be slow and subtle as we anticipate its arrival, but the final work will be glorious.

Fight unbelief with the Word of God. Unbelief desires to see a dramatic event which proves God is at work, like the crashing icebergs and the splintered elm tree. Impatient me sometimes thinks that if I could just see some sign of change, then I would believe and persevere in prayer. Would I? Again, my heavenly Father reminds me in his Word:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1

“But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O Lord, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy…….
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies” 

Psalm 69:13,16

These words calm my heart and stir me to give thanks to God for what he is doing, even if I can’t see it.

The seasons will continue to come and go until the Lord returns, just as he promised they would. And our merciful Lord will continue to redeem people for himself and carry us all the way home until he returns, just as he promised he would..

Take heart weary pray-er: spring is coming. May I encourage and remind you, as I myself must be reminded, to keep praying and don’t give up. The Lord is not slow. Trust him. May he find faith in us, even as we wait.

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“I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. ‘
Psalm 40:1

 ‘Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! ‘ Psalm 27:14