There are prayers that we bring to God once and release easily, and then there are the ones we have carried for so long that they have become woven into who we are. The prayer you’ve returned to again and again — the one tied to something you have hoped for, ached for, and asked for more times than you can count. Unanswered prayers have a weight to them, because they ask something difficult of us: to keep trusting a God who has heard us and has not yet responded in the way we were hoping for. If you are holding a prayer that still has no answer, this is written for you. Choosing to stay faithful in the silence is not weakness. It is one of the most honest and courageous things a person can do.

God,

You know the prayer I keep returning to. The one I have carried through seasons of hope and seasons of doubt. The one I have laid down and picked back up again more times than I can count. The one I try not to speak too loudly anymore because the waiting has made me afraid to want it.

I am not coming to you today with a new request. I come to you simply to say that I am still here. That I am still still hoping. That I am still trusting, even when the silence feels heavy and the answers feel far away.

Help me release the need to understand why this prayer has not yet been answered. Where I have started to confuse your timing with your absence, remind me that you are present in the waiting. Where hope has slowly started to give way to resignation, restore my faith in what you are still capable of doing.

God, I trust you with this prayer I am still carrying. Not because the waiting has been easy, but because I believe you have not forgotten it, or me.

Amen.