u/Ordinary-Meaning-659

Hey guys, I want to answer this because I think people misinterpret what prayer does for you.

Alright, when you pray, you can pray about anything you want. For me, I pray and ask God to forgive me for my sins, known and unknown. I ask God to change me so that I never do that sin again and to make me wiser so I'm able to know what I need to do in certain situations where I might sin. He'll do those things because they are good for me and will improve my relationship with Jesus.

Now I want to get into why some prayers won't get answered. First, I want to say that prayer is necessary to get closer to Jesus. When you pray to Jesus and ask Him to help you, He loves that because you go to Him for those things.

But some prayers won't get answered by God because he has a greater purpose for you. Say you're in a basketball game and you're praying for God to let you win because it would mean so much to you, but then you lose 3–0. You ask God, "Why did You let me lose? Was it because I doubted? Was it because I did something wrong?"

And honestly, it's none of that. God answers prayers based on whether they go with His plan for you or not. Everybody's plan is different.

There are four types of plans, but I'll only give two examples:

1. Redirection — God didn't let you win that game because it wasn't what you were meant to do in life, and He redirects you to a new opportunity, something that can give you greater purpose, and you'll excel at it.
2. A season of pain — You go through pain that will improve you because you build resilience from it, and you believed and stayed with God the whole way through.

But the main point is that when you experience rejection or hardship, it will most likely lead you closer to God, and God will heal you and carry you to a better path.

I hope this helps. I want to make more of these, and I want you to remember that doubt and pain are both okay as long as you stay strong with Jesus. i have a subbreddit on lessons i've learned like this ya'll can check it out if you want to r/christianlessons