Q&A: How Do You Keep Praying for Babies When Your Prayers Continue to Go Unanswered?

Every week I receive dozens of emails from women and men just like you. They are struggling with not only infertility and miscarriage, but also with their hope and faith in God. This is why I wanted to share with you today an email I received because I know that the woman who sent it, is not alone. You have probably had the same thoughts, the same questions, and the same frustrations. And maybe? Just maybe, my response that helped her, will also help you.

Dear Waiting for Baby Bird,

How do you continue to pray for babies without getting upset? I’m not sure if I’m better off just not praying anymore or to continue to pray and grieve every time. It seems as though when I start to pray, I get my hope and faith built up, but then when it doesn’t happen, I am devastated. I stopped praying for a while now. Don’t get me wrong, I still pray and spend time with the Lord; I just don’t pray for babies like I used to, nor do I say my declarations either. What should I do?

Sincerely,

Stopped praying for babies

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This was my reply:

Dear stopped praying for babies,

Thank you so much for messaging me! I agree, it’s not easy to want to pray when our expectations are not met. But, I continually remind myself that just because my prayers were not answered today, doesn’t mean I should stop praying for them tomorrow. This is because we are told over and over in the Scriptures to tell God what we need. I myself find that I faithfully follow this command by presenting my requests to God daily, but sadly, it sometimes becomes habit that if I do not receive an answer within my time frame, I “lose heart” and stop praying as often or with a believing mindset. I make the assumption that God is not going to answer my prayers. Or that it must not be in His plans for my life. Sound familiar? But despite what I think or how I feel, I continue to pray. I continue to seek. I continue to knock. I continue to cry out to Him. And it’s all because of the Parable of the Persistent Widow found in Luke 18:1-8. Jesus told that parable to His disciples to “…show that they should always pray and never give up.”  Luke 18:1

You can read the full parable below…

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

The devil would LOVE nothing more than for you to stop storming the gates of heaven. He wants to silence you because he ultimately knows that your prayers will silence him. He also understands more than anyone that prayer is the portal for which God’s blessings flow. And it’s the vehicle for which He uses to drive power into our lives. This is why when disappointment comes our way, he sneaks negative thoughts into our minds in order to discourage us so that we eventually give up in prayer thinking it doesn’t make a difference anyway, so why continue.

I noticed in your message that you said when you pray your hope and faith are built up. That’s awesome! That’s God right there! That’s proof that prayer is an awesome tool to defeat the throes of infertility or any other problem that comes our way. Therefore, I recommend that in those moments of doubt and defeat, start praying. Start lifting up His name. Start declaring His promises right then and there even when you don’t feel it, because the same God that filled you with hope and faith when you prayed just weeks earlier, will do it again for you now. He is a faithful Father. And He is a good Father.

Not to mention, the enemy gets confused when you start praising, praying, and worshiping in the midst of heartache and trouble. His agenda gets wrecked, his plans get thwarted, and he runs around in confusion.

In addition, if it helps, you could do what I have done in the past when I am tired of praying with no results. I tape reminders on my bathroom mirror of the importance of being persistent in prayer. For example, for weeks I had on my mirror…“When you don’t pray, the angels just stand there! So pray! Tell God what you need and send those angels to work!”

Here are some other key verses that I have used in order to remind myself of how important it is to not give up in prayer…

“The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” ~Psalm 6:9

“He will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas.” ~Psalm 102:7

“Never stop praying.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:17

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” ~Matthew 7:7   ** I love the word “keep” in this last verse because it signifies that sometimes, our prayers will go unanswered, but we can’t give up. We have to keep on, keeping on and not lose heart because it says we will receive what we ask for according to His will for our lives. **

I hope this has encouraged you today, sweet friend. And I hope you will never stop praying for the God-given desires of your heart. James 5:16 says that the fervent prayer of a righteous man produces much. So don’t let the enemy limit your prayers. Because he will. And it’s simply because he knows that your prayers will ultimately limit him.

I also want to include a blog post I wrote a year ago on this matter. I wrote it during a time when I was ready to give up in prayer after seeing another pregnancy announcement from a friend on Facebook. You can read it here.

If you need more inspiration to not just pray, but pray with a hopeful and confident expectation that God will come through for you with an answer, then check out this post I wrote called, “Unanswered Prayers”

Sincerely,

Waiting for Baby Bird

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