Prayer is one of the most beautiful/frustrating and perplexing things imaginable. We all have one of those stories of moments when we found ourselves in unimaginably painful situations or we wanted this thing or we didn’t want this thing, and we prayed and we prayed and we prayed.

And God came in like a knight in shining armor and rescued us. Answered prayer stirred up our hearts and passion towards Him, and we got all excited about God moving and interceding in our life situations and just knew God would do it again and again and again.

Some of us have those stories. And then there’s this darker side to prayer that we don’t talk about it a whole lot. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a testimony on the darker side or prayer.

There are these moments and there are these things occurring and we are putting ourselves before God. We get as bare and naked and honest as we can get. And in we believe wholeheartedly that it’s got to go the way we are praying.

Surely God wants my family relationships reconciled, surely God wants my child not to be sick, surely God wants me to get a job so I can move out of my mom’s house, surely God wants my business to prosper. Surely God wants what I am praying for also and therefore He’s going to answer. Because if God does this, then I can . . .

And then it goes silent or the answer is unbelievably perplexing.

I do not know that I have ever heard somebody from the pulpit acknowledge, “I prayed my guts out, and it got worse. I prayed my guts out and knew there was not way it could get any uglier, but as soon as I said ‘Amen,’ the phone rang and it got uglier.

But this happens, doesn’t it? Everyone, if you would be honest with ourselves and one another have had times where you were praying and at times felt like you were crazy.

Or am I the only one?