“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for  —  believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”” Mark 11:23-25 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/mrk.11.23-25.CSB

These are some of the hardest words of God to understand. We all have prayed earnestly, thinking we believe, only to have our requests ignored or denied. No mountains have moved, and not everything has happened according to our requests. Even if we are at peace with all people and do not hold unforgiveness in our hearts against anyone, not all of our prayers have been answered the way we hoped. Why? Sometimes, we ask amiss for sure, wanting things and glory for ourselves. Prayers outside the will of God have been rejected or ignored, which makes sense. Many things we prayed we believed were in the will of God, though eventually, all healings must come to an end, for everyone must die and face judgment. Many noble prayers, at least we thought so, were not answered positively, and it is hard to reconcile them with the promise that whatever and everything we ask will be ours. We return to our own lack of belief, yet measuring our belief is hard. Where is the tipping point between failure and success in prayer? Like children, we come to our good, good Father, who mostly gives us what we ask or better. He loves us and delights in us but doesn’t give us everything we ask. We continue to come to Him. Where else can we go? I know God is good, and I have experienced so much goodness from Him. I have not received everything I am asking for now, but I ask, I seek, I pray, still hoping, trying to believe, that He will give me these things because I believe them to be in concert with His will and good for my neighbor with whom I am trying to live with in peace. Yet if He doesn’t give me my requests, I still confess God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.