Tag Archives: will of God

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Seeing the Unseen Work | Bible Gleanings | September 13-14, 2025

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I had witnessed a miracle: an apartment building had magically sprung up overnight. I was perplexed because I had driven through the area many times before, and never noticed any work being done—no work trucks, no construction crew, and no building materials. If someone living there had said a fourplex apartment was being built, I would have thought they were joking or lying. How, then, did an apartment structure appear out of nowhere? It didn’t—my view of the work was obscured by a grassy hill.

The big hill faces the road and the apartment building is nestled behind it—only the top floors and roof are visible. The hill hindered me from seeing months of hard labor: the laying of the foundation, the beams being raised, and the walls being put in place. Just because I couldn’t see work being done doesn’t mean work wasn’t happening—the problem was my perspective. Had I stood on the other side of the hill, I could have seen the work that was hidden from my sight.

Similarly, there is a “hill” obscuring our perception of the unfathomable work that our gracious God is always doing for our good and His glory—a veil between the physical realm we live in and the spiritual realm where God performs His sovereign will. But just because we sometimes do not see His providential work for our soul-betterment and His renown does not mean He is idle. The Lord is the hardest worker in existence—never clocking out or taking a break from doing whatever it takes to fulfill His good plan for His children (Rom. 8:28). He “neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Ps. 121:4), and as Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). Because of this, every believer can say with the psalmist,

“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O LORD, endureth forever; forsake not the works of thine own hands” (Psalm 138:8, KJV).

From our limited perspective, we may think that God is inactive—not working in our efforts to reach the unsaved, not working in our marriage and in our kids’ lives, not working in our church, not working in our personal sanctification, and not working amidst our heartbreaking troubles. But God assures us, as He assured the prophet Habakkuk: “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (Hab. 1:5b). Thus, we are commanded to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7), trusting His plan and promises even when we cannot see the fulfillment of them with our physical eyes. The unseen God is at work in your life, and one day, when you stand in His presence on the other side of the hill, His perfect plan will be made plain. As Jesus promised, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7).

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs, Susie, Aries, and Dot. Brandon and Dakota are also foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and a religious columnist for the Advance Yeoman newspaper in Ballard County, Kentucky. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. His columns are also featured in the Times-Argus newspaper of Central City, Kentucky, West Kentucky News of western Kentucky, and the online blog, Reforming the Heart.

Other, Theological Reflections

The Unexpected Blessing of Unanswered Prayer

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Unanswered prayer is a razor-sharp instrument of sanctification that the Lord uses to slice open our idolatrous, covetous, unbelieving, and impatient hearts.

That has been my experience, anyway.

When the Lord does not grant us what we want or think we need, our sinful inclination is to desire what we are praying for more than we desire the will of God, which may or may not include the things we have prayed for. The things for which we have yearned for and cried for in prayer may even be good, but our idol-worshipping hearts have a way of turning good things into god-things (Rom. 1:25). A good thing can swiftly become a golden calf and we can easily become fixated upon what we want, allowing everything in our lives to revolve around it, thus, inhibiting contentment with the Lord and His will.

Of course, this is contrary to the kind of God-pleasing obedience which Jesus exemplified in the gloomy garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:42). He prayed that the cup of God’s righteous indignation would pass from Him, if it were possible. For a brief moment, He prayed for a plan B. Nevertheless, He submitted to God’s sovereign plan of redemption, content with the Lord’s will, which was to “crush Him” (Isa. 53:10). Jesus desired the will of God more than what He prayed for.

Unanswered prayer can also reveal our unholy disposition to question God’s promises and provision, as if His word has failed because we have failed to receive what we have asked for in prayer. When the Lord denies our request(s), we can slip into unbelief and falsely suppose that God is going to give us a serpent or a stone, or worse, that He will withhold the bread and good gifts which He promises to give His children. Walking by sight instead of by faith, we can easily interpret a “No” from God as His displeasure or a failure to keep His word.

Unanswered prayer can also expose our impatience and unwillingness to wait upon the Lord. Perhaps He will give us what we are praying for, but today is not the day. Tomorrow may not be the day, either. Perhaps His denial or delay is because He has something much better in store. Only the Lord knows. But what is certain is that when we do not immediately receive what we are praying for, we have a tendency to grow frustrated and impatient.

To be certain, unanswered prayer can be painful, but it is often painful in the same way that open heart surgery is painful; the heart has to be lacerated and opened in order to get it working right. And the Lord has a way of using unanswered prayers to expose the evil of our hearts and show us that all we truly need is Him. Because of this, unanswered prayer can often be an unexpected blessing.

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs, Susie, Aries, and Dot. Brandon and Dakota are also foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and a religious columnist for the Advance Yeoman newspaper in Ballard County, Kentucky. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. His columns are also featured in the Times-Argus newspaper of Central City, Kentucky, West Kentucky News of western Kentucky, and the online blog, Reforming the Heart.