Answer

Your prayers may be answered, though the thing prayed for be withheld, yes, or though it should be given for a little while and then taken from you again. There are four ways God answers prayers: by giving the thing prayed for immediately (Daniel 9:23); by suspending the answer for a time and giving it afterward (Luke 18:7); by withholding the mercy you ask and giving you a much better mercy in its place (Deuteronomy 3:24 compared with Deuteronomy 34:4-5); or lastly, by giving you patience to bear the loss or want of it (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Now if the Lord has taken away your child or friend, and in place of that has given you a meek, quiet, submissive heart to his will, you need not say he has shut out your cry.