When God Seems Silent on Your Deepest Prayer
Nov 10, 2026Summary
As the holiday season begins, it is so easy to feel the heavy ache of an empty chair, a broken relationship, or an unresolved heartache when God seems silent on your deepest prayer. While the world celebrates, many Christian women are carrying the quiet grief of prayers that have gone unanswered for years, or even decades. In this special holiday throwback episode of the Arise Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson and guest Amy Johnson open up about what it truly means to wait on the Lord without losing your joy.
Looking deeply at the Nativity story of Zacharias and Elizabeth (Luke 1), Tamara and Amy discuss why God's delays are not always denials, but are often tied to a highly specific, divine mission—just as John the Baptist had to be born at the exact right time to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. You will also hear a beautiful, vulnerable story about how Amy taught her six-year-old granddaughter to hand her massive, heavy emotions straight to God. Tune in to learn how to adopt an abundance mindset, stop carrying your grief alone, and create a "Silent Mercies List" to recognize how the Lord is showing up for you every single day!
Episode Takeaways
- God's Timing is Specific (Luke 1): Zacharias and Elizabeth waited decades for a child. Their prayer wasn't ignored; it was waiting for God's perfect timing because their son had a specific mission to prepare the way for the Savior. Your delay has a divine purpose.
- Hand Your Emotions to God: You do not have to carry massive, heavy emotions alone. When grief or frustration hits, take it straight to God without filtering it. Tell Him exactly how much your heart hurts, and ask Him to help you carry it.
- The Abundance Mindset: For every prayer that feels unanswered, there are multitudes of prayers God is answering immediately. Joy comes from intentionally recognizing the goodness of God in the present moment, even while you wait for the big miracle.
- The Silent Mercies List: Make a list of three small, daily ways God has shown up for you today—a timely text from a friend, a warm house, or five minutes of quiet in your car. Acknowledge His daily presence in your life!
Reflection Questions
- When God seems silent on your deepest prayer, do you tend to pull away from Him, or do you lean in and trust His specific timing?
- Think of a heavy emotion you are carrying right now. How can you practice handing that exact burden over to God in prayer today?
- What are three "Silent Mercies" you can write down right now to shift your heart into an abundance mindset?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Amy Johnson @amyajohnson5
Transcript
Tamara K Anderson
00:00:00.320 - 00:02:20.960
As the holiday season begins, it is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, full of joy, family gatherings and celebration.
But for many of us, the holidays also shine a quiet spotlight on the empty chair, the broken relationship or the deep prayer of our heart that God simply hasn't answered yet.
If you're walking into this season carrying and a quiet ache, I want you to know you're not alone.
Today we're taking a look back into the Nativity story of Zacharias and Elizabeth and what happens when God says, I haven't forgotten you.
Your prayer is heard.
So take a breath, grab a warm drink and let this sink into your heart.
Today, ordinary women extraordinary faith walking with Christ.
We arise God strong.
Hello and welcome back to the Arise Women of God podcast.
I'm your host Tamara K. Anderson and today we are kicking off a brand new special mini series for the holidays.
Over the next few weeks we are pulling some absolute golden nuggets from a deep dive nativity series we recorded a couple of years ago and we're bringing them right into the present.
Today I am thrilled to welcome my co host and fellow mom and woman warrior of light, Amy Johnson.
We are breaking these timeless stories down into short, bite sized episodes to help you navigate the very real and sometimes very heavy emotions we face during the holiday season Today I'm so thankful to feature Amy Johnson in our first throwback clip as we look at what to do when our hearts feel broken and our prayers aren't being answered.
And we're trying to approach the holidays with faith.
As we begin, I invite you to listen with your heart and see if you can feel what small tweak God is nudging you to make today.
As we begin, we're going to take a lesson from Luke chapter 1, verse 13 and peek into the story of Elizabeth and and zacharias.
Amy Johnson
00:02:21.600 - 00:03:58.770
In verse 13.
I love how he says, fear not for thy prayer is heard.
And I, I was thinking about how that, that certainly couldn't have been his prayer that day.
It just seems like if you know, you're past the age of having children and you're that old, I'm tired.
Like I don't know that I'd want to raise a baby at this point but, but maybe it was his prayer.
But I love that.
What, what I feel like for me when I read that is that the Lord sees, that's a sentence that means he sees your desires, he sees who you really are and he sees what you've always wanted and now's your day.
So, so I love that.
I love that because even if I'm not actively praying for it, in that moment, God still knows the deepest desires of my heart.
And I love that.
And then I love how he talks about joy and gladness because I really do believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about joy and all about gladness.
And I love that.
That's what he says.
He says, you shall have joy and gladness.
Like, to me, I'm like, really?
That's so good.
And then if you read as, as we will probably later, but the shepherd stories and all of the things like the, the joy and the gladness and the feelings that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should invoke in us if we really, truly understand what he's done for us.
I love that because it says, and many shall rejoice at his birth.
And I believe I did.
Tamara K Anderson
00:03:59.410 - 00:03:59.930
Yeah.
Amy Johnson
00:03:59.930 - 00:04:00.850
I Believe I still do.
Tamara K Anderson
00:04:01.490 - 00:04:51.430
Yeah.
Oh, this is so beautiful.
I also love and witness that God does hear our prayers.
And sometimes those prayers aren't answered for decades, and sometimes maybe they aren't answered in the way we want at all, but that God does hear them.
And sometimes there's a reason he's not answering that.
It's not in God's timing.
There was a very specific reason that Zacharias was in the temple and Elizabeth, and their prayers weren't answered until this time because their son John was the forerunner to Jesus Christ.
He was the one that prepared the way before him.
He had a very specific mission and a very specific calling.
And it's.
Amy Johnson
00:04:51.670 - 00:04:53.190
Very specific parents.
Tamara K Anderson
00:04:53.510 - 00:04:55.990
And very specific parents.
Yeah,.
Amy Johnson
00:04:56.310 - 00:04:57.430
I think that's important.
Tamara K Anderson
00:04:58.630 - 00:05:25.240
And so we.
We see this fulfillment not in their timing, but in God's timing.
And that is always, oh, a bitter pill to swallow.
When we are praying for something, we want it right now, and there's a reason we want it right now.
And it just isn't answered.
And I love that they remain faithful despite that prayer not being answered in their timetable.
Amy Johnson
00:05:25.800 - 00:07:31.920
Well, can I just to say that sometimes part of the joy that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ is understanding that for every prayer that is unanswered or we're waiting for an answer, there are many, many of our prayers that are answered immediately.
And the joy comes from recognizing that the joy comes from seeing the goodness of God in our lives.
I had a granddaughter call last night, sobbing.
She was very upset because one of her.
Her.
Her first rabbit that she bought to breed had died.
She got old and she had died and she was so upset.
She's young, she's six.
And so this was very heartbreaking for her.
And she and I talked about that and I, we shared some experiences.
I had had a rabbit too when I was a little girl that died.
And, and we talked a little bit about that, but then at the very end I just said, I testified to her of God and I just said, would you do grandma a favor and go and pray and tell God all the things you just told me and then ask him to help you carry these really big emotions.
And then when you're done with your prayer and you feel like you've taught, finished talking to God, will you just call me back and tell me what happened?
And this little six year old, so fast, because children are so fast, she called me back, there were no more tears and she was like, grandma, I feel so much better.
And I think we get caught up in the grief that we forget that the joy and the gladness in our lives truly comes from recognizing that for every seemingly unanswered prayer, there are multitudes of answered prayers.
I don't believe Zechariah and Elizabeth get this far obeying the commandments without the uplifting hand of the Lord answering their prayers every single day.
Their other prayers.
Tamara K Anderson
00:07:32.400 - 00:07:38.560
Yeah, I like that idea of focusing on what we do have versus what we don't.
Amy Johnson
00:07:39.040 - 00:07:39.520
Yeah,.
Tamara K Anderson
00:07:39.680 - 00:07:50.660
It's that abundance mindset and, and it really, you almost have to ask God's help to help you see it if there's something that is just weighing, weighing, weighing on your heart.
Amy Johnson
00:07:50.980 - 00:07:51.340
Sure.
Tamara K Anderson
00:07:51.340 - 00:08:11.750
I love that example of your granddaughter too, of, of giving those strong emotions of grief and sorrow to God and then waiting to see what he gives back because he is giving us things all the time.
We just need eyes to see the miracles.
Right.
Amy Johnson
00:08:12.790 - 00:08:35.670
It was a really good lesson for me, as it often is when faced with awesome teaching moments for me, I literally heard myself testify.
I promise you that God will do this every time you give you his emotion.
In the midst of me dealing with my own emotions, it was a really good reminder.
Like, hello.
Tamara K Anderson
00:08:36.330 - 00:08:38.090
Mm, yeah,.
Tamara K Anderson
00:08:38.730 - 00:10:50.770
I just love that reminder from Amy.
The holidays have a unique way of magnifying our grief and our unmet expectations.
When you feel that heaviness rising up this season, maybe during a family dinner or while you are walking through the store shopping for gifts, I invite you to remember what Amy taught her six year old granddaughter.
You do not have to carry those massive heavy emotions alone, hand them straight to God without filtering them, and tell him exactly how much your heart hurts and then ask him to help you carry it.
Watch how quickly he can replace that heavy burden with his peace.
To help you do that, I want to give you an idea for an actionable step to take this week to practice that Abundance mindset.
It's making a Silent Mercies List.
Sometime today, I invite you to write down three small daily ways God showed up for you even while you're still waiting for your big miracle.
Maybe it's a text from a friend right when you needed it, or the comfort of a warm house, or maybe just a moment of quiet peace in your car.
Acknowledge the hundreds of small prayers he is answering every single day while you wait for his perfect timing on the big ones.
As we close, I invite you to act on that or whatever else God has whispered on your heart today that you can do just a little bit differently.
Remember that you are seen, you are loved, and your prayers are heard and will be answered in God's own due time.
Thanks for joining us today and until next time.
May you arise and walk with God so that you do Life God Strong.
If today's episode helped you feel a little closer to God, please like and subscribe.
It helps.
Tamara K Anderson
00:10:50.770 - 00:10:50.930
Us.
Tamara K Anderson
00:10:50.930 - 00:10:51.530
Grow and.
Tamara K Anderson
00:10:51.530 - 00:10:55.810
Ensures Heaven's whispers stay at the top of your feed whenever you need them most.
