Unanswered Prayer

I'm sitting here finishing my hot Miracle-Whip and cheddar cheese sandwich (hey--it's no weirder than pickles and ice cream!) and I came across this amazing quote from C.J. Mahaney. If any of you regularly look at challies.com, you may have already seen it, but I thought it was well worth re-posting here.

"I want to celebrate unanswered prayer. I want to ... thank God for all the prayers I have prayed sinfully motivated, that the Saviour hasn't answered. I want to thank God that he is sovereign, not sentimental. I want to thank God for all the times when ... I have approached the Saviour demanding that he do for me whatever I ask, ... that the Saviour's response was not simply, “You don't know what you are asking”, but that he withheld an answer to that prayer. I am grateful to God for unanswered prayers.

Here's a question, though: how do you respond to unanswered prayer? I believe how we respond to unanswered prayer normally reveals our motive and ultimately reveals the purpose of our prayers. If I encounter someone who is bitterly declaring, “I have prayed ... and the Lord hasn't provided”, that is usually the voice of someone who wants to use God ... rather than serve him for his glory. I find unanswered prayer purifies my motive, and often alters the very content of my prayer as well."

This quote comes from the sermon found here.