「我呼叫他，他卻不回答。」－雅歌5:6
祂掩耳不聽祂僕人哀切的求呼，忍心看著他們在地上哀鴻求告，也不願開啟天上賜恩的門，彷彿門的樞紐已鏽蝕壞去。好似耶利米的哀呼：「你用雲遮蔽自己，以致禱告不得透過。」（耶利米哀歌3:44）
然而忠信的信徒願意繼續等候；儘管徒勞無功，他們仍堅持迫切禱告。
不是因為禱告不夠熱切，而不蒙悅納，乃是因為神願意祂的子民忍耐。
祂是天地萬有的主宰，祂可以照著自己的喜悅隨意賜恩給信徒。祂盼望藉著諸般的試煉，使信徒能學習忍耐。
從來沒有白費落空的禱告。神不會不回應、不注意我們的禱告；我們所以為神的拒絕，其實都只是祂暫且的遲延。
－波拿爾
有時主延遲了祂施行拯救的時刻，為要試驗我們的信心，使我們儆醒禱告。
船雖然就要被大浪打翻，耶穌卻仍悠悠的睡著；但祂總會在翻船前醒過來。
祂雖然睡著，祂卻絕不會睡過頭；在祂沒有「太遲」的事。
－麥拉連
"I called upon him, but he gave me no answer" (S. of Sol. 5:6).The Lord, when He hath given great faith, hath been known to try it by long delayings. He has suffered His servants' voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained unmovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, "Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through." Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply, not because their prayers were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased Him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to His own pleasure. If it pleases Him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall He not do as He will with His own!
No prayer is lost. Praying breath was never spent in vain. There is no such thing as prayer unanswered or unnoticed by God, and some things that we count refusals or denials are simply delays. --H. Bonar
Christ sometimes delays His help that He may try our faith and quicken our prayers. The boat may be covered with the waves, and He sleeps on; but He will wake up before it sinks. He sleeps, but He never oversleeps; and there are no "too lates" with Him.
--Alexander Maclaren
