"How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?" (Psalm 13:1). Read that line slowly. Someone who believed in God wrote it, and it was kept in Scripture as a prayer. When a request goes unanswered long enough, the question shifts from why hasn't God done this? to is he listening at all? The prayers in Scripture point to an answer: silence is not a verdict on God's attention. You stay connected through it by practicing honest habits until your feelings catch up.
The people whose words shape the coming weeks know this from the inside. Michael Rosiers, a middle school teacher in Dallas, fasted and prayed for years to be reconciled with a cousin, and the cousin died first. Jennifer Lucy Tyler, an author with years in international missions, waited about ten years through infertility that doctors could not explain, and she is walking with her mother through metastatic breast cancer. A pastor, a counselor, a biblical scholar, a discipleship leader and Lisa Fields, founder of Jude 3 Project, each supply a different part of what it takes to keep praying.
Over four weeks you will practice four habits. Each one rests on the one before it. You will say the real thing to God, test the promise you were praying from, open the parts of your life you have kept closed, and stay present while others help carry you. The order matters. You will not be asked to examine yourself until you have first been given room to grieve.