It is my experience that our prayers are always answered. Some people however can't understand when the answer is no or not now. That is why I feel they loose faith. They don't get the answer they want or expect. The God or Father (or what ever you choose to call Him) that I serve helps me to grow spiritually and unfortunately for my worldly views of what I need (or want) are not always the same as His. Yes, He does give me some of my worldly desires and gets me out of bad situations, but not if it will harm me spiritually. I was raised in a religious family (both maternal grandparents were very active members in our family church), but for me a true relationship with God is more than just the religious beliefs that were forced upon me. Once I got past that then my relationship and understanding grew. Even a good thing is not always the right thing. Example: Supose that I was going some where that I thought was important, a job, visiting my mother, a doctors appointment or what ever. As I get ready to leave I can't find my keys. I look all over and pray to God to help me find my keys. After searching for several minutes I find them in a place I looked several times (sounds familiar to anyone). Here's an easy to see senerio. You get down the road and see an accident that had happened only a few minutes earlier and had you been there you more than likely would have been in it. Less ovious senerio. You go down the road and it's just a normal trip down the road. What you don't know is that a truck swerved or a deer ran across the road or some other incident happened a few minutes ago. Since you weren't there, there was no accident! We were late or missed our appointment, but because God said "wait" before He allowed us to see our keys (which were right in front of our eyes the whole time) no one was hurt or killed. So when I don't get the results I want, I thank the God I serve for protecting me from thing both seen and unseen.