Heavens of brass

Every Christian has experienced it.  You pray sincerely, earnestly and often for something that seems to you so right, so good, so in line with what you believe would glorify God and serve his kingdom.  But the heavens seem to be made of brass, and your prayers go unanswered, or worse, the answer seems to be NO.  How can a sincere believer, a beloved child of a caring Heavenly Father, be so misguided in what they believed to be God's will or in what they thought would be the best outcome of a circumstance?  Why do so many prayers go unanswered?  Or do they?  Are they actually answered but we just don't recognize the answers or we recognize the answers but we disagree with them?  Tim Challies has some wise words of perspective on this very common experience of believers here.