For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2Timothy 1:7 (KJV)
God did not give us any spirit of fear. But it still can invade our thinking and shake our faith. We could fear about the future and where we are going, the present and how we will get by, or the past and what we have done. God is telling us hear in the key verse that we should not be afraid! It is not a subtle verse either this is a command from the Lord! Do not be afraid!
Similarly, God knows the other favorite faith-shaking mechanism the enemy uses is discouragement. The Christian walk is just that, a walk. It is long and can be treacherous. That is because while we walk with God, we still walk through the world, which we no longer belong to. We still have desires that are tied to the world. We still have careers that are tied to the world. We still have families that are tied to the world. It takes a sustained commitment to remain faithful to what we believe when the storms of life come against us. Discouragement can set in when we feel God is taking too long, or prayers seem unanswered, or we see ourselves still struggling in the world.
In regards to struggles, Jesus never promised us we would not struggle in this world, in fact, He promised the opposite:
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
One of the misconceptions we can have is once we are saved, all our problems go away! That is not true. Jesus here clearly warns us that we will have trouble in this world. But we must take heart beloved, even within that trouble. Why? Because Christ overcame the world through His resurrection and the Spirit that raised Him from the dead now dwells on the inside of us! Instead when the trials of this world come against us too often we can lose heart instead of taking heart. Why? Because we trust what we see instead of what we believe. We trust what we feel instead of what we have placed our faith in.
In regards to unanswered prayer there is no such thing. God hears and answers all prayers. We may not like the answer all the time. We may not understand the answer all the time. We may not hear the answer because we are so set on hearing what we want to hear but do not doubt for a second that God hears and answers all prayers:
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. Psalm 34: 17
