Why Aren't My Prayers Answered?
Let us be careful not to charge God, as did Job, with being slothful; and unconcerned about our needs and petitions. Job complained, "I cry unto You and You do not hear me; I stand up, and You do not regard me" (Job 30:20).
His vision of God's faithfulness was clouded by his present difficulties, and he ended up accusing God of forgetting him. God rebuked him soundly for it.
Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 7: 9
But what about the "fine print" in this agreement and contract that we have with God? In most agreements there is fine print to protect the parties from abuse and how the contract works equitably in practice.
For example a marriage is a contract and agreement initially based on love, admiration, and respect. There is a pledge of faithfulness that holds each party to forsake all others. It requires discipline to maintain this pledge for a lifetime. If that pledge is broken, then the fellowship is broken, and distrust follows. If there were no conditions, then the agreement would be of little value.
Our covenant with God will last longer than a lifetime, but during our lifetime He wants to instruct us in the conditions that discipline us. We then realize the value of the covenant. That is why Peter says "Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. 1 Pet 1:7"
The conditions must be met in the covenant with God to receive the benefits of the covenant. Without meaning to blaspheme, multitudes of God's people can now be heard complaining, "I pray, but I get no answers. I've prayed so long, so hard, without any results. All I want is to see a little evidence of God changing things. Things go on as usual - nothing happens. How long must I wait?" They no longer visit the secret closet because they are convinced that their petitions, born in prayer, are somewhere miscarried at the throne.
God will not permit a liar or covenant-breaker to enter His presence or set foot on His holy hill. How then can we conceive that such a holy God can ever break His word to us? God has made Himself, a name on earth - a name of 'Everlasting Faithfulness'. The more we believe that, the less troubled our souls will be. In the same proportion that there is faith in the heart, there is peace also.
"In quietness and confidence shall be your strength" (Isaiah 30:15).
It's time we Christians took an honest look at the reasons why our prayers are aborted. We can be guilty of charging God with neglect, when all along our own behavior is responsible. Listed below are reasons why our prayers are not answered.
God wants us to pray and He wants to answer our prayers, but He makes our use of prayer as a privilege to commingle with His use of prayer as a discipline. To receive answers to prayer we must meet God's terms. If we neglect His commandments our petitions will not be honored. He will alter situations only at the request of obedient and humble souls.
To receive an answer to prayer as the Bible uses the term and as Christians have understood it historically, two elements must be. present: (1) A clear-cut request made to God for a specific favor. (2) A clear-cut granting of that favor by God in answer to the request. There must be no semantic twisting, no changing of labels, no altering of the map during the journey to help the embarrassed tourist to find himself.
When we go to God with a request that He modify the existing situation for us, that is, that He answer prayer, there are two conditions that we must meet: (1) We must pray in the will of God and (2) we must be on what old-fashioned Christians often call "praying ground"; that is, we must be living lives pleasing to God.
It is futile to beg God to act contrary to His revealed purposes. To pray with confidence the petitioner must be certain that his request falls within the broad will of God for His people.
The second condition is also vitally important. God has not placed Himself under obligation to honor the requests of worldly, carnal or disobedient Christians. He hears and answers the prayers only of those who walk in His way. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight . . . . If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it will be done for you" (I John 3:21, 22; John 15:7).
Until now you have asked nothing in My name: ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24
Are There Other Conditions?
We Don’t know how to pray
Luke 11:1 "...Lord, teach us to pray...”
Some lack effectiveness in prayer simply because they don’t know what the scriptures teach about prayer. Jesus gave His disciples an outline for prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Take the time to study it. Other passages teach that prayer is primarily to be a private, intimate time with the Lord (Matt. 6:6), to be intermingled with praise and thanksgiving (Acts 16:25, Phil. 4:6). Times of fasting with prayer are beneficial to strengthen our faith and power in prayer (Acts 14:23, 1 Cor. 7:5). Jesus often went to secluded places to spend prolonged periods in prayer (Luke 6:12, Matt. 4:2).
It must be a prayer of Faith
Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
We cannot please God without faith. Prayer
is not merely “begging” from God. It is “believing” God and His Word! Faith will
come forth and grow as we devote our attention to the Word of God (Romans
10:17). Our faith can also be “built up,” by praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude
1:20).
“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:22)
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-8).
There are those who allow every “wind” of
feelings or circumstances to influence or discourage their faith. They vacillate
back and forth, like the waves tossed about in the sea. One day they believe,
but the next, they’re ready to give up, and so forth. Such persons usually base
their faith on their feelings or emotions instead of God’s Word. They who waver
in their faith cannot expect to receive “anything of the Lord.” Our faith must
become stable, steadfast, and consistent to receive from God.
We don't want to suggest that we “earn” answered prayers, any more than we can earn salvation which comes only by faith (Eph. 2:8-9). He answers our prayers from his “grace” and “mercy” (Heb. 4:16), not merely from our good deeds.
However, keeping His commandments and pleasing the Lord is a product of our obedience to His word, which is faith in action (James 2:20). What are His commandments? He commanded that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourself (Mark 12:30-31). Further, Jesus said we are to love our brethren as He has loved us.
There Is Unconfessed Sin /Unforgiveness, or Bitterness in One’s Life
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Lack of love, bitterness, unforgiveness is the root of many unanswered prayers, since faith works by love (Gal 5:6).
1 Peter 3:12 “For the eyes of the LORD are
on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the
LORD is against those who do evil.”
Mark 11:25 "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against
anyone, forgive him that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your
trespasses ...
Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
1 Peter 3:7 In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. If you don’t treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard.
Psalms 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear”
There is no doubt that sin will disrupt the flow of God’s blessings and answers to prayer. All acts of rebellion and disobedience to God is considered sin. Sins of “commission,” are those overt acts which are done in disobedience. However, sins of “omission,” are those things we don’t do in obedience, but know we should (James 4:17). The remedy for all sin is to confess it to God, forsake it, and ask Him to forgive you (1 John 1:9).
We Must Have Sincerity of Heart Before God
John 4:24, "God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
"Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom." Psalm 51:6
We Have Wrong Motives
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive,
because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Our motives in our prayer requests are of concern to the Lord. He wishes to help us in our time of need, but is not obligated to answer prayers which will merely feed our carnal, worldly appetites and (lustful) pleasures. Our motives and desires can be corrected by humbling ourselves, and drawing near to God (James 4:8-10).
We Are Not asking in God’s
will
1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence
that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we have asked of Him.”
We Don’t know how to pray
Luke 11:1 "...Lord, teach us to pray...”
Misunderstanding of Faith
So, when we pray we
must believe in the finished results of our prayer, and we will eventually
experience the tangible results sometime later.
Failure to apply spiritual
Authority
Mark 11:23 “For assuredly, I say to you,
whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not
doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will
have whatever he says.”
There are times that some prayers may not
get far until we incorporate the spoken authority of the name of Jesus. The
reason for this is that the problems we face may “sometimes” be a product of an
evil spiritual origin. As Paul writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places” (Eph 6:12). In such cases, our prayers may need to engage in what we
call “spiritual warfare” to obtain results.
The need for this type of prayer is most obvious whenever Christians deal directly with demonic activity. For this evil operation to cease, our prayers need to include the exercise of spiritual authority against the devil in the name of Jesus, commanding him to leave (Acts 16:18). Therefore, as Jesus indicated, there will be times that we may need to literally speak to mountains (symbolic of obstacles and problems) and tell them to move in Jesus’ name
Lack of Perseverance
Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary
while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Probably the greatest reason that some prayers go unanswered is because many give-up praying and believing before they receive their answer. As long as we have the promise of God’s Word, be patient and persistent - keep believing, and don’t quit, no matter how long it takes! God has a “due season” when He will bring the answer to pass. No one is defeated until he gives up!
The Importunate Widow's Prayer For Debt Relief
2 Kings 4:1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." 2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little olive oil." 3 Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." 5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."
The Importunate Widow's Plea For Justice
Luke 18:1 And He spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lunless by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?
The Importunate Friend's Petition For A Loan
Luke 11:5-13 Then Jesus said to
them,
We Must Ask in Wisdom
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without criticizing, and it will be given him. James 1:5
Call on Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not. Jeremiah 33:3
Call on Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me. Psalms 50:15
Suggested Prayer Today:
My Heavenly Father I come boldly to Your throne to find mercy and grace in time of need. I confess that I have not done what is pleasing in your sight and I humbly ask You to forgive me. I ask You now because of your faithfulness to Your Word that You would cleanse me from all unrighteousness and anything that is not pleasing to You. I ask You now to fill me with Your Holy Spirit with the power and discipline to say no to anything that would not please You.....
My Heavenly Father I am grateful for the eternal covenant that You made with me when I accepted You as my Lord and Savior. I ask You please do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Let me remember that you will never leave me or forsake me and I ask You to keep me as the apple of Your eye. Teach me Lord under the shadow of Your wings to follow Your will and Your way.....
My Heavenly Father I now want to make a right sacrifice before You and trust in You to hear my prayer of sincerity and truth before You. I make the Living Sacrifice as in Romans 12:1 to present to You my life. I make the sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to enter into your courts. I come before You because You command me to Call to You, and as I come I am reminded that I am crucified with Christ and that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. So when I ask from You, it is not I that is asking, it is Your Son Jesus that is asking and I will not ask anything that is not in your will... or anything to spend on my own pleasures....only those intercessions and petitions that would bring You glory and honor.....
List All My Intercessions for Others and My Personal Petitions.....
I ask all of these Intercessions and Petitions in Believing Faith and in the Name of Jesus............
Amen