UNANSWERED PRAYERS

 

“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.” (I John 5:14-15)

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mark 11:24)

“You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss.” (James 4:3)

 

All of us have had experiences when our prayers seemed to go unanswered. Sometimes days, weeks, or even years will go by and we still find ourselves wondering, when is God going to answer? God hasn’t forgotten about you or abandoned you. The Bible tells us “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deut 31:8). God answers every prayer with a “yes,” a “no,” or a “wait.” In every case, though, Scripture suggests that our prayers are being dealt with. Our attitude should be one of implicit confidence.

Faith is believing in the reality of things, even though we cannot see them (Heb. 11:1). Jesus said that “when” you pray, you must believe that you “receive” your answer at that moment. The word, “receive” comes from the Greek word, lambano, which means “to receive now” (present tense). He then says we will “have” them. "Have" comes from, esomai, which means “to possess later” (future tense). When we pray we must believe in the finished results of our prayer, and we will eventually experience the tangible results sometime later.

One of the main reasons why your prayers are not answered is because you have not been truly persistent in prayer. You must start here. Jesus spoke a parable to show the need for persistence in prayer. To be effective, you must pray with great sincerity. Great sincerity leads to persistence. Persistency in prayer means to have a great need that matters so much on your heart that you carry it with you all day and sleep with it on your heart by night, and in season and out of season you take it to the Lord in sincere prayer. Persistence in prayer works not only to prove to God your deep sincerity, but to create this sincerity in your heart and, to demonstrate it to yourselves. Persistency in prayer that brings an answer from God for your definite need is prayer that reaches out to God from every area of your life and from every hour of your being. Don’t complain about unanswered prayers unless your praying has been sincere and persistent.

Even when you have been deeply sincere and very persistent, the answer has not come as you sought it! What then? Perhaps your prayers remain unanswered because they did not rise to the throne of God from a heart of godliness and truth. Sin cripples the power of prayer. The Psalmist David wanted the honor of building the temple in Jerusalem, but the sin in his life kept him from realizing this ambition. The Book of James 5:16 tells us: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” A modern translation of this verse reads as follows: “A good man can accomplish much through prayer when he tries.” Ah, there’s the secret key that opens the door so your prayers can be answered, “a good man.”

Between power with God in prayer and the goodness of the person who prays exists a vital connection. It means something both on earth and in heaven when the person who prays is a good person. Righteous living, clean speech, and pure thinking have their positive values in bringing an answer to prayer, and their absence in a person’s life explains much of the unanswered prayers that trouble them. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” said Jesus, “for they shall see God!” God sees them, and God hears them, and God answers them. You cannot complain about unanswered prayer if you have held sinful hopes and selfish ambitions within your heart.

No one is sinless. Every day, in one way or another we break the commandments of God. We violate His purposes of human life, in thought, in word, and in deed. If you had to be absolutely holy before you could expect anything from prayer, you would never be in a position to expect anything. Perhaps, the reason that your prayers remain unanswered is because you do not have a heart of forgiveness when you pray?

The only commentary that Jesus made on prayer He taught His disciples in Matthew 6:14-15 was: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” If, holding bitterness, revenge, and feeling of resentment in your heart against other people prevents the forgiveness of your sin by God? It also prevents those other positive, healing aspects of prayer that can come only to the person who has been forgiven. Forgiveness of others does not depend on their repentance or their changed life; it depends on your relationship to God; and upon your determination to be granted forgiveness by God for your sin. You cannot complain about unanswered prayer if you hate someone if you are bitter against someone, or if you harbor resentment in your heart against someone.

It may be that you are not guilty of this. By the grace of God, your heart may be washed clean of all ill feelings against all individuals. Yet the things for which you pray do not come. Your prayers may also remain unanswered because they are not in accord with the will of God. Many believers try to pray for things agreeable to the will of God. If this is not so, then the matter ends immediately. No one can dare set up their own will in defiance of the divine will of God.

The first premise when you pray should be that you are seeking to enter into the will of God both by your life and by your desire which you bring to the throne of God in prayer. You must know that life is understandable only when lived in compliance with the will of God. You will not find happiness in any other way. But even so, the best of men may not understand wholly the will of God. For the best of men, some prayers remain unanswered, because the desired answer would run contrary to the Divine purpose. You are to trust and keep on trusting, knowing that when the will of God is done, it is best not only for you but for those around you.

There is another aspect of the truth that may be overlooked; it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. You may consider that your prayers are not being answered when in reality they are being answered. No person can truly say: “I keep on praying, and nothing happens.” Something always happens. I believe that while God may not always answer the prayer, God always answers the person praying. When you pray, as we have indicated, and with complete reliance upon Him, something always happens. How does God answer prayer? Sometimes by giving us the things we asked for. Sometimes by refusing us the things we seek. But the refusal is as much an answer, as truly a loving answer, as the refusal of the mother to give her child everything it asks for. Sometimes by having you wait, and maybe you are waiting now, until either the thing you seek is ready for you, or until you are ready for it. In either case, the answer is an answer of love. Whenever you pray, and keep on praying, you are brought into fellowship with God, and into the divine will of God.  

There are many reasons why prayers can go unanswered. We need to always check ourselves and evaluate our moral, physical, and spiritual lifestyle whenever we notice that things aren’t going the way they should. When we pray, we must consider the intentions of our hearts and make sure they align with the will of God. We must practice faith and patience.

How many have prayed for something, only to see their prayers go unanswered? How many have prayed and perhaps have “given up” because either they have become discouraged through a weakness of faith or have come to the conclusion that whatever they have been praying for isn’t God’s will? God may seem silent to us, but He never sends us away empty-handed. Even if prayer has not been answered, we must rely upon God to do so in His own time.