unanswered prayer

Reasons For Unanswered Prayer

Unanswered Prayer

Unanswered Prayer

There are many reasons for unanswered prayer. This article will explore many of those reasons that God gives in His word.

1. Sin Hinders Prayer. Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone

One of the first reasons that prayer goes unanswered is found in Is 59:1-2:

Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV) ¹Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.
²But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Do you pray and pray, but get absolutely no answer to your prayer?

Perhaps you are tempted to think that it is not the will of God to answer, or you may think that the days when God answered prayer, if He ever did, are over.

"Not so," said Isaiah, "God's ear is just as open to hear as ever, His hand just as mighty to save; but there is a hindrance.

That hindrance is your own sins.

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you and He will not hear."

Today many a man is crying to God in vain, simply because of sin in his life. It may be some sin in the past that has been unconfessed and unjudged, it may be some sin in the present that is cherished, very likely is not even looked upon as sin, but there the sin is, hidden away somewhere in the hidden chamber of the heart or in the life, and God "will not hear."

If you find your prayers ineffective, you should not conclude that the thing, which you ask of God, is not according to His will.

Rather, you should go alone with God with the Psalmist's prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me" (Ps 139:23-24), and wait before Him until He releases you or until He puts His finger upon the thing that is displeasing in His sight. Then this sin should be confessed and put away.

If the Lord convicts you of a thing, put it away. It is only then that you will have peace.

2. HAVING IDOLS IN THE HEART Idols of the Heart: Learning to Long for God Alone

A second reason for unanswered prayer is found in Ez 14:3,

Ezekiel 14:3 (NIV) "Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all?

HAVING IDOLS IN THE HEART CAUSE GOD TO REFUSE TO LISTEN TO OUR PRAYERS.

What is an idol? An idol is anything that takes the place of God, anything that is the supreme object of our affection. God alone has the right to the supreme place in our hearts. Everything and everyone else must be subordinate to Him.

Many a man makes an idol of his wife. A man cannot love his wife too much; but he can put her in the wrong place, he can put her before God. When a man regards his wife's pleasure before God's pleasure, when he gives her the first place and God the second place, his wife is an idol. He will have unanswered prayer because God will not hear his prayers.

Many a woman makes an idol of her children. Not that we can love our children too much. The more dearly we love Christ, the more dearly we love our children; but we can put our children in the wrong place, we can put them before God, and their interests before God's interests. When we do this, our children are our idols.

Many a man makes an idol of his reputation or his business. Reputation or business is put before God. God cannot hear the prayers of such a man.

One great question for us to decide, if we are to have power in prayer is this:

Is God absolutely first?

Is He before wife, before children, before reputation, before business, before our own lives? If not, answered prayer is impossible.

God often calls our attention to the fact that we have an idol, by not answering our prayers, and thus leading us to inquire as to why our prayers are not answered, and so we discover the idol, put it away, and God hears our prayers.

3. Stinginess Faithful With Much: Breaking Down the Barriers to Generous Giving

A third reason for unanswered prayer is found in Prov 21:13,

Proverbs 21:13 (NIV) ¹³If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

There is perhaps no greater hindrance that causes unanswered prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality toward the poor and toward God's work.

The one who gives generously to others receives generously from God. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6:38)

The generous man is the mighty man of prayer. The stingy man is the powerless man with unanswered prayer.

One of the most wonderful statements about prevailing prayer is:

1 John 3:22, "Whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight," is made in direct connection with generosity toward the needy.

In the context we are told that it is when we love, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth, when we open our hearts toward the brother in need, it is then and only then we have confidence toward God in prayer.

Many a man or woman who is seeking to find the secret of their powerlessness in prayer need not seek far; it may be nothing more nor less than downright stinginess.

4. Unforgiving Spirit Forgiving As We've Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Making Peace

A fourth reason for unanswered prayer is found in Mark 11:25,

Mark 11:25 (NIV) ²⁵And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

An unforgiving spirit is one of the commonest hindrances to prayer.

Prayer is answered on the basis that our sins are forgiven. God will not deal with us based on forgiveness while we are harboring ill-will against those who have wronged us.

Any one who is nursing a grudge against another has fast closed the ear of God against his own petition.

There are so many people crying to God for the conversion of husband, children, friends, and wondering why it is they have unanswered prayer. The whole secret to why may be some grudge they have in their hearts against some one who has injured them, or whom they fancy has injured them.

Many a mother and father are allowing their children to go down to eternity unsaved, just because of the miserable gratification they receive from hating somebody.

5. WRONG RELATION BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE Loving Your Wife as Christ Loves the Church

A fifth Reason for unanswered prayer is found in 1 Peter 3:7.

1 Peter 3:7 (NIV) ⁷Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Here we are plainly told that A WRONG RELATION BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IS A HINDRANCE TO PRAYER.

In many a cases the prayers of husbands are hindered because of their failure of duty toward their wives.

On the other hand, it is also doubtless true that the prayers of wives are hindered because of their failure in duty toward their husbands.

If husbands and wives would seek diligently to find the cause of their unanswered prayers, they would often find it in their relations to one another.

There are often things in the relations of husbands and wives that cannot be spoken of publicly, but without a doubt can cause a hindrance in approaching God in prayer.

Any man or woman whose prayers seem to bring no answer should spread their whole married life out before God, and ask Him to put His finger upon anything in it that is displeasing in His sight.

6. Prayers are hindered by unbelief Lord, Help My Unbelief: Experiencing God Through Faith

The six to reason for unanswered prayer is found in James 1:5-7,

James 1:5-7 (NIV) ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
⁶But 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.
⁷That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;

Prayers are hindered by unbelief.

God demands that we believe His Word absolutely. To question it is to make Him a liar.

How many prayers are hindered by our wretched unbelief!

We go to God and ask Him for something that is positively promised in His Word, and then we doubt and do not expect to get it. That is double mindedness and "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

Double mindedness is having two opposing thoughts or beliefs, for example, we say we believe “My God will provide all my needs” and at the same time, we may lose our job and worry about how we will get along.

See the double mindedness? We can’t worry about how we will get along and at the same time say we believe “My God will provide for all my needs”.

7. A selfish purpose Selfishness: From Loving Yourself to Loving Your Neighbor

A seventh reason for unanswered prayer we will find in James 4:3.

James 4:3 (NIV) ³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

A selfish purpose in prayer robs prayer of power.

Very many prayers are selfish.

Selfish prayers may be prayers for things for which it is perfectly proper to ask. Selfish prayers may be for things that it is the will of God to give, but the motive of the prayer is entirely wrong, it is for selfish reasons and so it is a powerless unanswered prayer.

The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer.

If we ask any petition merely that we may receive something to use in our pleasures or in our own gratification in one-way or another, we "ask amiss" and need not expect to receive what we ask.

This explains why many prayers remain unanswered.

Many very good things are prayed for but the person praying has a selfish motive, a motive that they will, in some way, benefit by God answering the prayer.

For example, many prayers for the Holy Spirit, by many different people, are purely selfish prayers.

It certainly is God's will to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him--He has told us so plainly in His Word (Luke 11:13), but many a prayer for the Holy Spirit is hindered by the selfishness of the motive that lies back of the prayer.

Many men and women pray for the Holy Spirit in order that they may be happy, or in order that they may be saved from the wretchedness of defeat in their lives, or in order that they may have power as Christian workers, or for some other purely selfish motive.

Why should we pray for the Spirit? In order that God may no longer be dishonored by the low level of our Christian lives and by our ineffectiveness in service, in order that God may be glorified in the new beauty that comes into our lives and the new power that comes into our service.

There are as many reasons as there are people for asking Amiss, or for wrong reasons or with wrong motives. We are a very selfish, self-centered people.

8. other reasons for unanswered prayer Breakthrough for Unanswered Prayer

There are many other reasons for unanswered prayer and I will simply list some here with their scripture.