WHY GOD DOES NOT ANSWER PRAYER.
ILLUSTRATION
There were two widow women, each with only a single son. The two young men both got involved in drugs and they both ended up in prison. The women were devout Christians and both had been in constant prayer for many years. When their two boys were sent to prison the one woman continued her dedication to prayer but the other woman turned to morning and she eventually died.
Now both women were good Christians, but only one truly understood the role of prayer. The one woman was totally focused on seeing her son delivered from the curse of drugs and she would only believe God was hearing her prayers if she saw physical evidence. The other woman prayed for her son’s deliverance but more important she prayed for God’s will to be done in her life and thus her spirit was comforted.
The one woman had peace because she understood prayer and focused on the act of praying: not on what she wanted. She fully understood that God cannot make an individual change! After all, God cannot go against His own word; and He did give man the freedom to do as he wishes. Because of her spiritual maturity, the woman realized that her time of grief was also her time for drawing closer to God through prayer. The other woman, on the other hand, expected things to change in people and in the physical world just because she prayed for change. This woman could not see spiritual reality and thus she sank deeper into despair, until she finally died.
THE PROMISE
When we go to scripture and just look at a single verse, or we just look at a single situation, we can build an inaccurate or incomplete perspective on bible teaching. The prosperity gospel preacher do exactly that; especially when they tell a person that you can get whatever you ask for because God has promised to give you anything you request. Some of their favorite verses to back up their sales pitch are:
1. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24)
2. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)
3. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)
Verses such as these make it sound as if God is obligated to give us anything we pray for. The prosperity snake-oil salesmen make it sound as if God is like Wal-Mart. A one-stop-shop for everything you could possibly need and want. Well, I will admit that God has everything we could ever need or want, but the complete bible story does not make God out to be a Wal-Mart for prayer.
THE CONDITIONS
God’s promised to provide our needs and answer our prayers is kind of a form of covenant with mankind. As a form of covenant, there are two sides to the agreement: God will do His part only if we do our part. The prosperity preachers will shout and dance over what God has promised He will do, but they only gently whisper, if they say anything at all, about the conditions we must fulfill.
It is good to shout that God loves us as His children and He want to give us good gifts. But, let us also shout that God expects us to be worthy of His attention. If we look at the 7th chapter of Matthew, verses 7-11, the author makes it very clear that God wants to give us good gifts. We should, however, go on and read verses 12–14, which are preceded with the word “so.” Here the word “so” is a conditional conjunction between the “Ask and it Will be Given” clause and the “Golden Rule” clause. In other words, because God has promised to hear our prayers we are obligated to apply the Golden Rule. God does have all that we will ever need or want; and thus, He will bless those who walk with Him.
In fact, if we will continue to search out an understanding of God’s promise to answer our prayers we will find many conditions that must be met for us to be worthy of receiving what we ask for. For example, we must:
1. Believe – Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:24)
2. Have Faith – And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21:18-22)
3. Remain in the Word –If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)
4. Bear Fruit –You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)
5. Don’t Doubt –If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6)
6. Obey Jesus’ Teaching – and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:22)
7. Remain in the Will of God –And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
8. First Seek the Righteousness of God – For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:25-33)
9. Have the Right Motives – Most of us are so in love with this world that we confuse worldly living with the will of God. The fact is, however, God has other plans for us and we need to have our heart set on fulfilling God’s plan. When we ask and we do not receive it is often because we ask with the wrong motives; we want God to do things for us that will make our life more pleasant rather than asking for things that will help us better serve Him. (James 4:3)
There is certainly no way anyone can deny the fact that God wants to answer our prayers. At the same time, there is absolutely no way anyone can expect to have their prayers answered if they are lacking in the conditions listed above. Perhaps God is kind of like a Wal-Mart. If you go to Wal-Mart with sufficient money, you can generally get what you want … if you go to God as an obedient child He will generally answer your prayers.
REALITY CHECK
In reality, God answers our prayers in accordance with our deserving His attention. The warm and fuzzy preachers are lying to you when they claim that God owes you blessings: just because you have been born. God owes you nothing, you do not even belong to yourself … if you are born again you are a slave of Jesus Christ, having been purchased with His blood. Get real, God does not owe us anything! God rewards His children for their obedience and service.
Know that God will deal with us; He will listen to us; and He will reward us. He will do all of this in accordance to what we are and what we have done. God is very concerned about our:
1. Righteousness – “The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. (2 Samuel 22:21-22)
2. Integrity – The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. (Psalm 7:8)
3. Lack of Guilt – The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. (Psalm 18:20)
4. Works –He will render to each one according to his works: (Romans 2:6)
5. Deeds – And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, (1 Peter 1:17)
It is reality that a small child will disobey one moment and the very next moment they will beg for a cookie. Now, the foolish parent will give the rebellious child a cookie and the child will grow up without any understanding of responsibility. God, on the other hand, is not a foolish parent. The reality of our relationship with God is that we will get what God knows we have coming to us. Whining and begging changes nothing. No one else can intervene; not our parents, our friends, our church nor our own personal self-esteem can influence God’s willingness to answer our prayers. Our station in life is irrelevant: every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:8) Therefore, watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may be worthy of a full reward. (2 John 1:8)
CONCLUSION – HOW TO REACT TO UNANSWERED PRAYER
If God does not answer our prayers then it should be a warning to us. After all, we have just seen that God loves us and He wants to answer our prayers. The only reason God would not answer our prayers is because we are either in a state of open rebellion or we are ignorantly disobedience. In either case, this is not a good place to be. Not only are we depriving ourselves of earthly blessing but we are also in danger of not really being saved. Remember, there are those who will hear Jesus say: “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23) These people all thought that they were saved. Thus, if we do not believe that God is answering our prayers it should be a warning that we need to do some serious self-examination.
When we feel that God is not listening to us we need to remember that God does not change. God is love! God loves us and He wants to care for us … this fact never changes. God will always love us but His ability to care for us depends on how close we are walking with Him. If we do not feel the blessings of the Lord we need to realize that it is us who have changed and not God. Of course, God could be refining us through trials and tribulations. Odds are, however, we have been wandering away from God. In any advent, we all need to ask ourselves:
1. Am I righteous? – True we are not righteous, at least not by our own lifestyle? (Romans 3:10) We are righteous by the blood of Jesus and a repentant heart, which constantly seeks God’s forgiveness. If we allow sin to become a part of our life than we are in rebellion to God and are not righteous. If our heart is driven to sorrow over our sin, and we constantly seek God’s forgiveness, He is faithful to forgive us. It is through our true repentance and God’s power of forgiveness that we walk in the light.
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:6-9)
2. Am I a faithful servant? – To be a faithful servant we must know the word of God and we must obey the word of God. If we seldom go to church and we seldom study the Holy Bible at home then there is no way we can be much of a servant.
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Matthew 25:21)
3. Am I humble? – There are two attributes that sets the Christian apart from other people: love and humility. God loved and blessed Moses because Moses was very humble; Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth and he walked closer to God than anyone else. (Numbers 12) If you want to walk with God then your mind, heart and soul must be filled to overflowing with love and humility.
4. Do I rely on the Holy Spirit? Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to earth to be our guide and teacher and comforter. It is a very foolish person who does not communicate with and rely on the Holy Spirit. If we want to walk with God we must first learn to walk with the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)
5. Is ‘no’ the answer? We cannot ignore the possibility that what we are asking for is not what is best for us. If we are walking close to God then the Holy Spirit will always be guiding us to a closer walk. Our plans and desires may not be aligned with what God has in store for us in the future. God may have to say no so that He can take us where He has planned.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." (Romans 8:26-27)
We all need to remember that God’s ability to answer our prayers is controlled by our relationship with God. The closer we walk in obedience and service to God the more we can expect God to answer our prayers.
