Why Prayers Are Not Answered

WHY PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED

"I cry unto you, and you do not hear me: I stand up, and you didn't regard me" (Job 30:20)

I prayed and cried to "the God that answers prayer" but He does not answer; Maybe He didn't hear me. That's the question that goes on in the mind of many Christians, who prayed but couldn't get immediate result to their requests.

How can we reconcile this to the tenderness and mercifulness of God, whose very nature is goodness, and who is most free and ready to do good? Again, how can we reconcile this to those many promises of God in scripture concerning the hearing of prayer - " So, I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9). Has he not said, “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. (Psalm 50:15).

“Doesn't He see my needs?" ..."Doesn't He care about me?". "If God's ear is open to my prayer, and I pray diligently, why is there such little evidence of His answering?" Things go on as usual - nothing happens. "How long must I wait?"

How are these promises true, if we cry to God, and he does not hear us?

GOD ALWAYS KEEP TO HIS PROMISE.

The Lord makes His word of promise and acts according to his own nature, which is infinitely good, yet this does not always appear so to us; Our prayers are always heard and answered, but the answer and goodness of God to us in it, is not always reported and discovered to us. God certainly hears what we speak, but many times we do not know what He speaks, though He speak to us.

God always hear our prayers of faith and answers it, but we do not always hear what the answer is. "And 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 hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him" (1 John 5:14-15)

It is a holy scriptural confidence that God will hear us when we pray, and therefore every believer may be confident that he is heard.

God knows your needs before you even ask (Matthew 6:8). He cares unequivocally about you, "For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11). We have great assurance that He hears every prayer, “In my distress, I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From His temple, He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.” (Psalm 18:6).

GOD MAKES SOME DEFERS, BUT DON'T DENY OUR PRAYERS.

God makes some defers, though, properly, He makes no delays, much less given any flat denials to our prayers of faith.

There is a wide difference between the deferring of an answer, and the delaying of it, that is a delay of help when help comes not in due time and season, or when it comes too late. God never fail to give help in the most needful season, though He often defers to give it at our season.

Sometimes, God defers to hear the prayer of His servants, to exercise their graces, faith and patience; and to strengthen their prayer life. God does not stop answering prayer, to the intent that we should stop praying, but the end point is that we should renew our prayers.

Thus God always hears the cry of His people.

TEMPTATIONS THAT USUALLY ARISE WHEN PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED.

It is more troublesome to a gracious heart than all our afflictions, if we are not heard in the day of trouble. Many temptations will fall on our spirit, such as:

How can this be, when after so many cries and calls, He did not answer a word?

Is that true which is told us in His word for a truth , that "He is rich unto all that will call upon him?" (Romans 10:12)

He has said that "we shall not seek him in vain (Isaiah 45:19)", and yet I can get nothing from Him when I seek him.

In a stressful nature, we will quickly resolve not seek to nor call upon him anymore.

The devil will now deceive believers to doubt the faithfulness of God in answering prayer. Satan would have us believe that God has shut His ears to our cry and left us to work things out for ourselves. 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 out to you, but you do not answer 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.