Cairo: Jesus in Egypt & God's Unusual Leaning
God seldom gives us all we need to understand, but He always gives us what we need in order to obey. The story of Jesus in Egypt as a boy offers a...
You’ve heard the old cliché, “Prayer changes things.” Yeah, okay, but what about the times when it just flat doesn’t? What’s wrong?
(Photo by Photodune)
Why doesn’t God answer your prayers? As I’ve searched the Scriptures, I have discovered at least 5 reasons.
In some cases, we are not waiting on God; He is waiting on us.
This may sound obvious or even cruel, but God has no obligation to answer the prayers of unbelievers (Psalm 34:15, 17; Proverbs 15:8, 29; John 9:31; 1 Peter 3:12). He may answer, but He has not obligated Himself to do so.
The only prayer an unbeliever may be assured God will answer—and answer immediately—is a prayer of faith and acceptance of His Son, who died on the cross and rose again, as the basis for the forgiveness of your sins.
As Christians, there are a couple of reasons God may choose to delay or deny answering our prayers. In these cases, He is waiting on us.
Some of the problems we have with prayer arise out of a wrong understanding of God. The better we know about God in the Scriptures, the better we will understand how to pray—and why God responds to prayer as He does.
God answers prayer according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). But just like us, the desires are not all equal. My desire to remain faithful to my wife until I die is not on the same level of my desire to take a nap on Sunday. It’s a matter of priorities.
God has a will too, but not all aspects of His will are of equal priority. For example:
All are His will, but this final priority comes after the first two. Our problems with prayer often come when we think the first thing on God’s mind is our happiness and not His glory.
(Photo by Robert Bishop, CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
So let’s say we are living for Christ in our attitude and actions and praying according to His will. What do we do when all systems are go, but the answer still hasn’t come?
You keep praying.
He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. —Luke 18:1
You don’t lose heart. Here’s why:
If God is able to answer (and He is), and if He has promised to answer the prayers of His children (and He has), then the delay in the answer—we must know—is not that God is apathetic or absent.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think . . . to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. —Ephesians 3:20–21
In the final analysis, it may be that God desires to give you more than the simple answer to your prayer, making the answer—once it is received—all the more sweet.
Our relationship with God is a beautiful one that can grow and change.
If you are looking to feel closer to God, consider embarking on a journey of God's Word.
Tell me what you think: What have you learned from unanswered prayer? To leave a comment, just click here.
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