PROSPER SPIRIT SOUL AND BODYWhy doesn't God seem to answer my prayers? Within a day or two that little rat was beating down on that little bar like crazy until it forgot all about eating, drinking. God in his wisdom knows that if prayer were just asking him for what we want and "puff", we immediately get it, most of us in our imperfection would become like that poor little rat, we will be banging away like crazy at heavens gate for more and more of what we want with little attention to who God is. Can you imagine what our world would look like if what we asked for was immediately granted! Talk about chaos! God's purpose in prayer/communication is for us to get to know who He is and His holiness rather than for Him to know what we want. The scripture tells us that He knows our needs before we even ask Him. That does not mean that He will not hear and answer, but His purpose in not to make us happy, but to make Himself known to us which is true joy and happiness. Jesus, when asked by his disciples how to pray offers, the model of prayer, we know it as the Lords prayer. (Luke 11:2-4), "When you pray, say: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." Now the prayer begins with the relationship, our father. 1) Do you know God as your father when you pray? 2) Are you looking at God, or are you looking at your problems in prayer? 3) Is he really your father?. 4-7) Further down Jesus leads us to pray. “Hollowed be your name" That word, "hallowed" means most special, always right, and separated (Holy) from anything else. Is he most special to you? I have tree beautiful daughters, and when they come to me and say, "Dad, you're really special and I love you," they will hug me and give me a kiss; they could ask me for the moon, and if it was mine to give I would give it. Establishing our fellowship/relationship first is the beginning of all prayer! I go back to our poor rat friend. Are you frantically beating on that bar in your cage for what you crave or are you like my little daughters who love their dad and tell him so? Are your really praying? Or are you just frantically giving orders to God? Believe me, it makes a difference! If we return to the prayer model Jesus gave us, we find that we have to be willing to put our father's will first in our life. Are we willing to keep our part of the covenant relationship and let him be our Lord and allow Him determine what we need and want? I hear it all the time from people, "Lord if you answer my prayer, I will do this and that for you. Well, you know what happens most of the time? When by God's grace and mercy their prayer is answered, they disappear until the next crisis! Sooner or later that type of "hit and run" prayer life will come to an end and they will cry, "Why doesn't God seem to answer my prayers?" My answer is because maybe you're not really praying like Jesus says to pray. "Give us each day"--prayer is a day by day thing. Its focus is on today. Our prayer needs are experienced in each today, and they will be met in a today. God cannot bring satisfaction to prayer in the past because it is gone forever, and he cannot answer a prayer for the future, because we are not there yet! And when we do get there it is today! Another problem with future prayers is that we will not see the answers to our prayers, because they happen in the today. Many will cry, "Pastor, why doesn't God seem to answer my prayers?" If you sit down and go over all their prayers, we find God is listening and answering, but you have been praying in the wrong places; that is, the past and the future, why, because God answers in the today. Jesus says in, Matthew 6:34 NIV, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Right after Jesus told his disciples how to pray, he compared true prayer to a traveller who comes to a friend's house to stay in the middle of the night. The friend says, "No, the family is in bed and the place is locked." Jesus says the friend will finally answer the door and let him in, not because he is a friend to the traveller, but because the traveller keeps knocking! Keep praying every day for that day, and thank Him for tomorrow! Resting on yesterday’s prayer is not prayer. Pray continuously. Pray today! Some Testimonies My mother prayed for my salvation and deliverance from alcoholism for 10 years. When I realized I was in bondage to alcohol, I prayed each day I went home, "Please God, let me pass the liquor store and go home!" I prayed each day for two years. Guess what, brothers and sisters, He heard my cry. In faith, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, he led me to where I could get help, and today, glory to God, I have been sober eight and a half years. But, I had to pray each today for two years! ************ There was a couple with two young girls in the house. As I looked at the man of the house, the Lord said to me just as clear as day, "This man and woman are not married, and they are living in sin!" When I told them this, the man's eyes got as big as plums, and the woman looked down to the floor. The woman confessed her sin while the man just backed up to the wall with his eyes wide open. The words the Lord gave me for them was, that they were being robbed of God’s blessings because by their sin they were open door for the enemy satan. ************ 4) Unconfessed sin, ask God to reveal it to you then repent of it first. We return now to the Lord's prayer, "...Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And don't allow us to be led into temptation but deliver us from [evil] the evil one." (1 John 1:6-9 NIV), "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." It is only through our salvation in Jesus Christ that we become righteous before our special Father, God, and our prayers are heard. Not only are our prayers heard, but also God, our special father, will send his Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to pray through us. (Romans 8:26-27 NIV) "... 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." The young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher. Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?" The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply -- something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked. The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair. "Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you." With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him." This time the young man heard and he understood. 5) Disobediece? If we are living in disobedience, our prayers will not be answered. They are heard but there is silence, you see God will not reward disobediece E.g King Saul, he sought an answer to his prayer of whether he should fight the Phillistines, God remained silent and Saul was defeated and died by falling on his sword. (1Samuel 28:6) 6) Secret sin? Similar to disobedience is secret sin. This is something we find hard to give up. Psalms 66:18 If I regard inquity in my heart, the Lord will not here me 7) The neglect of mercy. My attitude to others in need will determine how God deals with me in my needs. Proverbs 21:13 Whosoever stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. Sometimes, because the answer is No, and we cannot imagine any other answer besides yes, then God must not be listening God is answering, are you listening? BACK TO TOP.
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