Why my prayers don't get answered? For so many people this is the biggest hindrance to their
prayer life. They actually don't see a point in praying and they feel like prayer, pretty much is
pointless because it's not getting answered. All of my prayers they're pretty much going to the
ceiling. There is no results after my prayers. And I would like to share with you five reasons
why prayers don't get answered. But first of all there's a quote from Bill Hybels that I really
liked. He says, "If the request is wrong, God says, no. If the timing is wrong, God says, slow.
But if you are wrong, God says, grow. But if the request is right, the timing is right and you
are right, God says go." So sometimes that's the issue, is that sometimes this is not the
right time. Sometimes there's also you're not the right person yet, you need to grow to that answer.
And sometimes the issue is that it's just not the right thing that we are asking. The problem
with people who make prayer only as a means of getting answers, instead of getting a relationship
and getting to know God. Is that we will devalue prayer and we will reduce it to simply getting
what we want. Prayer is not just for that. Prayer is not just for a crying out to God.
It's also a conversation and it's also spiritual combat. And so don't reduce prayer to merely
giving God your chore list for God to do. And if He doesn't do it, then I'm out of there you know.
Have a relationship view of prayer. Have a view of prayer that's more relational, instead of a
transactional. Now the first reason why prayer does not get answered is unforgiveness. The Bible
says, "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive them, that your
Father in heaven may forgive your trespasses. But if you don't forgive, neither will your Father in
heaven forgive your trespasses." Gospel of Mark 11:25-26. We must understand that if we harbor
bitterness, if we harbor unforgiveness, if we harbor offense in our heart towards somebody,
we are going to hinder our prayer from being answered. You can be praying for the right thing,
you can be the right person, it could be the right time. But Jesus specifically said, "If you
are praying." He says, "I want you to forgive." Because unforgiveness brings a gap. It hinders, it
blocks the signal between you and God. The second reason why prayers don't get answered is unbelief.
"But let him ask in faith, without doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind. For let not the man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord."
James 1:6-7. So that tells us that if you are praying and you're constantly doubting.
Now sometimes we doubt, because honestly we're not sure if what we're praying about is God's will.
And if you're in that place then read the scriptures, find the scripture for what you're
praying for and trust in God's character. Sometimes we're unsure that God hears us,
so we doubt our own faith and that's the problem. If your faith is in God, not in your faith,
then your faith is secure because it's anchored in Him and God is secure. So don't put your faith
in yourself, in your own faith and therefore, through that you'll be able to overcome doubt.
So when you ask God, believe that He heard you and believe that He is a good Father who
will not give you anything bad, and that He will give you what you asked Him for. What you asked,
what you petitioned and at the right time. The third reason why prayers don't get answered is
because of the wrong motive. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend
on your pleasures." James 4:3. When we are asking and we know that there's no peace concerning what
we're asking about. Maybe we're asking something that will hurt somebody else. Or maybe we're
asking something that will boost and build our ego and our pride. And we're asking it out of
insecure heart, we're asking out of an orphan heart, out of a wounded heart. Trying to get even
or things that we're asking are very selfish. For example, like when prodigal son asked his father.
Even though he received the answer but it was a wrong prayer. You know give me what is mine.
You know, he asked at the wrong time. He asked his father, when his father was still alive.
You don't get inheritance when your parents are alive. You get inheritance when they're dead.
In other words he was saying, "Dad I wish you would die faster but since you're not dying,
I want to have your money." He didn't care about the father. He only cared about what he can get
from the father. And how do we know that that prayer was wrong was because of where it led to.
It led him separating and distancing himself from his father. But then he came back; he prayed a
different prayer. He said, "Make me your servant." He didn't even let him finish that prayer. He
killed the fattened calf and they celebrated and the father accepted him. He never made him a slave
but the son came back with a different kind of a prayer. Sometimes the quality of our prayer
reveals so much about the brokenness of our heart or the pride in our heart. Reason number four.
Unconfessed sin. "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened to save; nor his ear heavy, that
it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden his
face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah 59:1-2. Unconfessed sin. It's when you're coming
into prayer and instead of confessing your sin first. Something that weighs you down, something
that's on your mind, something that's in front of you, something that stands between you and God.
You're just jumping in and just saying your prayer, asking for the things that you need and
not dealing with your sin. Sometimes we don't want to confess our sin because we know that confession
must lead to repentance. So confession of sin is not just, "God I'm sorry." But then you go
do it again. You know confession is saying, "God I repent." So God is looking for you acknowledging
your sin and you choosing to forsake your sin. And sometimes certain sins we like too much, so
we don't want to forsake them, so we don't confess them, so we don't feel guilty for doing it again.
Now I am not in any way trying to add guilt to anybody here who is repenting and genuinely,
the sin has a stronghold over your life and it keeps bringing you back into its grip.
But there is willfulness, that a lot of times we add to our sinning, again and again. And
us coming to God without confessing our sin. I think one of the first things you should do, is
before you pray for things, that you pray for your relationship with God. That you ask God to examine
your heart and that you also ask God to bring to light anything that's not pleasing to Him.
And when He does that, be quick to repent, be quick to acknowledge your guilt, your sin
and be quick to ask for His blood to cleanse you. And ask God to give you strength to walk away,
forsake, remove that sin completely from your life. So that you can walk with the relationship
with the Lord that is not broken, that is not hindered. Unconfessed sin is the reason number
four why prayers are not answered. Reason number five is mistreating your spouse. Mhm,
you heard me right. Mistreating your spouse. Many people do not pay attention to this but
this is huge. The Bible says, "Husbands, likewise, dwell with them, your wife, with understanding,
giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together to the grace of life,
that your prayers may not be hindered." So Peter gives instruction to husbands, but it could apply
to wives as well. That how you treat your spouse, if you don't dwell with understanding, if you are
harsh, if you are mean, if you hurt their feelings all the time intentionally, if you speak very
bad words that destroy their sense of self identity. As a husband, if you're honestly a jerk,
or a wife, maybe you're manipulative. And then after that you're just going into prayer and
you're just hoping that me and Jesus are going to be fine. Well the Bible says that that's not going
to be true. In fact you may feel the presence okay, but God is not pleased with you. God is
not happy. God is not just looking at how much you love Him. God is also looking at, are you loving
people closest to you. Now they don't have to be perfect for you to love them. The Bible doesn't
say the second commandment is make sure the people closest to you love you. The second commandment
is, make sure that you love the people. You and I, we are responsible to love even our enemies.
We're called to honor our parents. We're called to, husbands to love your wives; wives to honor
your husbands. And it doesn't say, unless you know your wife is on her period; unless your husband
doesn't go to church as often as you do. And so the Bible clearly states that responsibility. God
holds us responsible for our attitude and for how we treat, how we speak toward our spouse.
I cannot tell you how many times I went to prayer and I knew exactly between me and God is a wall.
Anything I'm going to say, until I deal with this, God is not going to hear me. And I knew it. You
just felt that hindrance. You felt that you just can't pray. And so and when I repented to God and
I knew that that also involved, when I finish this prayer I have to go and repent to my wife.
Then, only then you know, this smoke, this cloud, this like wall between me and God,
this veil was totally removed through repentance. Especially in sinning against your spouse. So
if you're watching and you're looking at your life, there's constant, like your prayers never
get answered. Answered prayers are the source of Christians joy. Jesus says that when you ask,
the Father will give you. And He says, "So that your joy may be complete." So it is in
God's desire to answer your prayer. That's why God asks us to pray. He wants to answer our prayer.
He's not playing games with us. He's not adding more things to do for our religious disciplines
and responsibilities. He actually wants to hear us and wants to answer our prayer. Now prayer
is not only to give God our petitions. It's to be with God, but God also wants to answer our
prayer. And these five things, they hold us back from these answers being released into our life.
Unconfessed sin, how we treat our spouse, doubt and unbelief, as well as unforgiveness.
And as well as praying from the motives that are not pleasing to God. So I want to encourage
you to keep on praying. I want to encourage you don't stop praying, keep on confessing your sin,
keep on growing in holiness and in righteousness before God and God will answer your prayer. Thank
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