Why our prayers go unanswered?

At times we don’t see answers to our prayers. We even feel sometimes lets not pray. At the end we try to conclude that our faith is so small and God is ignoring our prayers.

Below are the seven reasons as a reminder to check why our prayers are unanswered.

1. When we cherish sin in our hearts

Psl 66:18 “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened”.

Jer 4:14 “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer” - JC Ryle

We battle with sin every day in our words, thoughts, and in deeds. Can there be a day in our lives without sin? As rightly said by Bishop JC Ryle sin chokes prayer. Sin and prayer are like oil and water and they cannot go together.  

Let us determine not only to confess our sins to God but also to renounce them to find God’s mercy (Prov 28:13).

2. When we turn a deaf ear to Gods word

Prov 28:9 “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination”.

When was the last time we implicitly obeyed the word of God in our lives? Today, we have lot of opportunities to hear Gods word through various ways. What is our response to Gods word? We read most of the time for sake of others, showing how much knowledge of the bible we can display. God demands obedience on our part, not mere knowledge. James 1:22 exhorts us to be doers of God’s word rather than mere hearers of His word.

3.When we pray with wrong Motives

Jas 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions”.

Our Motives could be sinful or self-centered. I know it’s quite difficult to analyze our motives every time we pray. Let us be conscious in the presence of the Lord not very careless with our words when praying. We often pray lengthy prayers for God to listen to us and our prayers seems to be unanswered. Let us pause for a while and give careful consideration towards our motives. May God heal our sinful and self-centered motives. 

4. When we are self-righteous and not humble before God.

Lk 18:9-14 “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰ “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ ¹³ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The parable explains it all. Humility is prerequisite in our prayer life. Sometimes we are too proud to be humble and boast about ourselves like the Pharisee in this parable. God hates self-righteous attitude in our lives. Rather let us be clothed with Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s humility in our lives.

Let us learn to pray with humble hearts and set aside all our self-righteous attitude.

5. When we pray without Faith

Mk 11:22-24 “And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. ²³ Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”.

One thing God admires in us when we pray, is our level of faith and not our fluency. Max Lucado says ‘It is not the quantity of words rather the quality of words’ that matters most in prayer.

God’s word reminds us “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6).

Faith has become a rare commodity today. In Luke 18:8b the Lord tells when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?

(You can read my earlier blog article on prayer – ‘Try these ‘add ons’ to your prayer life’) posted on 16^th Feb 2010.

6. When we have unforgiving spirit towards others

Mk 11:25-26 “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses”.

We can offer lengthy prayers. We could be sound in our theology of prayer. But if we don’t have forgiving spirit towards others, it is not easy to get answers for our prayers. 

As we received forgiveness from God let us demonstrate our gratitude towards Him by forgiving others (Eph 4:32b).

7. When we rely on our own strength and not on God

2 chron 20:12b, 15b, 18a

Observe the following words of King Jehoshaphat:

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 chron 20:12b)

King Jehoshaphat sets an awesome example to all of Gods people by completely depending on God and to trust firmly that the battle belongs to God (v.15b).

In v 18 – “Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord”.

Is our life going without prayers? I would encourage you to make prayer your daily spiritual exercise. It is not just praying only during the time of crisis. Everyday let us come before God and have an appointment with Him. God loves to hear our prayers. What really hinders us to go to God in prayer? Is it our unanswered prayers? If then consider these reasons. 

Thank you. God Bless!