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!

Finishing the Race!

Text: Heb 12:1-3

            NASB                                     ESV                                        NIV

NAU  Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

ESV  Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

NIV   Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

CTX:  

In Hebrews 10:36, the author exhorted his readers, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised” [lit., “the promise”]. Then he devotes chapter 11 to many examples of Old Testament saints who endured by faith, although they did not receive the promise (Christ), which we have received. In our text, the author returns to the theme of endurance, saying, we have both this great cloud of witnesses from the Old Testament and Jesus Himself, who is the supreme example of one who endured horrible suffering by faith. He endured the cross and now is at the Father’s right hand.

The writer of Hebrews combined these two themes of athletics and citizenship in this important 12th chapter. The atmosphere is that of the footraces in the arena. We can see the runners laying aside their training weights and striving to run their races successfully. Some get weary and faint, while others endure to the end and win the prize. First the writer pictures the race (Heb. 12:1–13), and then emphasizes citizenship in the heavenly city (Heb. 12:14–29). In the minds of his readers, these two themes would go together; for no one could take part in the official games unless he was a citizen of the nation.

The one theme that runs through this chapter is endurance (Heb. 12:1 [“patience”], 2–3, 7; also see 10:32, 36 [“patience”]). The Jewish believers who received this letter were getting weary and wanted to give up; but the writer encouraged them to keep moving forward in their Christian lives, like runners on a track (see Phil. 3:12–14).

How to run this race that is set before us?

1. LET US RUN THIS RACE AS WE HAVE MANY EXAMPLES LIVED BEFORE US

The opening phrase of 12:1 refers back to chapter 11. All of the Old Testament saints, who endured all sorts of trials by faith, should encourage us to keep running when we feel like quitting. The word cloud was a classical Greek metaphor for a large multitude.

Jesus Himself Is The Main Motivation To Keep Running.

We are not alone in this race. We can be encouraged when we go through suffering and persecution.

  

2. LET US RUN WITH LESS WEIGHT SO THAT WE CAN FINISH

We Must Lay Aside Every Encumbrance.

The word means weight. It can refer to physical weight (obesity), or to unnecessary baggage. Ancient Greek runners would actually run naked so as not to be encumbered. Olympic athletes in our day wear some pretty skimpy outfits. They don’t want anything to slow them down or drain their energy.

Weight refers to sin. This doesn’t refer only to certain besetting sins, but to all sins. Sin always begins in the mind, and so we must judge all sin at the thought level. Pride, lust, envy, greed, anger, grumbling, selfishness—all of these things originate in our thought life. If you cut it off there, it goes no farther. If you entertain these things, they incubate and develop into sinful words and actions (James 1:14-15).

But the author’s point is, you can’t run the Christian race if you keep tripping over your sin.

3. LET US RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE COURSE SET BEFORE US

Note two things:

A. God sets the course.

If you’re running a marathon, you can’t make up your own course. If we stray from the course, we’ll be disqualified. The race is “set before us,” just as Jesus had “the joy set before Him.” God is the Sovereign One who sets the course for each of us, just as He set the course of the cross for Jesus.

To finish the Christian marathon, it’s important to keep in mind at all times that the Sovereign God sets the course. We may not like parts of the course. We may be prone to grumble, “Why did the course have to go over this hill, or through this swamp?” The answer is, “Because the Sovereign God planned it this way.” We won’t be able to run by faith unless we submit our will to His will.

B. We Must Run With Endurance.

Running with endurance requires adopting a certain mindset.

This is what Jesus meant when He talked about counting the cost of following Him (Luke 14:28-33). Before we make a glib commitment to be a Christian, think it through. Are we willing to put out the effort, the sweat, the endurance, and the pain of going the distance? If not, don’t start the race, because we’re going to look pretty silly when we drop out after 400 meters.

Obviously, one key to running the whole distance is motivation. But where do we get the motivation to run the Christian marathon? Our author suggests two sources, both valuable, but the second is incomparably greater than the first.

CH Spurgeon who said it is Perseverance that took the snail to enter Noah’s ark.

4. LET US RUN JOYFULLY THOUGH IT IS NOT AN EASY RACE

(Illus): American Pastor steven Cole shares his experience with one Christian lady struggling with sin.

 Many years ago, a young woman who was a drug addict found my name in the phone book and began calling me frequently. She was married with two small children, but she was hooked on drugs. She had no concept that normal people sleep at night, and so she would call at 2 a.m. from some phone booth where she was stoned out of her mind.

She professed to believe in Christ, and said that she wanted to follow Him, but she had no idea of what that meant. On one occasion when she was relatively sober, I described in detail what a daily walk with Christ looks like. I explained what a daily time in the Word and prayer was like, what obedience to the Bible means, how to think like a Christian, etc.

When I was done, I asked, “Have you ever done anything close to what I’ve just described?” She said, “Yeah, I did that once for two weeks, but it didn’t work.” She thought that she had given it a fair try in two weeks! I explained to her that the Christian faith isn’t a two-week sprint. It’s a lifelong marathon.

The Christian life is a lifelong, grueling race that entails some long hills to climb and some swampy marshes to plod through. To make it to the end, you need self-discipline to get into good shape, you will need to maintain your motivation, and you will need sustained effort. No one enters a marathon with the thought of dropping out after a mile. Finishing well is everything. In this race, you are not competing with other believers. We’re all on the same team. We’re competing against the enemy of our souls, who opposes God’s kingdom and wants us to drop out.

5. LET US RUN WITHOUT GETTING DISCOURAGED

 Fixing our eyes on Jesus is the key to not grow weary and lose heart.

The literal rendering is, “that you not fail through weariness, fainting in your souls.” Spiritual failure happens gradually from continuous weakening (B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 398). Just as a runner who is not in excellent condition gradually slows down and finally collapses, so the believer who does not keep looking with faith to Jesus will eventually collapse. We call it “burn out” today, and it seems that there are many who are weary in their souls in the Christian marathon. The remedy is to fix our eyes on Jesus.

(Illus): The King said in the empire whoever wins the race will marry the princess. Many contested. One handsome person said he will win the race and marry her. Many have quit the race in the middle. Many were distracted by the audience and the golden apples were thrown to distract the runners so that they could miss the focus. They lost the race. Sadly the handsome man too was distracted by the golden apples.

CONCLUSION

Ish 40:28-30

You can’t run the race if you’ve never entered it. If you’ve never put your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you aren’t even in the race. If you don’t enter the race and run with endurance, you won’t get the prize.

Questions to ponder:

1.      How do we find the balance between our effort to run the race and God’s power working through us (see Phil. 2:12-13).

2.      What are some spiritual encumbrances in our lives that are not necessarily sin, but they keep us from running well?

3.      Is there any golden apples that distract us from this race?