Reasons Why God Doesn’t Answer Prayer (James 4:3)

A mistake Bible students sometimes make is to read a passage superficially or fail to consider other relevant passages and make inappropriate applications.

Take 1 John 5:14, for example… “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us”

A superficial reading might lead one to believe that we can pray for “anything” and fail to consider that the “anything” is modified by “according to his will”

That’s why you see people praying for things like winning the lottery or that a boy or girl might “like” them or for one’s favorite sports team to win or for someone we don’t like to suffer misfortune.

This type of prayer reflects poor Bible study.

Consider James 4:3 “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures”

It is not “according to God’s will” that we pray for things that are self-serving. It is “according to his will” to pray for the necessities and not the extravagances of life.

It’s important that we become good Bible students so that we can make the proper applications of God’s word. God will not answer silly prayers and I suspect is insulted by them. Let’s make God proud of us in our prayer lives.

Why God Doesn't Answer Prayer. Isaiah 58

In Isaiah 58, God’s people are described as being eager to know and understand God. They prayed to Him every day. They prepared themselves for prayer by fasting and humbled themselves even in their clothing by wearing sack cloth and ashes. And yet they noticed and complained that God was not listening to their prayers and they didn’t understand why.

God reveals that he was ignoring their prayers because they were ignoring Him. Among other things they were not keeping the Sabbath Holy. They were doing whatever they wanted to on the Lord’s Day. In addition, they were ignoring the needs of others and only taking care of themselves.

It’s not enough just to pray every day and have the proper form of prayer. Something else is needed… obedience.

How about today? Does going to church mean anything? Is it easy to miss church services for any reason? Are we keeping ourselves sexually pure? Are we looking to help others who have needs? Do we dishonor God in our speech?

Don’t expect God to listen to your prayers without first listening to what God has to say. The communication goes both ways. Listen to God and obey him and your prayers will be answered bountifully.

Reasons Why God Doesn’t Answer Prayer

One of the reasons God doesn’t answer prayer is because sometimes we pray for things that are under our own control. The scriptures say, “If a man won’t work neither let him eat”. Imagine this, there is a fellow who has the ability to work but he won’t, instead he prays to God for food. God is not going to answer that prayer for food because the man has the ability to provide for himself. That’s the easy one… how about these?

- A husband prays for a stronger marriage with his wife but is unwilling to follow God’s instructions to him as a husband. He’s selfish, unloving and doesn’t care about the needs of his wife. He always places her second. Will God grant him a stronger marriage in spite of his rejection of God’s Laws on marriage? Probably not.

- A man goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. The doctor tells him to lose 50 pounds, change his diet and exercise more and sends him home with the appropriate medications. The man prays for healing but does not follow the doctor’s instructions. He goes to the cafeteria orders a chicken fried steak slathered with cream gravy, has sides of mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese and ice cream for dessert. Then he sits down on the couch and watches TV. Will God answer his prayer for healing? Probably not.

There are several reasons God doesn’t answer prayer. One of them is that God won’t help us unless we’re willing to help ourselves. Follow God’s instructions and if you still have needs, pray to God and prepare to be richly blessed.

Thoughts on Turning 60

I turned 60 this year. When my mom was 60 she went with my Dad to find out why he was coughing. They told them he had stage 3 Adenocarcinoma and had 18 months to live and they couldn’t help him. That was in 1998. What a shock. I try to imagine how I would handle similar news if it was Julie. Mom went into full “save Dad” mode. Doctors, medicines, prayers, and non-conventional therapies… staining Dad’s feet with some purple concoction. I don’t know who had it worse… mother or dad… probably mom.

I try to imagine if I was Dad and maybe I only have two years to live. What would I do with that knowledge? Julie tells me that I’m healthier than Dad and will live a long time. Maybe.

I was 44 years old when Dad died and it seems like yesterday. I thought mom was too old to remarry at 60 but I was 44… how silly. Dad’s younger grandchildren don’t remember him. I have two grand-daughters who are my life. I want them to remember me. I want them to cry their eyes out at my funeral. I want to go to Heaven but I really want to live and grow old with my wife and see my daughter marry and have children and be surrounded by kids and grandkids on holidays.

I pray every day on my knees and I pray that Pa’s girls will be protected and I thank God for my wife and my parents, my uncle and my aunts and my brothers and my cousins and for all of our children and I also pray for those who have passed on… family and friends.

God’s in control and I’m OK with that… I don’t have to understand it but I want to live circumspectly on this earth. I want to prepare myself. I want to feel and understand the pain of my parents so I’ll be better prepared when it’s my turn.

God Hates Divorce (Malachi 2:10-12)

Malachi 2:10-12 reveals to us that God hates divorce. That’s not like me hating Beets. I do hate beets and refuse to eat them but when God hates something he goes a step further… he punishes the Beets (so to speak).

Malachi reveals that the people were weeping and wailing because God didn’t pay attention to their prayers or favor them with blessings. They were perplexed because God was not being a “God” to them. The reason for this was because God was a witness when marriage vows were exchanged and they were breaking their vows and divorcing each other. God is faithful as a witness.

Something that is lost in wedding ceremonies today is the fact that the guests are there to witness vows and hold the married couple accountable to their vows so that when the day comes when a young couple are considering divorcing and breaking their vows the human witnesses can remind them of what was done and said on their wedding day.

God is faithful and accountable as a witness… he punishes people when they divorce. Their lives are not full of blessings.

I hate Beets and won’t eat them but I don’t go out and find a field of Beets and hoe them down. If God hated Beets that’s what he would do. Honor your vows. Don’t divorce so you won’t end up like a field of hoed up Beets.

Two Requests of God

In Luke 22:31-34 two requests are made to God and he answers both requests in the affirmative. Satan asks God for permission to test Peter’s faith and Jesus, knowing that Peter would fail, asks God that Peter’s faith might endure the failure and become stronger.

Keep in mind that Jesus could have requested that Satan not be permitted to test Peter. That would be consistent with Jesus’ actions when Satan tested Jesus after fasting for 40 days in the wilderness… he rejected every request that Satan made. But Jesus didn’t do that… he needed for Peter to be tested and to fail so that he could become stronger.

Jesus informed Peter what would happen and by doing so gave Peter tools to resist Satan. The tool of knowing the test was coming and the tool of knowing the result of the test.

After the failure Peter could reflect back on Jesus’ care for him and understand that the failure was completely his… Peter ”owned” the failure… it was all on him.

Jesus also prepared Peter by telling him not to be too overwhelmed by the failure but to use the lesson he had learned to strengthen the faith of others. He had a job to do.

Lessons for us.

- God may allow Satan to tempt us.

- Temptation and failure can make us stronger.

- Jesus is in our corner praying that our faith will survive whatever temptation Satan throws at us.

- If Jesus can pray for Peter to have stronger faith then we can follow his example and pray for the faith of our fellow Christians.

- Faith doesn’t rest. It works for the benefit of others.

- Satan won the initial contest with Peter but lost every single one after that.

Opened Eyes

I was sitting in the pew this morning with my eyes closed and listening to the prayer being given for the cup and my attention was stimulated because the prayer being offered was not your usual prayer. I started wondering, who was leading the prayer? At first I thought it was Walker who I consider to have a gift for prayer but the voice was not right. As the prayer went on I thought… this is truly a wonderful prayer and I opened my eyes. Thank you Cody Cargile for opening my eyes.