| Do you ever wonder why you have unanswered prayers? Do you ever wonder how to pray effectively? I have found that sometimes God speaks to us through repetition, because we aren’t always great at listening and paying attention to that still small voice the first go round; are we? This week I have had a lot of things spring up around me about unanswered prayers, about when we ask God for things, and we don’t get them. I believe there are several reasons that our prayers are denied by God. We all are familiar with the verses about asking and doubting not (James 1:6), asking in full faith (Mathew 21:22), humbling ourselves in fasting and prayer (Acts 13:2-3, I Corinthians 7:5, Matthew 17:21). The following are some additional things God has shown me this week that will hinder our prayer life. |
| Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalms 141:2 David prayed that his prayers would rise up before God like the smoke of incense. Incense is pleasant; it’s pleasing to watch and pleasing to smell. That exact imagery is echoed in Revelation 8:4 as it says, And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. |
| Peter tells us that, …the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. I Peter 3:12 We are assured that God is always listening to our prayers. What’s more, God always answers our prayers: Sometimes God says, yes; sometimes God says, no; and sometimes God says not right now. We can rest assured that God always hears our prayers, but there is a qualifier in that verse: “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.” If we want God to always hear our prayers, we have to be walking in righteousness or holiness…and not be doing anything God considers evil. In Psalms 35:15, David says the exact same thing as Peter did here. The opposite of righteousness or holiness is sin. Sin is THE Great Separator between man and God. Are we walking in holiness? Or are we walking in rebellion and sin? Is rebellion and sin a wall that we have built between our prayers and God’s ear? |
| As James said in the Weekly Memory Verse, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” God will not honor prayers that originate from a place of greed, envy, or jealousy. God abhors selfishness! Philippians 2:3-4 says Let nothing be done through strife (selfish rivalry)or vainglory (empty pride); but in lowliness of mind (humility) let each esteem other better than themselves (leading in thought, coming first in priority). Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. This call to not be selfish, to put others before ourselves…it’s so easy to violate. It is so easy to walk and pray in selfishness. There’s an old adage that I remember my mother saying in reference to selfishness, “My four and no more.” It is so easy to pray and do more for those who are of our own household or church group, but that is not what God called us and set us apart for. Jesus said in Matthew 22:39 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Do we pray for others as passionately as we do for ourselves? Are our prayers selfish? Are we making others a priority over ourselves? |
| All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. I Corinthians 10:23 Everything we pray for is not always expedient or beneficial for us; what we pray for doesn’t always edify us or isn’t always instructing or improving us. Even if our prayer is kosher in every other way, if our prayer would now or in the future be harmful to us, God says no, as every loving earthly father would do. If your five year old comes up to you and says, “Hey, Dad, can I play with your pistol?” What father in his right mind would say yes to that request?Are the things we are asking for harmful to us? Are we asking for things that are not beneficial to us? Is what we are asking for going to teach us or improve us morally or in our walk with Christ? |
| Sometimes, God says no, because He has something better for us. Jesus illustrated this so well in Matthew 7:9-11 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Before I met Todd, I had been a year out of a very painful divorce from an unfaithful spouse. I started dating, and dating, and dating. I jokingly called it “marathon dating,” because none of the men I went out with got a second date for various reasons, but all because they did not meet what I had in mind for a husband and father for Kelsey. After 3 months of this, feeling very dismal at the toxic men on the dating scene who didn’t even meet my qualifications, much less God’s. Each date seemed worse than the last. I finally prayed and surrendered my will to God’s. I mean, if that was all that was out there, I would prefer to be a single parent the rest of my life. God, if you don’t have someone who will lead me closer to you, someone who will be a good and faithful husband, someone who will be a good father for Kelsey, etc….I stopped being willing to settle for leftovers and second best, and I prayed for God’s best by God’s standards. Are we praying and asking God for His best for us or our own limited opinion of what we want? |
| In addition to that, is what we are asking for God’s will? Part of being a Christian is to We would will a lot of things that are not in God’s plan for us. Jesus willed that he not have to die on the cross for all mankind. He prayed three times, if there by any other way, Father, let this cup pass from me! Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. It is okay to pray for what you want, but just like Jesus did not stop at what he wanted (let this cup pass from me), he then prayed something we need to add to our prayers as well, with a sincere heart, “nevertheless, Lord, not my will, but thine, be done.” Are we praying for our will, what we want only? Or are we praying for our will, but then giving our will over in submission to God’s will? |
| The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. Proverbs 14:15 As this scripture reminds us, we need to look well at our going, at our actions, at our inaction. |
| The Spreading Love & Hope Challenge this week is Let us be like Job 13: 23 and pray: How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin. Let us submit our will in favor of the Father’s, because our Abba Father knows how to give good gifts better than we do! Let us pray for God’s best, not our own limited version of it. Let us pray for things that are beneficial to us not out of greed, jealousy, envy, or fear, but for learning and reproving. Let us walk in holiness, in continual repentance, and without rebellion against God, so that our sins and rebellion do not rise up between our prayers and God’s ear. Let us pray for others more passionately than we pray for ourselves so that our prayers may rise as pleasant, fragrant incense before God. |
