We have a promise in scripture that if we pray believing, God will answer every prayer we offer, yet that’s not the experience most of us have in pray. So why doesn’t God answer all of our prayers?
This is the 5th in an 8 part series on Prayer. It’s best to read these lesson posts in order.
Prayer is more than getting what we want from God; it is relationship and a tool to overcome evil on the Earth. Jesus offers us an amazing promise in scripture about getting what we want and need in prayer. He set the bar for answered prayer as high as is possible when He said, “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 18:19). Wow, if that’s true, anything is possible through prayer! The problem is that the experience people have of prayer is usually quite different from that scripture. There are ‘successes’ in prayer which build our faith and confidence, but there are also those nagging prayer ‘failures’.
Unanswered prayers are disappointments to us and often hurt our faith and confidence in prayer. Some people have ended their relationship with God because they blame Him for not answering an important prayer. Their relationship with God was shallow, at best, and when their prayer wasn’t answered, they felt “what good is God to me?” The more common response to unanswered prayer is a nagging uncertainty about God and His willingness to answer what would seem like important and ‘good’ prayers. Believers who know His love and blessings in many other areas quietly wonder “why”, while others make excuses for God. Their child-like mis-understanding of Him and prayer lead them to cover-ups like: “God’s ways are higher than man (mine)”, and “God wanted him/her in Heaven” when someone passes away prematurely. Others believe that “faith” is believing even when we don’t understand. That’s true, but God wants us to understand prayer, not just to “clear His name” but so that we will be able to pray effectively and have every one of our prayers answered.
Jesus said God would answer EVERY prayer. What He meant is that God NEVER says “No” to our prayers; He always says, “Yes, I will do that for you.” He’s telling us that if our prayer isn’t answered, it’s not because He’s unwilling to answer it; it’s because there are other factors we don’t understand which are preventing Him from answering it. Our benchmark for answered prayer, therefore, should be 100% success. Anything less than that, should cause us to pray, “something is wrong, God, what is it?”
On one occasions when an answer to prayer was not forthcoming I was asking for understanding. I had a vision of a grate or grid with many openings. Through some openings there was light shining through and through others, there was no light – they were dark. I remember asking what this meant and the thoughts that came immediately to my mind were that this was a picture of the person’s heart for whom I was praying. In some areas of their life, they had light or grace flowing and with it the blessings of God. In other areas, they had no grace and the love and blessing of God was blocked by wounds (emotional hurt), unbelief, and patterns of sinful behavior. My prayers for the person were being welcomed by God, but getting the answer to those prayers was more complicated than just asking God to intervene.
On another of those ‘what’s wrong’ occasions, I was praying for a friend who had a very serious illness. God responded to my questions explaining a different obstacle to answered prayer. My friend had limited his options to only those which could be accomplished in the natural. Super-natural outcomes were not an option for him. His family was deeply rooted in the medical profession and also in religion on whom my friend relied heavily for his advice. He believed them when they said that “there was nothing that could be done.” I can’t remember praying more fervently, yet my friend died. When I asked God what went wrong, I felt as if my eyes were opened to what had happened and I understood that my prayers did not overcome the “will” of the recipient. Had I understood this before he died, I would have prayed differently because there were really two obstacles – his unbelief and the illness.
The size of our faith often is used as an “answer” to unanswered prayer. Jesus said that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you have enough faith to move a mountain (get big results) (Matt. 17:20 paraphrased). If you have ever seen a mustard seed, it’s very, very small. It’s not the amount of faith we have, it’s the fact that we have it that matters. The problem is knowing if we have it or not. If we’re praying for something within one of those areas of our life where the light and grace of God is flowing, we have faith and get answers. If, on the other hand, we’re praying about something in which the light and grace of God is not flowing, we get no answer. We either have faith or we don’t. Hence it is very important to get others to pray for you since they may have the grace in the particular area in which you need grace. Others may also have insights or revelation as to what is holding back God’s blessing in your life.
Prayer comes out of our relationship with God and it’s in relationship we learn about prayer – it is a journey. There is more to learn for all of us about getting more answers to prayer and bringing the will and blessing of God into people’s lives. In the following posts, we will continue to address other obstacles to answered prayer.
Your comments are invited……
This is the 5th in a series of 8 posts about prayer. Please invite your friends to join the conversation. The image below can be saved to your computer by right clicking and selecting “save image as” and then it can be “attached” or “inserted” in a email message. You can also become a “subscriber” and never miss a new post. Check out the “Meta” section “Entries RSS”on the side bar to the right.
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