Do prayers get answered ? That’s a question I’ve had a lot of people ask me. A pastor once had a 10-year-old daughter who noticed that every time her father stood behind the pulpit and prepared to preach, he would bow his head for a moment before beginning to preach. And the little girl observed that he did this every time.
So, after the service, the little girl approached her father and asked, “Dad, why do you bow your head right before you preach your sermon?” “Well, honey,” the preacher explained, “I’m praying to the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.”
And the little girl looked up at her father, puzzled, and asked, “Then why doesn’t he do it?” that’s a prayer that went unanswered.
Everybody who knows anything about prayer and praise has a little different take on it. how to pray to God and get answer to prayer will help you answer some of your questions why your prayers are not answered.
God answers prayers in three different ways YES, NO and WAIT.
When God says “YES”
God sometimes answers our prayers with a YES. We like that. I heard of a man who once said he had never prayed except God had said yes. I thought he must not have prayed much. Sometimes God says yes.
• We prefer yes responses.
• We prefer to have our way.
• We enjoy getting what we desire.
When God says “NO”.
Dear, Friends, Jesus said “Ask and you shall get”, “search and you shall find…” I’ve prayed God for something specific many times and waited patiently until I understood it wasn’t God’s plan for me at the moment. And, like any good parent, He said “No,” and I eventually had to realize that my request was not in my best interests at the time—but God did respond. It’s difficult to accept ‘no,’ yet the All-Seeing God might be shielding me from something worse.
When God says “WAIT”
But there are moments when God says “WAIT!” But we don’t want to wait. We think we know what is best and we rush out ahead of Him to try to accomplish on our own what we want. But God says, “Wait.”He doesn’t say yes or no; He simply says wait.
We, on the other hand, do not enjoy waiting. We are not a saying wait society. There was a point in our history when our society was more rural. We had a strong rural tendency. We knew what it was like to have to wait. We planted and then waited for the crop to ripen. However, we no longer live in such a world. Everything should be done quickly and automatically at the touch of a button in our fast-paced environment. We don’t need a long lesson on waiting, in my opinion. We’ll need a lot of practice time.
Reasons why prayers go unanswered
1.Sometimes our prayers are not answered because of un prayed prayers.
It surprises me how many people say that “God does not answer my prayer.” When I start talking to them, I discover that they have never specifically asked God for the thing they claim they haven’t received. God will not answer your prayer for something specific because you pray at the dinner table.
“Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” the Bible says in Matthew 7.
The most important reason why prayers aren’t answered, and this is probably more important than all of the other reasons combined, is that they aren’t offered. We don’t have because we don’t ask.
2.Our prayers are sometimes not answered because of unconfessed sin.
I used to believe that there was only one verse about this in the Bible, but during this particular study, I discovered that this is a common truth in God’s Word.
The prayer God wants to hear from us when we have sin in our lives is 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
As Christians, we all sin. “If a person says, ‘I do not sin,’ he is a liar and does not do the truth,” the Bible says. But what God cares about is what we do with it when it happens. He’s made it possible for us to have instant forgiveness. However, if we harbor something we know is evil, something sinful, and then try to pray, we will often find it difficult.
3.Sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unbelieving minds.
It says in James chapter 1, “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways”.
What does it mean to be DOUBLE MINDED?
It means trusting God and then not trusting him. To trust him here, or not to trust him here. To believe him or not to believe him in this situation.
4.Sometimes our prayers are not answered because of unrighteous motives.
We must remember that God’s ultimate goal is not for our team to win the game, but for himself to be glorified in the process.
His ultimate concern is that we lift every tiny bit of our health up to his honor and glory, not that we all have perfect health.
His primary concern is that we praise and thank him for what he provides, not that we have a high-paying job.
God’s concern is that we are consumed by his glory in whatever state we are in, and I believe that God delights in giving even the most insignificant things to his children. However, we must weigh our heartfelt motivations against the substance of our requests.
We must ask ourselves, “Is my desire in this to see God glorified in my life, or am I just wanting this for myself?” We don’t always pray correctly. Now pay attention to what I’m saying. We sometimes pray, “Thy will be changed,” rather than “Thy will be done.” Do you recite that prayer on a regular basis? Maybe not in those words, but Lord, can we talk about it again? Thy will be altered. “Do you give instructions or report for duty when you pray?” someone asked.
5. Our prayers are not answered because of unresolved conflicts.
The Bible says in Mark chapter 11, “When you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses”.
Again, in Matthew chapter 5, it says, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. Be reconciled to your brother, and come and offer your gift”.
The Bible says, “If you are harboring resentment or unforgiveness or anger in your heart toward another brother or sister, it may not shut down your prayer life. It simply states that it will hinder it. It will obstruct your progress. It’s almost as if you’re praying to the Lord and you hear him in the back of your mind asking, “Have you taken care of that yet?” And it takes the sting out of it. Nothing is more important than maintaining positive relationships with others.
6. Our prayers are not answered because of uncompassionate hearts.
Proverbs 21:13 says, “Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard”.
This is not about feeding the world’s hungry, though we should be concerned about that. This prayer barrier stems from a lack of compassion for those we know who are in need. According to the Bible, if you have an uncompassionate spirit and do not ask God to make you sensitive to people you can help, it will be difficult for you to have the relationship in prayer that you desire.
7.Our prayers are not answered because of unloving husbands
1 Peter 3:7 (KJV) “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them,” your wives, “with understanding, honor to the wife as the weaker vessel, and as heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.”
What this means for men is that if we’re Christian husbands with Christian wives, our relationship with our wives is frequently the reason God isn’t listening carefully to our prayers. According to this passage of Scripture, men who do not have the right kind of relationship with their wives will have their prayers hindered at the very least. It’s difficult to pray for your wife when you haven’t been loving her, meeting her needs, and living with her companion.
How to pray to God and get answer to prayer
1. Your request should be based on God’s personality.
Pray as if you expect God to respond:
“I’m expecting you to answer this prayer because of who you are.” You are a dependable God. You are a wonderful, a compassionate God. You are an amazing God. God, you have the ability to solve this problem!”
2. Confess any sins you are aware of. Nehemiah confessed his sins after basing his prayer on who God is. It was not Nehemiah’s fault that Israel was taken captive. He wasn’t even born at the time; he was most likely born in captivity. Nonetheless, he is complicit in the nation’s sins. “I’ve been a part of the problem,” he admits.
3. Claim God’s promises. “I want you to remember what you told your servant Moses,” Nehemiah prays to the Lord. Can you imagine telling God to “remember”? God is reminded by Nehemiah of a promise he made to the nation of Israel.
In effect, he prays,
“God, you warned us through Moses that we would lose the land of Israel if we were unfaithful.”
But you also promised to return it to us if we repented.”
Is it necessary to remind God? No. Is he forgetting what he promised? No. So, why do we do it? Because it reminds us of what God has promised.
4. Make your request as specific as possible. Make specific requests if you want specific answers to your prayers. How will you know if your prayers are answered if they are general requests?
Nehemiah is not afraid to ask for success. He prays with confidence. Have you ever prayed to the Lord, “Lord, make me successful?” If you haven’t already, why haven’t you? What is the alternative if you don’t succeed?
Is it permissible to pray to God for success? It all depends on how you define success!
A good definition of success, in my opinion, is
“fulfilling God’s purpose for my life in faith, love, and the power of the Holy Spirit and expecting God’s results.”
That is a worthy life goal for which you should be able to pray confidently.
Conclusion
Do prayers get answered ?
The answer is “YES” , God does answer your prayer. What is the answer you are expecting? Prayers always work. God always answers our prayers, but we do not understand His answers.
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