We are invited several places in the Bible to approach God for our requests. It is his desire to bless us. He seeks only the best for us. It is his intention to see that we have the results of our devotion to him. However, we may pray and not get the results we hope for. Think about the many things that we include in our prayers. Some can be very serious needs. Some requests can border on trivial. The problem we have is that if God doesn’t do what we want, we can become discouraged telling ourselves that he has not even heard our prayers. This is not a tug of war with God where we are pulling on one end, and he is pulling on the other. However he answers us, we must be convinced because of our trust in him that his decision is the right one and the best one. But there are specific reasons why God may not answer our prayer.
The most notable to me addresses this question in James four. The writer’s primary concern is not explaining God’s response, but the reason that we ask. In that chapter the author first highlights the possibility of disgruntled hostile relations with each other, even among believers. Then he goes on to mention that it is possible to utter a prayer but for ulterior motives, motives that are not legitimate. He speaks of the believer seeking God’s benefit out of a desire for lust to be fulfilled. It seems not logical that God would cater to whims especially if they have the wrong motives. James even accuses his readers of killing other people, fighting, and being engaged in more.
Then he goes further to say that God may not answer our prayers because we simply have not asked. He wants us to have an open communication with him. He wants us to be fully aware of our own situation before we take it to him. Sometimes we find ourselves in a precarious situation but do not get divine favor because we have not asked that from God. James repeats his accusation because some believers ask with wrong motives that is linked to unhealthy desires.
Later in the chapter he encourages the readers to cleanse themselves, purify their hearts, avoid being double minded. Anyone who is double minded cannot expect any kind of legitimate response because he tries to walk in two different directions or think in two different ways. We cannot ask for something from God when at the same time our lifestyle is contrary to his favor. He goes further to advise us that we should have a very serious attitude in our prayers as part of humbling ourselves before God. However, let us list other possible reasons God does not answer our prayers.
God may want us to travel in a different direction or attain different goals and the only way he can get our attention is by causing or allowing something negative to occur. When this happens, the wisest thing for us to do is to reevaluate our requests and trust, believing that he has a different open door for us. That is the reason that sometimes we should ask God to close the doors so that we do not force yourself into an intangible area.
God may allow us to be in a difficult situation as an example to other people for their own spiritual growth. The way we handle turmoil in our lives may be a testimony for how other people can handle their own problems. In this case, we become an example.
There may be times that God finds it’s necessary to discipline us by way of not answering our prayers in the way we ask. If we have sin in our life or resist the influence of the Holy Spirit, he may want us to reevaluate our relationship with him to see if there are any barriers that interfere with that relationship.
If our prayer may be in behalf of other people who need the experience, it could be that God does not seemingly answer our prayer because he has his own reasons in dealing with that other person. They may need to grow spiritually. They may need to re-consecrate themselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them to a place of higher sanctification.
Of course, the Bible in several places talks about God’s discipline. We must not let our prayerful designs interfere with the way God wants to work with us or wants to work for someone else. As a loving father, God seeks the best for us. It may require traveling through the valley before getting to the mountaintop.
It is very possible that when we pray, we are considering trivial matters. It could be that we are asking something that is so outlandish and so inconsequential that he will not hear or respond. If we include things in our prayers that we expect him to do when we can do it ourselves, why would he want to interfere?
The key to all of our prayers must be trust and have faith. Even in prayers that have very serious concerns we must trust and have faith. In the worst of times, if God does not seem to hear us, it is very important that we cling to him out of his love for us and our love for him. Nothing must get in the way of our prayers, our relationship with God. Our prayer life must be a matter of re-examining where we are and discovering where God wants us to be. It is more of a matter of keeping our eyes on God than keeping our eyes on the problem.
Christian Writer 