WHY PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED
By George W. Sinquefield
Advertise Your Business Or Website At
HomewithGod.com
By George W. Sinquefield
James 4:1 through James 4:3 (KJV)
1From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Prayer should be a part of our Christian lives.
Psalm 55:17 (KJV)
The Bible teaches us to pray.
Luke 18:1 (KJV)
1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)
Prayer is a Christlike virtue. I do not know of any virtue, love, compassion, purity, holiness, liberality, that is more Christlike than the virtue of prayer.
Matthew 14:23 (KJV)
Luke 6:12 (KJV)
Prayer promotes the work of God, missions, evangelism, the work of the local church in training and sending out workers -- nothing will promote it like prayer.
Matthew 9:37 through Matthew 9:38 (KJV)
I. Because Of Unconfessed Sin
Isaiah 59:1 through Isaiah 59:2 (KJV)
Sin is an awful thing and one of the most awful things about it is that it severs the connection between us and the source of all grace and power and blessings. It matters not what kind of sin and iniquity it is. If we embrace it, love it more than we love God, more than we love the peace and joy God gives, and the blessings that God wants to give us, and we love it more than we do the approval of our Lord on our life, He will not hear.
I say it in tenderness, in compassion, if there is something in your life that God does not approve of, something that robs you of sweet fellowship with him, He is not going to answer your prayer until you confess and forsake that thing.
1 John 1:9 (KJV)
I've talked to people, church members, about sin in their own lives and they just turn a deaf ear. Sometimes it makes them mad because they love that sin.
Proverbs 14:9 (KJV)
I like the way the Living Bible puts it; "The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and won't face facts."
If our prayers are not answered we should not conclude that the thing we asked for is not God's will to give. It may be some sin of the past we have never confessed or some sin in our present life that we are not aware of. It may be something that we don't even consider sin. We should go alone with God and pray the Psalmist's prayer.
Psalm 139:23 (KJV)
You remember I said that Bible reading and praying go together. As we pray we talk to God and as we study the Bible God talks to us. As we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit will convince us of sin so that we can confess it and forsake it.
We find in the book of Joshua that God promised the land of Canaan to the children of Israel. "I will give you this land, and I will overcome these nations and drive them out." They claimed Jericho with little resistance and then they went to conquer the cit of Ai. They were defeated and 36 men lost their lives. Joshua could not understand. He fell on his face and started praying. The Lord said to him, "Stop praying, quit talking to me. Get up and go find the one who disobeyed me and stole gold and garments." They found Achan who was the guilty one and God told them the punishment he was to get.
Joshua 7:25 through Joshua 7:26 (KJV)
And in chapter 8 the Lord said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid or discouraged, take the entire army and go to Ai, for it is now yours to conquer." Victory was theirs when they took care of the sin which was in the camp. There are times when we are praying that God may tell us to stop praying. He may say that the thing we need to do is not to pray but to get ready to pray.
If we know there is sin in our lives we just need to get ready to pray. By that I mean that we are convinced that it is not pleasing the Lord and we make up our minds that by his help we will get it out of our life. Then and then only is it time to pray.
Fulton Oursler tells of his experience when he was a small boy, dressed in his Sunday best and warned by his mother not to leave the front steps. "We'll be walking over to see your aunt,"she promised. He waited obediently until the baker's son came by and called him a sissy. Then little Fulton sprang from the steps and hit the baker's son on the ear. The baker's son pushed him into a mud puddle, splotching the white blouse with mud and leaving his stockings with a bloody hole in the knee. Hopelessly he began to cry. When the ice cream man came by, forgetting his disobedience young Fulton rushed into the house and asked his mother for a penny to buy ice cream. He said that he never forgot his mother's answer. "Look at yourself! You're in no condition to ask for anything." Oursler said that many years passed after that incident before it dawned on him "that often when we ask help from God, we need to look at ourselves; we may be in no condition to ask him for anything."
II. Because Of Stinginess
In the second place, you ask any receive not, because of stinginess and selfishness in your life. I don't know if you have ever thought about it or not, but stinginess and selfishness in the life of a Christian will keep God from answering that Christian's prayer.
Proverbs 21:13 (KJV)
There is perhaps no greater hindrance to prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality toward the poor and toward God's work. It is the one who gives generously to others who receives generously from God.
Luke 6:38 (KJV)
The generous man is the mighty man of prayer. The stingy man is the powerless man of prayer. Christian benevolence is not just the modern practice of supporting institutions that meet human need. It is as old as Christianity itself.
Proverbs 21:13 (KJV)
We believe in missions. We believe it is God's will that people everywhere hear the gospel and come to Jesus for salvation. His marching orders for his church is found in Matthew, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations..."
Luke 24:46 through Luke 24:47 (KJV)
A great percent of the world's population is very poor. They are precious in his sight and He is not willing that any of them perish. John, the Baptist, sent men to inquire if Jesus was the promised messiah.
Matthew 11:4 through Matthew 11:5 (KJV)
Romans 15:26 (KJV)
In Galatians 2:9-10 Paul and Barnabas were given the right hand of fellowship and sent to preach the gospel to the heathen and verse 10 says, "Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do."
Those who do not tithe their income face a hinderance to their prayers being answered.
Leviticus 27:30 (KJV)
Malachi 3:8 through Malachi 3:9 (KJV)
The judgment of God is upon those who rob him. "Ye are cursed with a curse;for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." Hear the critics hollow,"All they want at that church is money. They are always begging for money."
Dr. Tom Malone, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist church in Pontiac, Michigan, once said in a sermon, "You may not believe this. You are going to have trouble believing this, really you are. Some years ago I was preaching. I preached on a Sunday night in this church and I never mentioned tithing or giving. This is the truth. I preached the whole sermon and never mentioned it one time. Isn't that hard to believe? It is hard for me to believe. I have confessed it to the Lord, long since and got it straightened out! We need to teach and preach a lot on giving, and make no apology for doing so. Much of the teachings of Jesus had to do with man and his relation to money and wealth. The purpose of tithing is not to have more money in the offering plate. Of course, it will result in that but if God is interested just in money, He could change every leaf in the forests all over the world into one hundred dollar bills.
It is not the money, it is the love, the obedience, the faithfulness of his people that God is primarily concerned about.
Herschel Ford said, "You are not asked to tithe so that the church can get your money. You are asked to tithe so that God can have you. He wants the opportunity of using and blessing you, and of giving you the joy of a surrendered will."
Luke 11:28 (KJV)
1 John 3:22 (KJV)
One pastor tells that he had just begun his ministry in a church in North Carolina. In that church, a certain man made an excellent salary and gave one dollar per month to the church. One day he said to a friend, "I like our new preacher because he never preaches about money. Just about that time I preached two sermons about Biblical giving. This man immediately quit coming to church. The gospel and the Bible meant nothing to him. He was not seeking the Lord's will for his life. he just wanted to be entertained and left alone.
Matthew 21:12 through Matthew 21:13 (KJV)
It is sad but true that some of our churches are a den of thieves because so many of the members rob God of tithes and offerings. I was pastor of a church where only one elderly lady was a tither. At least, she was the only one that made it known. In another church some of the deacons didn't tithe because they said it was Old Testament teaching and not for us today. A deacon in another church said he wasn't able to tithe after he paid all his bills. He said one man in the church he attended tithed and his tithe paid for their Sunday School literature.
A few years back I checked and found that only 18 to 20 percent of Southern Baptists are honest with God when it comes to giving. It is sad but true that when God looks down upon many of his churches He sees a "den of thieves."
God delights in the love and obedience of his children
Malachi 3:10 through Malachi 3:12 (KJV)
Are your prayers being answered? If not, why not take a serious look at yourself and find out if some changes need to be made. If so, then make those changes and begin to experience the wonderful blessing of God that He gives his children in answer to their prayers.
17Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
1And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
17Pray without ceasing.
23And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
12And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
37Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
1Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
9Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.
23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
25And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. 26And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
13Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
38Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
13Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.
46And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
4Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
26For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
30And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S: it is holy unto the LORD.
8Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
28But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
12And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 12And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.