Weekly Devotional 1-20-14
Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers?
If you have been a Christian for long you most likely have been asked by someone, “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?” This question may come after long periods of distress of one kind or another. It may come after seeking God’s direction in some matter, or after asking for someone’s salvation, especially a loved one, a spouse, a son or daughter, but nothing seems to happen. It is hard to answer such a question; “but nothing seems to happen” can be the starting place to an answer. It’s not that God hasn’t answered the prayer; it just appears as though He has not. Our ability to see things clearly has been greatly compromised by self. This is true even if we who have been given the mind of Christ. It is especially true of the un-regenerated person, the one in whom the Spirit of God does not dwell.
God is love, the personification of love. He demonstrated that love by sacrificing Himself for the benefit of man. As man, He suffered humility, pain and death on the cross of Calvary. What greater love and sacrifice could almighty God have made than as the Son of God gave His own life for the redemption of His beloved creation? So, when the question is asked, “Why doesn’t God answer my prayer?” The one who asks must first be assured that it isn’t because God doesn’t love him or her. Secondly, if the one who asks is a Christian he or she must be reminded, “That all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
God has not abandoned His called ones. He is at work bringing about His purpose. Sometimes God will say yes to the request and sometimes He will answer no to the request. At times God will not give a clear definitive answer for a long period of time because He wants His called ones to keep asking. This is part of His faith building work in the called one. But, rest assured, God has heard your prayer and is in the process of answering it.
As to the prayers of a non-Christian who may be reading this, I am not sure that God is obligated to answer your prayers, other than a prayer, sincerely prayed, confessing that you are a sinner separated from Him because of sin, and that you are in need of His mercy and grace. Perhaps God is using your difficulty, whatever it might be, to get your attention. You can be sure that if you pray such a prayer, God is already at work and will bring about in your life that which will glorify Him and accomplish what is ultimately best for you.
Prayers that glorify God; what a thought! Shouldn’t this be the aim of all prayer? If either the Christian or the non-Christian prays a prayer with any other intent, he or she prays amiss. What was it that Jesus said to His disciples? Did He not say? “But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you” (Luke 12:31 NKJV). Yes, He did say it, and as we read the whole context we see the significance of His words. Consider Luke 12:16-34, “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.’ And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? ‘And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”
The door to answered prayer then is the intent. Seek always the glory of God and your (our—my) prayers will be answered. As to the recognition of the answer, we must walk in fellowship with Christ the beloved Son of God. To be in fellowship with Him we must be clean vessels. The Apostle John put it this way, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:5-10 NKJV).
This of course applies to the children of God (those who have come to faith in Him) and not to the world, those who have, and continually rebel against the truth. If you are such a person you will never be able to recognize answered prayer, but there is hope. Jesus told Nicodemus, and by extension all who read, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:14-21 NKJV).
A person must believe in (trust in—be committed to) Jesus Christ in order to live apart from spiritual darkness. A person who is in spiritual darkness will never be able to perceive the hand of God in his or her life. Even when a non-believer’s prayer results in some action or other it will be perceived by him, or her, as a coincidence, chance or luck, or a work of one’s own hands, but will not be truly recognized as from God. To come out of this darkness into the beauty of spiritual light (life) a person must have spiritual life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the unbeliever will have life and a true recognition of God’s work on his or her behalf.
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man