4 Reasons God Hasn’t Answered Your Prayer (Updated)

One of the great challenges with prayer is when prayer is not answered. A specific request may come to mind. We ask God why He hasn’t answered us. But part of the problem with that is that we don’t figure out what our response should be to the fact that He hasn’t answered. Looking at some Bible stories may help you and encourage you.

  1. Mary and Martha- They asked Jesus to come but he waited till after Lazarus died. Jesus’ reason: Not yet, a bigger miracle is still coming. Abraham had a similar response when asking about a child. God did not answer till it was a really big miracle. What should we learn from those stories? The challenge to us: Keep asking!
  2. Jacob-I have been thinking about Jacob and his journey while Joseph was in Egypt. Jacob had to wonder about the dreams that Joseph had in the years Joseph was gone. We know that because when the stories of Joseph being alive comes to Jacob the dreams were part of what helped him believe it was true. So what could have God told Jacob during those many year? You don’t have the whole story. What should we learn from that story? Keep asking!
  3. Job-When we see the struggle of Job, he is seeking God for an answer. Why is he struggling so much? Now although we see behind the scenes at what is happening in heaven we are never told that Job figures it out. Basically God says, “I am God and you are not so it is really none of your business.” But even during that situation the lesson for us is: Trust God knows what He is doing and you keep asking.
  4. Daniel-When we read the story of Daniel there is a prayer that he asks that he doesn’t get an answer right away. When he finally gets the answer we learn that there has been a spiritual battle that has held up the answer. So spiritual warfare was holding up the answer. The lesson for Daniel and the lesson for us: There may be a spiritual battle so keep asking.

Looking at the lives of those who have gone before us the lesson seems to be: Keep asking. As we wait for an answer: Keep asking! Unless He comes back with an answer of no: Keep asking! Like Job you may never understand why, but keep asking anyways! What prayer request do you need to keep asking God to make a difference?

A Short Prayer to Help You Avoid Trouble (Updated)

How often do you pray that God would help you avoid trouble? I think that we can mess up simply by failing to pray this prayer. Jesus in His teaching on prayer encouraged His disciples to pray, “Lead me not into temptation.” I didn’t think too much of this until hearing Roger Stacy, one of my heroes in ministry, speak about this verse. He brought out the idea that by praying this prayer we are able to avoid needless temptation in our lives. It is easy to pray, “God, give me strength when tempted.” Maybe we should be praying to avoid the temptation in the first place. He is a couple benefits:

1.  God has the power to help us avoid certain tempting situations.

Maybe there are situations that you can avoid by living a life of prayer. Paul encourages us to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5). Maybe we can avoid certain opportunities to sin that way. In Luke 17 Jesus tells us that temptation will come, but He does say how much. I think I would like as little as possible please. Thank you very much!

2. It puts us in a right attitude about ourselves.

By praying and asking God to help me avoid temptation it reminds me of my own human frailty. One of the saying that we use at my house is, “There but for the grace of God go I.” We are all prone to make mistakes. That is why the story that Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the other man’s prayer is so powerful. The sinner’s prayer was, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” That simple prayer was heard because it was prayed with the right attitude. It is an attitude that all of us need.

Maybe a short prayer for you today and everyday is, “Lead me not into temptation.”

If you liked this you might also like: 5 Surprising Results of Not Praying

A Simple Journal Method to Change Your Entire Outlook on Life (Updated)

Sometimes the simplest thing can have a huge impact. This is a method I have used that has had a big impact personally. Maybe it will do the same for you.

The most spiritual thing that you may do today is pull out a notepad and pen and put it by your bed. This process should not take a long time, maybe a couple minutes. I simply:

1. Write the date

2. Write 5 things I am thankful for from that day

3. Close the book

Sometimes at the end of the day I am surprised what things I will come up with that I have forgotten. Although I don’t do this most nights because I want to cut back on my media right before bed (it can effect your sleep). Another option is to simply email yourself the 5 things at the end of the night. Then in the morning when you get up you can put it in a folder. Or you could use Evernote or some other system. The key is to make it simple and something that you will actually do. I have a whole chapter on this and a lot of other prayer ideas like it in Enjoying Prayer.

This video is a remake of a video that I did a few years ago. It was by chance that I am wearing the same shirt. 🙂

You can watch that here.

Learn about how this method is part of a plan to eliminate worry from your life.