Why won’t God answer my prayers?

Psalm 50:15 says “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor me”. 

The bible was telling us that if you call out to God he will come to save you and if you search for him you will find him. But there comes a time in every believer’s life when you  feel as if God has just shut the doors of heaven in your face. You ask yourself, “Why won’t God, our Father, answer me?”. He supposedly  knows everything about me. He’s supposed to be everywhere isn’t He? He should know about my crisis. He’s supposed to know my heart. He knows that I’m broke and can’t buy milk. He knows that my boyfriend left and I want him back, etc. He knows that Aunt Sue has cancer and that cousin Jake was in an accident and that daughter Mary got a DUI. He knows that neighbor David had a flat tire on his way to work. I can go on and on here,but I believe that there are least six reasons why God might choose not to rescue us. If you are feeling burdened or as if God isn’t answering your prayers, I ask you to consider these reasons ask God to show you which one might apply to you.

1. We don’t believe He has the ability to do so

God works in response to faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. For God to answer our prayers, we “must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Our lack of faith can be a huge hindrance, not because God can’t overrule our faithlessness, but because he won’t. He never forces faith on anyone. Thankfully, all it takes is the faith of a mustard seed to invite God to work in our lives. It’s not how much faith we have, but in whom our faith rests that matters.

2. He has. We just ignored the answer, because it is not what we wanted to hear

We can easily accept God not giving us what we ask for when we are asking for a Lamborghini, a new home or for our favorite team to win the super bowl. However, things get real when our health, or the health of someone we love, begins to fail, or when we have been looking for employment for months, the bills are due, and the eviction notice is on the kitchen table. These are the moments when God’s answers are hard to accept. So hard, that we cast off the answer that God has already given.

3.We are not ready to do our part to assist God in the answer

We go to God as if He is a  really nice and rich family member who will support us and give us all we beg for, while we do not even lift a finger to help. We raise our hands to God in prayer, and then quickly put them back into our pockets. We believe our prayers to get God to working for us, while we sit idly by, thinking to ourselves, “He has all the power; I have none, so I will simply stand still and let him do the work.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, “We command you that, if any would not work, neither should he eat”.

4. We fail to heed to the law of God

Prov. 28:9 says, “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable.” In John 14:21 Jesus said, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me and I will love Him and will disclose myself to him and show him things to come.” We cannot consciously choose to disobey God and at the same time expect him to bless us. In the same way human parents will withhold rewards from a child who has broken a rule.

5. You have not asked

Is it possible you are yearning after something but have not (uh, how shall I put this?) actually got around to the asking part yet? I have a confession to make. Sometimes I hear about what God’s doing in somebody else’s life and it sets me into a mood. I sulk and ask God, in my best whiny high pitched voice, “Why don’t you do that for meeeeeee? I never get open visions and angels ascending and descending on my head!  Poor little me! Lord, why do you love everyone else more than me?” And then I throw a rather glorious pity party, with balloons and everything. The last time I did this, the holy spirit completely ruined my pity party. It reminded me of James 4:2 (You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask).

6.  You need to stop being impatient

Repeatedly in bible, we see that God is not in a hurry. For 400 years, the Israelites prayed for the deliverance before God gave it to them. God is the master of time and therefore the master of timing.

Every so often, we will hear Jesus say “his hour had not come,” and the bible often mention events happening “in the fullness of time.” We often treat God like a vending machine, expecting him to answer our prayers right away. However, the lessons we learn while waiting for God to answer outshine the lessons we learn after we receive what we asked for. Trusting that God is in control and that he is good, means trusting that his timing makes more sense than our timing.