Wrestling With Unanswered Prayers

Introduction

Psalm 115:16 states, “16 The heavens are the Lord’s, but the earth he has given to the human race.”

There’s a sense that God wants to give us the world. In fact, the major claim of Scripture is that Israel’s God is active and present in their lives (Psalm 115:1-8).

What happens when the God you know is seemingly behaving like an idol?

Today’s lesson is to help people who feel God is absent and silent in their lives.

Three Reasons Prayers Go Unanswered

1. Sin. “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

2. Unforgiveness

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25).

3. Unbelief. “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6-8).

4. Bad motives.“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3).

God’s Assurance in Our Fight with Unanswered Prayers

Justice: Luke 11:5-13; Luke 18:1-8