Why God Doesn't Always Answer Your Prayers Pt. 2

Intro

last week we started looking at why God doesn’t always answer your prayers, and we started with two really big reasons.

What were the two reasons?

God doesn’t always answer your prayers the way you expect

sometimes the answer comes later

sometimes He says no because He is perfect in wisdom and knows how an answer to your prayer could have bigger consequences than you can see in this moment.

The big answer to this question is that we need to trust God with the answers, even if the answer isn’t what we want

God doesn’t answer the prayers you don’t pray

we looked at a number of reasons why you don’t pray, everything from cultural reasons to you sometimes stop praying for something too soon.

everything in this series prior was setting the stage for you to keep praying, to keep asking, because you serve a good God and Father that wants to answer your prayers

If there is nothing else you hear this morning, remember that God wants to answer your prayers. I really need each of you to believe that about God.

this morning, I’ve got some more reasons why God doesn’t always answer your prayers, and these require a bit of a heart check. Remember, God doesn’t expect you to be perfect before He answers your prayers, but He does expect you to pursue holiness in your life.

for most of these, we will be in the book of the James. The book of James is sometimes refered to as the Proverbs of the New Testament. It is full of wisdom, and often in small bite sized portions that are easy to remember. If you have your bible, we will kick things off in James 1, and see how far we get this morning.

1. Doublemindedness prevents answers to prayer

James 1:5–8 NLT

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

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James reminds us again that God is gracious and generous. He gives generously to all who ask.

But he also says that when you ask, you should believe you will receive what you ask for. In other words, believe, have faith, and you will have it.

so what is a doubleminded person? In the Old Testament, Israel went through long stretches where they worshipped the LORD and served other gods as well.

Jesus said you can’t serve both God and money.

the apostle John says that you can’t love the world and God.

One author put it this way. When someone that is doubleminded prays, they ultimately just want the gift, not the Giver of the gift; God is just a last resort

2. Inaction may frustrate answers to prayer

James 2:18 NLT

Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

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James is trying to remind the reader that faith is not just a state of mind. True faith impacts every part of our life, including the things that we do. Here, James is talking about good deeds, but faith and action plays out in other ways. When you pray with an expectation that God is going to answer, it should impact your approach to life, particularly in the area that you were praying for.

In Luke 9, we see that Jesus is praying that Jerusalem would turn from its ways and turn to Him, but it didn’t just stop at prayer. He went and preached to the people; He did something about it

Prayer without action is as defective as action without prayer.

Faith requires both.

3. Wrong motives block answers to prayer

James 4:1–3 NLT

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

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James starts the passage by pointing out the way that the world often approaches getting what they don’t have. They scheme, fight, and kill in order to get what they watnt. But it has apparently started to seep into the church, and it is not a big stretch to say that the same could be said today. Instead of going to prayer, we resort to the tactics of this world.

To be clear, it is not wrong to ask God for something you might enjoy, but the bigger question is, at cost does this thing come? Are your motives covetous? How will receiving this thing impact your neighbour or your brother or sister in the faith? Why do you want this thing?

how are your motives?

4. Sinful behvior obstructs answers to prayer

1 Peter 3:10–12 NLT

For the Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it. The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.”

James 4:4 NLT

You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

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this one feels self explanatory, but I will tie it back to something I said last week and at the beginning of the message. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect. If perfection was the requirement of answered prayer, no one would ever have their prayers answered. But you serve a God who sees your heart and knows the difference between someone whose desire to be holy and makes mistakes, and someone who loves the things of the world and only wants their prayers to be answered.

James would go on to give the best litmus test for which one you are.

James 5:16 NLT

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

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You are righteous because God makes you righteous through what Jesus accomplished on the cross. What James is saying that a righteous person will want to do whatever it takes to maintain their righteousness. If sin is trying to get between a righteous person and God, then the sin has to go, and the prescribed way is confession.

the one who doesn’t see the value of confession and righteousness loves the world too much, and they shouldn’t expect to have their prayers answered

on that note, at some point in the future, probably the fall unless God says otherwise, we are going to do something called the Set Free Retreat. We did it during COVID, and I want to try to incorporate it more into our church life. It is simply what James is talking about here. Everyone has sin in their life, and sometimes it can be hard to find someone to confess to. So this is an opportunity to take in some good teaching, and understand the importance of breaking the sin off and experiencing the freedom that Christ offers.

There are some churches that have made this course a pre-requisite for volunteering. I’m not there yet but we’ll see.

anyways, stay tuned

5) Self-indulgence impedes answers to prayer

James 5:5 NLT

You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter.

1 Timothy 6:9–10 NLT

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

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In the psalms, David prayed that God would not give him so much that he forgot about God, but not so little that he would be forced to steal and bring shame to God. Give us our daily bread

This is not saying that it is bad to wealthy, as long as you understand the value of wealth. Wealth creates opportunities to be generous and propel the kingdom of God forward. It is not meant to be stored up used to live the easy life. It is easy to forget in our culture that we are some of the richest people in the world. The side effect of our wealth is that it is easy to get through life without having to rely on God. Why do our missionaries see more miracles around the world then we do in North America? Because everywhere else in the world, most people need God to heal that ailment, where we can just go to the doctor to get it sorted out. I’m not against doctors, I believe they are a gift from God, but it can be easy to take them for granted.

6. Prayers that are contrary to God’s will and glory obstruct answers to prayer

1 John 5:14 NLT

And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

Romans 12:2 NLT

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

John 14:13–14 NLT

You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

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most translations of 1 John 5:14 say that if we ask anything according to His will, we will have it.

Remember, God’s will is not some elusive thing that you can never understand. Paul says that if you allow your mind to be renewed, you can know the will of God. As you come to understand what the will of God is, you can also understand what kind of prayers are and are not according to His will.

For example. Peter writes that God’s desire is that all will come to a knowledge of repentance. So will God answer a prayer that may turn someone away from repentance? Probably not.

This comes back to the way Jesus taught us to pray. Father, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

7. Individualism and pride hinder answers to prayer

1 Corinthians 12:27 NLT

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

2 Corinthians 1:11 NLT

And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

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this ties back to the very first point I made about why you need to pray. From the beginning, sin has drawn us to do things our own way. Part of the journey of faith is recognition that you need God, He is the source of all good things.

But not only are made to be dependent on God, we are made to be dependent on each other. We need to not only be in prayer for our own needs, but the prayers of other as well.

I have to say, I have been so blessed by the way you have been using the prayer wall on the app. It blesses me to see us as a church, relying on each other in prayer. Thank you!

So there it is, 7 reasons God doesn’t always answer our prayers.

Doublemindedness

Inaction

Wrong motives

Sinful Behavior

Self-indulgence

Prayers that are contrary to God’s will and glory

Individualism

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Remember, the reason I point these out is not to discourage you, but to encourage you in your prayer life. As people who want to see God move in our lives, we should want to remove any and all hindrances, and this is a good start.

Let’s Pray

1. What stood out from the message?

2. Which reason stood out to you as to why prayers aren’t answered? Why did it stand out?

3. Pray for one another. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything that may be hindering answers to pray in your life.