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Prayer
When Does God Answer Prayers?
If you have had children or at least been around them, you can probably relate to this analogy. Say your 7-year-old asks you to stay home from school and asks you to give them a real gun and bullets so they can go pretend to rob a bank, like he saw on a TV show last night. This is your child’s true desire. He really feels like he wants it. Are you as a good parent going to let him skip school and give him a dangerous weapon so he can pretend to be a bank robber?
This example is a tad ridiculous, and the answer is obviously no. It is no different when we ask God for our heart’s true desires, if those desires are not going to actually benefit us spiritually. When we pray that your favorite football team make a last second field goal in order to win a big game on which you have placed a large bet, we aren’t praying for something beneficial to others or even yourself, spiritually. Is this prayer in alignment with God’s will? God isn’t going to listen to such a request and here are some scriptural references to drive this home.
Scriptures on When God Doesn’t Answer Prayers
John 9:31
31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
Proverbs 28:9
9 If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.
Psalms 66:18
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
Isaiah 1:15
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
Isaiah 59:2
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
1 Peter 3:12
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
God doesn’t answer the prayers of sinners who have not turned away from their lustful, worldly desires. Isaiah tells us clearly that God wants us to turn away from such desires and do God’s will.
James 4:3
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
God tells us we can’t waste time praying for selfish desires. The reality is God isn’t going to answer your prayers unless you are 1) a believer, and 2) praying for something within God’s will. Those who say they are Christians but have never accepted Christ as Lord of their lives are not likely going to be heard. Those who do not even claim to be Christian have no chance of being heard. If their prayers are answered, then it just happened to match God’s will, luckily.
