I shared in the last devotional that God invites us to ask Him for the things we need, and He tells us that we can approach His throne of grace and mercy with boldness. However, some believers struggle in this area and they wonder why their prayers don’t get answered.
God is sovereign and omniscient, and we do not know everything unless God reveals it to us. However, there are several scriptures that show us some of the reasons why people do not receive the answer to their prayers.
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:1-3
The above scripture tells us that sometimes people don’t ask or if they ask, they are asking with wrong reasons. When people want something badly enough, they don’t necessarily pray about it, or if they pray, they are just looking for God to put His stamp of approval on they want to do. Sometimes, we are motivated to achieve significance through carnal means. The flesh lusts after what it wants and sometimes we leave no room for God to have say about what we want.
When the worldly things consume our attention, we become carnal in our behavior. People can covet and compete for what others have. They make all kinds of effort to match or outdo others. The problem is that competition always distracts people from what they need and what God has for them. What if what you desire in others’ lives is not God’s purpose for you? In a twisted way, our purpose becomes about competing with others and getting our satisfaction and significance from it.
The Lord does not desire for us to get our joy from competition because that is a faulty value system. He knows that if we rely on competition to make us fulfilled and happy, we will never fully enter in God’s purposes for our lives. Therefore, He answers prayers that are beneficial. At times, He allows us to have what we want, so we can see its emptiness in meeting our needs.
The greater our desire to remain in close relationship to the Lord, the more joy and satisfaction we receive from Him. The Lord settles our hearts, minds, and wills, and we are not compelled to make something happen. The nagging thoughts of inferiority and insignificance become replaced with security and simplicity of faith in Him. We don’t worry about what others think of us or what they have. We only pay attention to God’s thoughts about us.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
One of the big issues in unanswered prayers is that God expects us to believe Him and have faith in Him. With a quiet and settled spirit, we ask God according to His will. Our faith in God is the recognition that God is trustworthy and He knows what we need and when we need it. We trust His integrity and His promises, and we know that He has the best intentions for our lives.We are not looking to spend the answer on our own pleasures, but we are after the glory of God in our midst. The scripture tells us through faith and patience we inherit the promises of God (See Hebrews 6:9-12). Praise God that He is our generous Father, and He knows how to give good gifts to His children!
Lord, today we pray that you would examine our hearts for those prayers that have stemmed from envy and and jealousy. Forgive us when our prayers have been about outdoing others rather than glorifying you. Settle our hearts and fill us with your love and acceptance. We do not want any form of counterfeit to fill our hearts. Change our prayers and make them be the prayers that Jesus would pray on our behalf to the Father. Thank you Lord. Amen!
