No Such Thing As Truly Unanswered Prayer

by Kevin Burton

   Parents don’t give children everything they want. They have reasons for saying no sometimes.

   Your Heavenly Father is of course much wiser than earthly parents. So we shouldn’t be surprised sometimes, when even fervent prayers are met with silence.

   “When we pray, we are engaging in the most precious and God-given act of communication with the One to whom we are accountable for all we do,” reads a passage on the website www.gotquestions.org. “Yet, when we pray or speak to the One in heaven, there are times when He seems not to answer.”

   “In one sense, God answers every prayer with a ‘yes,’ a ‘no,’ or a ‘wait.’ In every case, though, Scripture suggests that our prayers are being dealt with. God hears our prayers and will respond, but He will do so in His timing which is for our good and His glory.”

   Why does God delay or deny an answer to prayer?

    “Often, but not always, prayer is unanswered because of unconfessed sin. God cannot be mocked or deceived, and He who sits enthroned above knows us intimately, down to our every thought (Psalm 139:1-4),” reads the passage. “If we are not walking in the Spirit or we harbor enmity in our hearts toward our brother or we ask for things with the wrong motives (such as from selfish desires), our prayers are negatively impacted (2 Chron. 7:14; Psalm 66:18; James 4:3).”

   “Sin hinders our ability to be in fellowship with God, and it hinders our prayers. Unbelief (Proverbs 15:8) and hypocrisy (Mark 12:40) also negatively impact our prayers.”
   “Another reason why prayer seems to go unanswered is that the Lord is drawing out of our faith a deeper reliance and trust in Him, which should bring out of us a deeper sense of gratitude, love and humility. In turn, this causes us to benefit spiritually, for He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34).”

   “God often delays in answering prayer. We have several instances of this in the Bible,” wrote Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry. “Jacob did not get the blessing from the angel until near the dawn of day—he had to wrestle all night for it. The poor woman of Syrophoenicia received no answer for a long while. Paul asked the Lord three times for ‘a thorn in the flesh’ to be taken from him, and he received no assurance that it would be removed, but instead a promise that God’s grace would be sufficient for him,”

   “Our Father has personal reasons for keeping us waiting,” Begg writes. “Sometimes it is to show His power and His sovereignty, so that we may learn that God has a right to give or to withhold.”

   “More often the delay is for our benefit. You are perhaps kept waiting in order that your desires may be more fervent. God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if He keeps you waiting, you will see your need more clearly and will seek more diligently.

   “There may also be something wrong in you that needs to be removed before the joy of the Lord is given,” Begg writes. “Perhaps your views of the gospel plan are confused, or you may be relying upon yourself instead of trusting simply and entirely in the Lord Jesus. Or God makes you wait for a while so that He may display the riches of His grace more abundantly in the end.”

   “Your prayers are all filed in heaven, and if not immediately answered they are certainly not forgotten, but in a little while they will be fulfilled to your delight and satisfaction. Do not allow despair to make you silent, but continue to present your requests to God,” Begg writes.
   “God may seem silent to us, but He never sends us away empty-handed,” reads the gotquestions passage. “Even if prayer has not been answered, we must rely upon God to do so in His own time.  Even the exercise of prayer is a blessing to us; it is because of our faith that we are stirred to persist in prayer. It is faith that pleases God (Heb. 11:6), and if our prayer life is wanting, does that not reflect our spiritual standing also?