When It Seems Like God Isn’t Answering Your Prayers

We have all been in the position when it seems like God isn’t answering our prayers.

You’ve been angry, you’ve cried, you’ve doubted, you’ve lost faith. It seems like God just isn’t coming through for you or what you’ve been praying for. Your heart has grown heavy and you’ve grown tired of the fight.

Maybe you are praying for healing for yourself or a loved one. Maybe you’re praying for your finances. Maybe you’re praying for your state of mind. Maybe you’re praying for God to bring you a spouse or a good group of friends. Maybe you’re just praying that God would show up.

No matter what you are praying for, we have all been there. We have all felt like our prayers are falling to the ground, empty, with no impact. You are not alone.

I have been wanting to address this issue that has been plaguing the church, my friends and my family, as they wonder why their prayers aren’t being answered. And I think there are some questions you need to ask yourself to determine why you think God isn’t answering your prayers.

They may sting, they may be uncomfortable and they may challenge you, but they will help you to see the truth behind your prayer life.

1. Do your prayers line up with the Word?

If you look back at David in the Old Testament, the “man after God’s own heart”, you will see that he was far from perfect. But he was honest.

You can see throughout Psalm 137, for example, that David was praying and crying out for revenge against his enemies and he wasn’t so nice about it. He prayed for death and destruction. But it is natural as a human being to have negative feelings and intense emotions.

And sometimes, we pray out of those intense emotions. And that’s okay! Be real! God wants us to come to Him when we are distraught, hurt, emotional, angry, and upset. Sometimes we even pray for things we shouldn’t.

God is smart enough to take your prayers, listen to them, and respond according to His Word and His will for your life.

So if you are wondering why it seems like God isn’t answering your prayers, dig deep. If it does not line up with the Bible, God will not answer that prayer. It would go against who He is. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. But by reading His Word, you find out who He is, what He wants for us and what He promises to us.

If you are praying for healing, for joy, for rest, for comfort, for peace, for sleep, for answers, for protection, for a path to take, or for provision, those line up with the Word and belong to you as a promise of God.

2 Cor 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

God’s promises are something you can count on and they belong to you as a child of God. Don’t ever doubt that. God wants only good things for you, that’s His character.

2. Are you praying for what you want or what God wants?

I had a hard time with this one. For a long time, I want to be a famous singer. Now, I was talented and I trained hard, but a lot of it just came very easily. I took that as a sign that I should be some pop singer or Broadway actress.

I wish I could go back to that girl and talk to her now. She was very stupid. She wanted things for the wrong reasons, no matter how talented she may have been.

I prayed and prayed that God would open certain doors for me in the performing realm, but it seemed like all the wrong doors kept opening. Then I came to the hard realization that God wanted to use my gifts in a completely different way than I anticipated. He wanted the glory, and from the way I was praying, it was for myself and not for Him.

It changed the way I prayed, what I prayed for and how I grew. When I finally stopped praying for what I wanted and prayed for what God wanted, my whole life changed.

Like if you are praying to God for a specific house you put a bid on, for that cute boy to like you, or for God to kill someone you cannot stand.

Maybe that house isn’t where God wants you to live and he has a better one in mind that’s even cheaper, even though the wait is longer.
Maybe that boy is not the best partner for you and God is protecting you.
And God’s will is not for anyone to die but to have a Jesus-encounter and come to know who God really is, because everybody is redeemable.

If it seems like God isn’t answering your prayers, determine if you’re praying for something that you want, because God may want something completely different than you do. What are the motives behind your prayers? Are you trying to force something?

Because sometimes we try to force God to fit into our own plans and that can be dangerous. Dangerous because we waste a lot of precious time on things that weren’t even meant to be pursued in the first place.

3. Are you actually praying or are you just saying that you are?

Many of us talk about how we have been praying for something for so long and God just isn’t answering our prayers. We get frustrated, lose hope and our faith dwindles away. We start to doubt God, His existence and His power.

But…have you actually been praying or have you just been saying that you have?

Many times we assume that the “intention” to pray or thinking good thoughts is good enough, but sadly, it is not. If it feels like God is not answering your prayers, maybe you haven’t been praying at all.

Ouch! That kinda stung, Sierra. But hey, we are all guilty of it, including myself. But I like to ask myself this very important question…

“Have I prayed about it as much as I’ve talked about it?”

Sometimes I’ve talked or worried about the problem I’m facing much more than I’ve actually taken the time to pray and go to God about it. I don’t want to be one of those Christians who claims to pray all the time but doesn’t.

How many times have you said to someone, “I’ll pray for you!” but never actually pray for them? (I’m raising both hands right now! #guilty) Now, if I tell someone I will pray for them, I have it written down in my daily prayer journal to make sure I do not forget.

We need to stop talking about praying for stuff and just do it. Pray. Tell God how you’re feeling, pray for things, declare God’s promises, believe Him and trust that He will do His part.

4. Do you know how to pray?

Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. And it is HUGE.

In Luke 11:9-10, it says, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

That right there is telling us that God WANTS to answer our prayers.

In Matthew 6:5-14, Jesus tells us that we don’t need to pray for selfish reasons or pray for attention, because it is so much more rewarding when we take it to Jesus personally and on our own. We don’t have to use big words or talk to fill the silence. God already knows what we need before we ask Him, but He asks us to pray as an act of faith and trust.

Jesus then goes on to tell us (vs 9-14 – The Lord’s Prayer) that we come to God with a heart of worship, asking that God’s will and plans be done. That we would be provided for with what we need, that God would forgive us and we would forgive others. That we wouldn’t be lead into temptation but delivered from the evil one.

Jesus goes on to talk about how we really do need to forgive others because God forgives us first and foremost. If Jesus felt the need to talk about forgiveness while instructing his disciples on how to pray, it must be important that we forgive when praying. Especially when our hearts can be so easily clouded with unforgiveness and offense towards others. It can block out and cloud what God is really trying to say and do.

We pray like we talk to our best friend. Not formal but intimate and familiar, from the heart. It is so important we don’t hold on bitterness, hate, anger or our emotions but rather express them to God and surrender them.

That is how we pray. We come in total surrender of our own feelings and plans and ask that God would do what He wants to do. And we also take the time to listen.

5. Are you praying out loud with authority?

God created the world with what? Magic? Nooooooo, my friends. He used His words. He spoke and it was.

Isaiah 55:11 says, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

This means that God’s promises to us will never fail or be unanswered because He already spoke them into existence. We can trust that He will come through. This also means, that when we pray according to God’s Word, that those words have weight and those prayers will come to pass.

It also says, “my word that goes out from my mouth” which means we actually have to speak it for it to have power.

Many people think that if you just pray quietly or in your mind, that it is good enough. And in some circumstances, that’s okay (such as if you are in a certain environment or it is not the best time to be praying out loud).

But let’s be real here for a second.

Let’s just say you are ruler of a kingdom and a violent murderer has been running rampant and somehow makes it in your guarded throne room. They are running right for you with a weapon in their hand.

Do you sit there in silence and let them kill you without a fight? Do you think to yourself, “No, don’t kill me!” or do you actually order your guards detain them?

You would use your words and demand that your guards detain them, fight back and use your legal authority to put them under arrest.

Nobody is going to listen to somebody who just timidly whispers or is silent, especially someone with authority.

That’s kind of how our authority in prayer works. Being a believer, we inherit authority that belongs to us and is ours to use. When we speak out loud, it has power and there’s gravity to the words we speak because it’s outwardly spoken.

When we pray, ask and declare God’s promises, it holds weight. It shows that you have authority and helps us to believe what we are speaking. It also let’s the spiritual realm know who is in charge. And that is God, through us!

(Read “Believer’s Authority” for more on spiritual authority!)

6. What is your attitude like?

I am the first one to admit I have a bad attitude sometimes. I whine and complain, especially about things I’ve already prayed for because it feels like God isn’t answering my prayers.

Whoa. Let me repeat that, I STILL WHINE AND COMPLAIN ABOUT THINGS I’VE ALREADY PRAYED FOR.

That certainly doesn’t show my faith, my perseverance or my trust in God. It shows the opposite. It shows that I lack trust, that I have doubt and that I’m not truly delighting in the Lord.

James 1:3 “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (In fact all of James 1 challenges me to a deep degree)

My Bible tells me to have joy when I’m going through all kinds of problems because it helps me to grow and persevere. Persevere through the pain, through the feelings, through what seems to be hopeless and wait because God will never let me down.

Sometimes God answers prayers immediately. Sometimes He answers my prayers just in time. And sometimes it feels like it takes forever. But He is never late.

If God answered my prayers immediately every time I prayed, I would never grow. It deepens my relationship with Him when it takes longer than expected. It forces me to rely on Him and trust that He’s got me. Sometimes it’s about persistance.

Being persistent that God will answer my prayers because His Word promises it. He might answer it differently than I expect but He will answer it in His way.

We should be rejoicing during the “wait”. It may seem like God isn’t answering your prayers, but maybe He just wants you to lean on Him and delight in Him, regardless of the timing of your answered prayer. When we delight in Him, He fulfills our hearts desires. It’s pure love.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

7. Am I expecting?

Believe you already received when you asked.

Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Believe you receive and THEN you will have it.

So for instance, if I asked my mother to send me something in the mail and she told me it would arrive in two weeks, I would believe her (because she is impeccably reliable lol). I would not keep asking her over and over…I would be expecting it in two weeks and be joyful, thankful and expectant (also read Philippians 4:6-7).

Well, my friends, God is even more dependable than my mother.  So when you ask something that you know is His will, you can relax and be expectant for it to come to pass.  You can stay in peace and not let the enemy steal your joy because you know God will come through at the right time. The joy of the Lord is our strength!

Ask & Remember

If it feels like God isn’t answering your prayers, Ask yourself these hard questions. You may have to change up the way you pray, how you pray or what you pray for. We all have room for boldness and growth.

Remember that God is in the business of answering prayers and he wants to answer them. He is on your team and wants the best for us all. When you pray, believe for it. God’s timing is not always our timing, but His timing is perfect!

God can do the impossible, even if you’ve never seen Him do the impossible before.Let us know if we can agree in prayer with you! We’d love to be there for you!

>>>Related: How to make the most of your year!