Unanswered prayers

[leothelioness]

So, this may be hard, if not impossible question to answer as none of us know what God's motives are, but what do you think would be the reason for God not answering prayers? Or at the very least allowing a great time to pass before prayers are answered?

I'm just curious as to what you all think as I'm going through a situation with this right now where I feel like God is not hearing me. My prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears now.

 

[LadyL]

I don't know what you are asking, but maybe it's to strengthen you in your walk? Right now I want to be completely delivered from my anxiety issues and while I don't have panic attacks anymore(thank you Lord) I am still having a lot of trouble with the anxiety and OCD. I want total healing and I need it right now! But it may not be for me to have it for whatever reason.

Maybe it's to learn that you have to depend on God and only God as your source, no one else can do what he can and nothing else will satisfy like he can.

There could be so many reasons, IMHO.

 

[Allen1901]

During these times I usually look to the book of James.

God Bless You, Leo!

 

[leothelioness]

I don't know what you are asking, but maybe it's to strengthen you in your walk? Right now I want to be completely delivered from my anxiety issues and while I don't have panic attacks anymore(thank you Lord) I am still having a lot of trouble with the anxiety and OCD. I want total healing and I need it right now! But it may not be for me to have it for whatever reason.

Maybe it's to learn that you have to depend on God and only God as your source, no one else can do what he can and nothing else will satisfy like he can.

There could be so many reasons, IMHO.

Our struggles are very similar, LL.

I have made it known to God that I can do nothing without His help, so I think He already knows that I depend on Him. I know what it's like to want total healing.

 

[stephanieamber]

Our struggles are very similar, LL.

I have made it known to God that I can do nothing without His help, so I think He already knows that I depend on Him. I know what it's like to want total healing.

Begin Stephanie sharing an awkward amount of personal information and feeling very vulnerable!:

I struggle with OCD something FIERCE. I've done the therapy/meds route and it wasn't working. One day I found myself sitting on my bathroom floor, overwhelmed with the self-destructive nature of what I was dealing with, crying out to God "I KNOW you can heal me. I TRUST you can! Why won't you? Why would you keep this from me?"

The Spirit stirred in me to read my life verse (2 Cor 12:9) in context, where it talks about Paul's thorn in the flesh. Regardless of what it may or may not have been, it is relevant to my struggle.

So I spent a lot of time wrestling with God in prayer - HOW COULD YOU BE LOVING, and watch me suffer? How can I believe in you and pray to you, if you are allowing all of this pain in my life?

And finally, my heart was calmed and the Lord really laid on my heart that I will NEVER see complete healing while on the earth. The closer I remain in my walk, the more the symptoms of OCD are alleviated, but they won't ever go away.

It's been two years, and God's promise has remained. I completely trust that God COULD heal me.. but to keep me humble, I daily struggle with this stuff.

God's beyond us. His thoughts are, his reasoning, his understanding, his motives. There's no way I'd even try to say why God doesn't respond, except that he knows best, despite what our limited eyes can see.

One of my FAVORITE songs says:

I'm in His hands,
I'm in His hands,
whatever the future holds,
I'm in His hands.
The days I cannot see
have all been planned for me.
His way is best, you see
I'm in His hands.

 

[Intrepid99]

Just imagine, how much more did Moses and children of Israel went through the same question when they were wandering for 40 yrs in desert. God teaches certain lessons during the waiting period that probably can only be learned during such times in an individuals life. Primarily,

1. Humility - we are not the masters of our domain. We are dependent on Him.
2. Faith - faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see
3. Spirituality - man shall not live by bread alone.

(As said by a preacher named Ravi.)

 

[E.C.]

So, this may be hard, if not impossible question to answer as none of us know what God's motives are, but what do you think would be the reason for God not answering prayers? Or at the very least allowing a great time to pass before prayers are answered?

I'm just curious as to what you all think as I'm going through a situation with this right now where I feel like God is not hearing me. My prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears now.

I have two thoughts on this.

1) Perhaps what one is praying for is something that is not good for oneself.

2) Perhaps the prayer has been answered, but one does not see that it has been answered.

 

[EazyMack]

I definitely second Allen's advice of reading the book of James.

Also, from my experience, unanswered prayer is due to God having a better plan in mind than I do.

Praying for ya.

 

[GQ Chris]

Maybe the answer is not unanswered, but maybe it's ..... "wait" my daughter.

 

[kevlite2020]

Leo, I don't want to guess what you are praying for or assume anything, but I'll just say two things I think about prayer in general...

One, the power of a righteous person's prayer is powerful. Most of the times that I feel my prayers aren't being effective at all, I think a big part of it is because I'm not living very godly or humbling myself well before Him, and as a result my prayers don't seem that powerful. When I really humble myself and come before Him with all my heart, that's when I feel I have power in my prayers.

And the other thing, it says in Psalms to "delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Sometimes I pray in the perspective of what my selfish desires want and not in a perspective of delighting in God and seeking after His will and things that He would want for me. When I seek His will, when I pray for things that are good and I'm praying not just because of selfishness, those prayers seem to have a lot more power.

 

[JCFantasy23]

Sometimes we are not meant to have the prayers answered immediately, as some here have said. And sometimes the answer isn't what we're looking for either. I would keep praying about it and keep faith.

 

[leothelioness]

Begin Stephanie sharing an awkward amount of personal information and feeling very vulnerable!:

I struggle with OCD something FIERCE. I've done the therapy/meds route and it wasn't working. One day I found myself sitting on my bathroom floor, overwhelmed with the self-destructive nature of what I was dealing with, crying out to God "I KNOW you can heal me. I TRUST you can! Why won't you? Why would you keep this from me?"

The Spirit stirred in me to read my life verse (2 Cor 12:9) in context, where it talks about Paul's thorn in the flesh. Regardless of what it may or may not have been, it is relevant to my struggle.

So I spent a lot of time wrestling with God in prayer - HOW COULD YOU BE LOVING, and watch me suffer? How can I believe in you and pray to you, if you are allowing all of this pain in my life?

And finally, my heart was calmed and the Lord really laid on my heart that I will NEVER see complete healing while on the earth. The closer I remain in my walk, the more the symptoms of OCD are alleviated, but they won't ever go away.

It's been two years, and God's promise has remained. I completely trust that God COULD heal me.. but to keep me humble, I daily struggle with this stuff.

God's beyond us. His thoughts are, his reasoning, his understanding, his motives. There's no way I'd even try to say why God doesn't respond, except that he knows best, despite what our limited eyes can see.

One of my FAVORITE songs says:

This post is an absolute blessing to me. Thank you for that, Stephanie.

 

[leothelioness]

Just imagine, how much more did Moses and children of Israel went through the same question when they were wandering for 40 yrs in desert. God teaches certain lessons during the waiting period that probably can only be learned during such times in an individuals life. Primarily,

1. Humility - we are not the masters of our domain. We are dependent on Him.
2. Faith - faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see
3. Spirituality - man shall not live by bread alone.

(As said by a preacher named Ravi.)

Ravi Zacharias I assume? I like him.

 

[LadyL]

Steph, your post was beautiful- thank you for being vulnerable with us.
I have always believed that I would be healed on this side as well. But maybe I won't. *shrugs* I just have to do the best with what I've got. No matter how troubling it gets.

Just because we don't get the answers we think we need or the way we want our prayers answered. But that doesn't mean we stop praying to God.
I just believe that sometimes the answer is just No.

I heard a beautiful song that really touched my heart and wanted to share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlL8LayF0uw

 

[Thunder Peel]

Maybe it's just me but I find it rare for God to ever give me a definite answer on anything. It seems I never know what He wants me to do and I just have to learn through experience. I have a great Christian friend who said that he often feels the same way. This is probably one of the reasons why I don't pray much anymore, because it seems like God either isn't listening or is completely indifferent and doesn't bother to give me any clear answers. I still pray for others but I gave up on praying for myself long ago. All I can guess is that's it due to sin and God doesn't feel that I've earned a clear answer or His help.

 

[SmileAndAHandshake]

So, this may be hard, if not impossible question to answer as none of us know what God's motives are, but what do you think would be the reason for God not answering prayers? Or at the very least allowing a great time to pass before prayers are answered?

I'm just curious as to what you all think as I'm going through a situation with this right now where I feel like God is not hearing me. My prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears now.

I don't ask God for much, so I never have this mysterious phenomenon of "unanswered prayers"

I consider prayer to be communication to God, not just "God, I want/need the following things out of life." It's like calling my mom every so often.. I'm not asking her for money or food, I'm just calling to say hi. Except I talk to God more than my mom

I think God doesn't answer prayers because people ask unreasonable things of Him that He can't really do. For instance... I recall someone a few months back on another forum desperately asking for a job transfer from her employer and that person informed us that she wanted to "Get away from" her supervisor. She was her assistant. She asked us to pray to God she got the transfer.

But think about it: What if the supervisor needed her? what if that supervisor was also praying to God that she stayed right where she was, as her assistant?

Do we really believe God chooses "sides"? That God picks and chooses based on.. what.. how many times we go to church, how often we pray, how much we read the Bible?

Well, I don't. It's like saying "Two people survived a car crash and one didn't... man, God is a miracle worker [for the two people]." Yeah, but what about the guy who died? Didn't pray enough?

I think more things in life are completely random than we'd like to believe. As a result, people expect way too much from God. God gave us free will that He really can't interfere with, it was a gift and taking away that gift would be essentially saying "Whoops, I totally made a mistake here". But God doesn't make mistakes.

God guides us, and God gives us a chance to listen to what He has to say. But I don't believe God just "gives us" things, or forces our hand... I think God leads us to opportunity if we're listening, but you can only lead a horse to water -- you can't make him drink.

Hmm.. this became a lot longer than I figured it would. Sorry. That really does explain my position though. People don't pray enough for guidance, being open to the possibility that their ideas in their head may not even be good for them. Don't pray for the transfer (as per the first example)... pray for the guidance of what God thinks is best, and the strength to overcome obstacles. That's a prayer He can say yes to and give you useful information regarding. If you keep yourself focused on the objective of the prayer (the job transfer) instead of the medium (God), you really lose sight of God all together. That's when people get unanswered prayers.

 

[Mrs. Luther073082]

Well, there's all sorts of prayers, so there's all sorts of reasons why God wouldn't answer them the way we'd like. He always has a reason. There's a song called "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks that you should listen to; here's the lyrics:

Just the other night a hometown football game
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them the past came back to me
And I couldn't help but think of the way things used to be
She was the one that I'd wanted for all times
And each night I'd spend prayin' that God would make her mine
And if he'd only grant me this wish I wished back then
I'd never ask for anything again
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn't much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he's doin' after all
And as she walked away and I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
Some of God's greatest gifts are all too often unanswered...
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

 

[Luther073082]

Leo you have to trust God on these things. Perhaps in the future you will see why you didn't get what you asked for. Or perhaps as EC said, you did receive it but not in the way you intended.

Or sometimes it just takes patience for these things.

When I was in high school, I really wanted a relationship and was lonely. I had low confidence. I would have prayed to God for one had I actually belived he existed at the time.

Now here are two things I know now.

Prior to my senior year I had extremely low confidence. I didn't realize how low it was until later in college (when I had higher confidence) I started working for an abuse victim advocacy group, where we would go to middle schools and act out scenes of dating abuse and domestic abuse. And basically to play the victim of emotional abuse, I would simpily tap into the type of person I used to be when I was in my first 3 years of HS.

That means basically, my first 3 years of HS I would have been a prime target for emotional abuse. And with my confidence at the time, I would have just accepted it. Of course abuse would not help my confidence at all and could have prevented its improvement throughout my senior year of HS and in college.

I did have an opprotunity with someone my senior year, (who would have been good for the time, but not in the long term considering I have changed) But she wasn't what I had in mind. We where always just "friends" even though I cared about her and we where close (way too close for "just friends") I went to prom with her. . . "As friends" of course. Stupid me at the time, but perhaps better in the long term.

The good news is that A. I know it would not have lasted because of how much I've changed. And B. I am with someone I am in love with and is perfect for the person I am now.

While I didn't pray for these things because I didn't belive in God, I would have prayed had I did belive. But the thing is I recognize now how A. God spared me from my own desires that could have been harmful to me. B. The thing that I wanted, I had the opprotunity for if I would have recognized it as such.

And really relationship wise, I'm very happy where I have ended up. I'm marrying a beautiful woman whom I love and just a couple years ago I honestly did not belive I would have had a chance of landing a date with her, much less marrying her.

(And honestly I'm still confused as to how I pulled this one off.)

 

[songz777]

So, this may be hard, if not impossible question to answer as none of us know what God's motives are, but what do you think would be the reason for God not answering prayers? Or at the very least allowing a great time to pass before prayers are answered?

I'm just curious as to what you all think as I'm going through a situation with this right now where I feel like God is not hearing me. My prayers seem to be falling on deaf ears now.

There is HOPE this is very painful I know as I am there my self. God wants us to learn the lost art of perstant prayer when He seems silent.
He wants us to press on agaisnt all hope, even when we feel utter discouragment pain and even as if God doesnt care two bits about us,.

Jesus said we should always pray and not give up.. and goes on to teach the parable of the persistant widow who gets justice just because she kept asking.

So hey dont give up God is tesing you... the pain is real the tears are real and so to will the answer.. and mine is many years of asking in faith.

 

[GQ Chris]

The Christian life is not a rose garden.