Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — )
PROGRAM D-8480
Do you really believe that God answers prayers? The question I’ve been examining is, “What if all your prayers were answered?” In truth, we all could recite any number of prayers we’ve prayed which have not been answered. So, why does God answer some and not others? I’m confident we’ve all struggled with that question.
It may be that your unanswered prayers are one of God’s greatest blessings for you. I’m sure you can think of prayers which you’ve earnestly prayed and wanted, and now you see what a blessing it was that God didn’t answer your prayer.
Years ago before I began this ministry, I thought that God wanted me to go into church music of some kind because, after all, I had a degree in music and I had directed my church choir for a few years. So, I prayed earnestly for God to open that door. I put my house on the market to get ready to go back to school for more training. I studied to be ready to pass the entrance exam to a good music school. God didn’t answer that prayer and I’m so thankful he didn’t because he had a different path for me, one which I’ve loved even better than music!
Other reasons God may not answer your prayers are these:
- God is waiting for you to be obedient.
- It isn’t the right time.
- You aren’t asking in faith.
- God has something better for you than what you are asking for.
It is during the unanswered prayers of our lives that we learn what it means to trust God—or at least it should be that way. My pastor often said, “Only desperate people pray.” Isn’t it often true that when we get to a desperate stage in our lives, we pray more than any other time? The spiritual growth that comes in the waiting stages of our lives—waiting for God to answer our prayers—is usually greater than any other stage of life. We’re desperate; we pray; we listen. God hears and guides, and we learn that he is a trustworthy God, even when our prayers go unanswered.
Click on the link below for a list of many other Bible passages—prayers and promises—which you can pray for yourself and others. I want to help you enlarge the content of your prayer life and see how God will use that as a change agent in you. Let’s be intentional about praying with an eternal perspective and watching to see what happens as God answers those prayers.