Why Was My Prayer Not Answered? Part 2

Why is it that so often, when I pray, nothing happens? We’ve been wondering about that. We’ve found out that there are some kinds of prayer that God won’t respond to. But sometimes even good prayers don’t get results. There are things we ask for that we know it’s right and good to ask for — we know because God has told us so in His word — but sometimes, even when we pray for those things, nothing seems to happen. Why might that be?

Here are three possibilities.

1. It may be that God is refining your faith.

If you are praying for something that you know God ought to do because he has promised in His word that He will and that thing doesn’t come about, that will test your faith. Will you keep believing God’s word and keep praying or will you give up asking? When your faith is tested like that, it will get stronger if you persevere, but if you give up, it will get weaker.

2. It may be that God has other things to do before He answers your prayer.

When God called and sent Isaiah to speak for Him (you can read about it in Isaiah 6), He told him that nobody would listen. Before the people would be ready to listen God had other things to do. It’s never wrong to pray that people will respond to God’s Word and be saved but maybe God has other things to do before it can happen. When you pray you must remember that God has plans and things to do that you don’t know about. You must be patient and not give up praying because things don’t happen the way you want them to, or as quickly as you would like them to.

3. It may be that other things are going on that you don’t understand.

In the days of Cyrus, Daniel prayed and fasted. As far as he could see nothing was happening in response to his prayers until after three full weeks an angel showed up and explained to him:

“From the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.”

Daniel 10:12 – 13

The moment Daniel started to pray the angel set out to come to him but a demon stood in his way. It took three weeks of fighting and help from the archangel Michael before he could make it to Daniel. Daniel’s prayer instigated and influenced the outcome of that battle, even though he knew nothing about it. It may be that when you are praying things are going on in the unseen world that you know nothing about, but your prayers are important in determining their outcome.

God loves to give good things to His children. You can trust Him on that. Keep praying.