Prayer: Why don't I get answers? #1
One of the hardest things about prayer is when we don't receive answers. This leads to discouragement and disillusionment. To pray is to go out on a limb, and when this bears no fruit we are very disappointed.
There are a couple of reasons prayers go unanswered and we'll work through a few of them...
The first reason for unanswered prayer is selfish self-centeredness. When our prayers are consistently focused on ourselves and our own wants and pleasures, then God stops answering. When our prayers reinforce the notion that there is only one god in our lives and that that god is ourselves, then the true God refuses to be the vending machine that dispenses this false notion of deity.
Does this mean that we cannot pray about our needs? No! Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread. It is when we pray for wants more than we pray for needs that God begins to refuse our requests.
If your prayers are unanswered have a candid look at your motives - you may discover more selfish greed there than you thought...
| When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James4:3) |
