Why are my Prayers not Answered? - Part I

  Prayer is very powerful when a human heart is yielded to the all-powerful God of this universe. Many times, however, we can feel that our prayers are not being heard or answered. We end up going through a “dry spell” spiritually in our relationship with the Lord and wonder “why?”

  The truth is that the prayers we pray are always heard and answered. They may not be answered in the way we thought they should have been, but they have been answered and heard. If go through times we feel this is not the case it is probably due to some hindrances in our own personal lives.

  One hindrance I would like to look at today is the hindrance of unconfessed sin in our lives. If we are going through a spell where our prayers feel like they are bouncing off a brick wall we need to look at ourselves internally, and see if there is some unconfessed sin we have been unwilling to give up.

Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”

  The term regard in that verse is talking about a sin that I still enjoy or view with pleasure. It is something that has gripped me and I am unwilling to let go. If I go to the Lord with such sin in my life that I will not yield and give up to His control why would He listen to or answer a prayer of mine?

Isaiah 59:1-2 – “Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

  You see, according to this verse God hears our prayers, but our unconfessed sin separates us from God and the blessing that He wants to give us. God cannot bless someone who is willfully living their life out of His will in open sin. That would be like rewarding a rebellious child for their rebellion. It is just not going to happen.

  So when you are going through a “dry spell” spiritually, and your prayers seem to fall like bricks to the ground, make sure you don’t have any unconfessed sin in your life. That is step one when it comes to hindrances in our prayer life.