Have you ever wondered why your prayers don’t seem to be answered? Is God ignoring You? In this presentation, Pastor Mark Finley studies the intricacies of prayer and discovers the potential barriers that might be hindering your connection with the God. From the heartwarming stories of answered prayers to the profound lessons from the scriptures, journey with us as we explore the reasons behind unanswered prayers and the power of faith, patience, and perseverance. Learn how to align your prayers with God’s will, the importance of self-reflection, and the significance of praying with genuine intent. Join Pastor Mark as he uncovers the transformative power of prayer and the boundless love of God. Stay tuned till the end for a special segment on the impact of intercessory prayers and why praying for others can be a game-changer.

<p>Have you ever wondered why your prayers don’t seem to be answered? Is God ignoring You? In this presentation, Pastor Mark Finley studies the intricacies of prayer and discovers the potential barriers that might be hindering your connection with the God. From the heartwarming stories of answered prayers to the profound lessons from the scriptures, journey with us as we explore the reasons behind unanswered prayers and the power of faith, patience, and perseverance. Learn how to align your prayers with God’s will, the importance of self-reflection, and the significance of praying with genuine intent. Join Pastor Mark as he uncovers the transformative power of prayer and the boundless love of God. Stay tuned till the end for a special segment on the impact of intercessory prayers and why praying for others can be a game-changer.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Why Doesn’t God Answer Your Prayer

You've been praying diligently, but something seems blocking your prayers. Let's break down the barriers today. But before we do that, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the invitation to come to you, the God of the universe and pray. We know that your ears are bent low to hear the petitions of your earthborn children. So today, as we study about prayer, give us wisdom and may we be drawn closer to you in Christ's name, amen. Our Hope Lives 365 Media Center is centered here in the Living Hope Seventh-day Adventist Church. We built our church about six years ago. While we were, when we were building it, one day, just before our grand opening, the inspector was making the final inspection. He came to the church and talked to me. And he said, you know, Pastor Mark, you're not gonna be able to open in a few days. I was absolutely shocked because we had sent the invitations out. People were flying in from different parts of the country. It was gonna be a great day of praise and celebration for what God had done. I said, well, sir, what is the problem? He said, a car hit a light pole out in front of your church. And that light pole is actually on your property. It's a unique light pole that matches the other light poles in the shopping center where your church is located at the end of that shopping center. And until you can find a light pole like that and repair that light, you cannot open. I was concerned, deeply concerned. And went home and began to pray. And I prayed, dear Lord, this is gonna be a miracle. I have no idea where that light pole is, none whatsoever. But Lord, you know, we need to find that light pole. And as I was praying, the Lord impressed me. You don't know the factory that made it, but why don't you call the manager of the shopping center and ask her? I had developed a relationship with this manager, cordial, friendly relationship as we were building the church. So I gave her a call and I said, look, we've got a real problem. We can't open until we find this light pole. And we put it up. Who manufactures it, do you know? She says, I don't know who manufactured it, but I know this. We have one store in the shopping center we haven't rented yet. And in that store, we are storing different things that we may need later. She said, I was in that shop the other day where we're storing these things. And there was the exact light pole you need lying on the floor of the store. And I thought, how can we get rid of this? We don't want it. Pastor Mark, here's the combination to get into that store because we've got a lock on it, a combination lock. Go and get the light pole, put it up. Within 10 minutes, I was there, got our construction people. Within an hour, we had that light pole up. How did I know to call that woman? God impressed me through his Holy Spirit. God does answer prayer. In Psalm 34, verse 17, this is what we read about God in the prayers of the righteous. Psalm 34, verse 17. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. So God longs to answer our prayers. But you say, Pastor Mark, what hinders my prayers at times? At times I pray and it seems that there are no answers. At times I pray and it seems my prayers go up to the ceiling, come back down. Now, there are four things that may hinder our prayers. Number one, if we harbor sin in our life, known sin, we all fail, we all fall short of God's glory, we all make mistakes, but there's a difference in harboring sin. There's a difference in committing rebellion against God when we know what we ought to do. Psalm 66, verse 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Now notice it doesn't say if I sin, it's if I regard iniquity in my heart. In other words, if my heart is in rebellion against God, if I willingly, knowingly live a life out of harmony with God's will, that blocks God's answer to my prayers, why? The only prayer that God would answer for a person who's in active rebellion is a prayer of confession, a prayer of repentance. But if God would shower his richest blessings upon us when we are regarding iniquity in our heart, living in known sin, he would justify that sin. In fact, in the book of Proverbs, chapter 28, verse nine, you have a very similar Bible passage to the one we've just read in Psalm 66. Proverbs 28, verse nine. One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. In other words, if I live a life of knowing, willing rebellion against God, God cannot answer. So the first reason some of our prayers are not answered is because there is known sin in our life. So unanswered prayers lead us to reflect. They lead us to meditate. They lead us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, asking the Holy Spirit to convict us of any known sin in our life that's blocking our prayers. Now, the second reason some prayers are not answered is because when we pray, we pray selfish prayers to simply gratify our selfish desires. You say, Mark, is there a pastor? Mark, is there a Bible text on that? There is. James, chapter four. Remember the book of James right after? The book of Hebrews and James, the fourth chapter. And the Bible puts it this way. It says, James four, verse two. You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because. It says you ask and do not receive. That's your prayer and you not receive. Why? Because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures. In other words, if the motive in my prayer is simply to gratify my own selfish desires and pleasures, God does not hear. Reminds me of a story I heard about a little girl. She was five years old. Now, her prayer can be justified, although she didn't get an answer because she's five. She's one day kneeling by her bed and praying. And her father passes by the room. The little girl's praying like this. Dear Lord, I want as a pet, a pink elephant. Lord, you know I want a pink elephant more than anything else. Lord, please send me a pink elephant. After she stopped praying, her father came down into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. She was all tucked in, holding her teddy bear, getting ready to go to sleep. And daddy looked at her and he said, honey, I heard you praying for a pink elephant. Oh yes, daddy. I was asking Jesus for a pink elephant. Honey, where are we gonna keep that pink elephant? Oh, daddy, you can build a barn in the backyard for it. We can keep it there. Who's gonna feed the pink elephant? They eat a lot of food. Oh, daddy, you can feed it every morning. Who's gonna pay for the food? Oh, daddy, you can pay for it. Then he thought, I got this one. You know, pink elephants make a lot of doo-doo, honey. Big piles of doo-doo. Who's gonna clean it up? Oh, daddy, you could do that too. Do you think God ever answered your prayers for a pink elephant? You say, Pastor Mark, of course not. But if you prayed for pink elephants, things that you wanted, when we're praying, one of the things we want to do is align our prayers with God's will. You remember in John chapter eight, verse 29, Jesus in his prayer said, I do always those things that please him. And in Psalm 37, it says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. If I delight myself in the Lord, my desires become his desires. So when I'm praying, I don't force or superimpose my will upon God's will. That hinders my prayers. When I'm praying, I say, God, is this your will? God, I only want to do things that please you. So two reasons our prayers are hindered and two solutions. One, there's known sin in our life. The solution is meditation, and asking the Holy Spirit to convict us if there is something in our life blocking our prayers. Second is we pray selfish prayers and those selfish prayers block God's will. So the answer to that is saying, God, what do you want? God, all I want is your will. The third is faithless prayers. So the first is prayers with sinful nature, sins in our life. The second issue is selfish prayers. The third is faithless prayers. You remember the story of Jesus who comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration. His disciples are there trying to cast demons out of a child. The father has brought the child. The child's writhing in pain and suffering and his eyes are rolling in his head. He's foaming at the mouth and the disciples have no power to cast out the demon. Jesus comes down and cast the demon out. And Jesus tells them in Matthew chapter 17, exactly what happens. In Matthew 17, Jesus tells them why they couldn't cast out that demon. Matthew 17 and verse 20. So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, move, and from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you. Was Jesus indicating that if you had enough faith, you could move Mount Rushmore, Mount Whitney? Not at all. What he was saying is the mountains of difficulties will move, the mountains of problems will move, the mountains of challenges will move if you have enough faith. Dwight Moody tells the story of traveling from England to a speaking appointment in Canada. And the captain came and said to the passengers, the boat is fogged in. We are not gonna be able to land, make land in a sufficient time as we had planned. We're gonna be many hours late. Moody knew he would miss his appointment. So he said to the captain, let's go down into the hold and pray. The captain was a supposed Christian. Moody prayed a simple prayer. Dear Lord, I've never been on an appointment that I haven't asked you ahead of time if it's your will. You revealed to me this was your will. And so Lord, all I want to know is, Lord, your power, your grace, reveal yourself to us and clear this fog. As he finished praying, he said, Lord, by faith, I know you'll do it because I'm on your assignment. The captain was going to pray. Moody tapped him on the shoulder. He said, captain, you don't need to pray for two reasons. One, God already answered my prayer. And two, you don't believe he'll answer yours. They got up and went upstairs. And soon, gradually, the fog began to lift and Moody made his appointment. When you pray, if you do not believe that God is gonna answer your prayers, that is a hindrance. Now, there's a fourth reason why our prayers are not apparently answered. And that is timing. We pray, but it's not God's time. You remember the story in the book of Daniel, where Daniel prays for three weeks for Cyrus to sign the decree that the Israelites could go free from Medo-Persian bondage. Babylon had fallen. The 70-year captivity was about up. And as it's about up, Daniel's praying. He prays for three weeks. There is no apparent answer to his prayers. At the end of three weeks, Jesus comes to him. Daniel faints at the glory of Christ. Then an angel comes, likely the angel Gabriel comes, to explain to Daniel what has been going on. And Daniel 10, verse 12, then he said to me, that's the angel, do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard and have come because of your words. So from the first day Daniel prayed, his prayers were heard, but Daniel didn't see that. There was a timing issue. As Daniel prayed, that Cyrus would have light in his mind and that the decree would be signed, the evil angels were bringing darkness into Cyrus' mind. They were wanting Cyrus not to let Israel go free. And there was this battle between good and evil, for we've wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and evil places, Ephesians 6, verse 10 to 12. And so eventually, eventually, Jesus comes down and the evil angels flee and Cyrus signs the decree. But if you were Daniel, you'd have thought, and if you didn't have faith, you'd have thought your prayers were going up to the ceiling and bouncing back, but they weren't. God was working out the solution. So there are three things to remember here, that God is teaching us when there are no apparent answers to our prayers. He wants to teach us patience. He wants to teach us perseverance. And he also longs to teach us the praise, to praise him when our prayers are not being answered, knowing that he will answer. So if our prayers are not being answered, what do we do? We examine our heart to see if there's any sin in our life. Secondly, if our prayers are not being answered, am I praying a selfish prayer? Thirdly, if our prayers are not being answered, we say to ourselves, Lord, I want only your will, my loving heavenly father. And all I want to do is what you want me to do. And I'm gonna pray in faith, believing that you will answer. And then if our prayers are not being answered, we have patience, we persevere, we praise God knowing that from the first time we prayed, God hears and God in his own time, in his own way is working out a solution. Trust him, trust him and trust him some more. He loves you. He will answer your prayers. You've understood why God might delay or deny an answer. But have you ever wondered if praying for others really makes a difference? If you wanna know the answer, watch this video next. This media was brought to you by AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about AudioVerse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org. Thank you.

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Why Doesn’t God Answer Your Prayer

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