Christianate: Ten Reasons Behind Unanswered/ Delay In Prayers.

 

Prayer is an inevitable channel by which we tender our requests and grievances to God. Prayer as an inevitable channel portrays a symbolic and vital representation of - 
-the necessity of prayer only through which we can communicate on a daily basis with God.

There are so many reasons why people choose to pray, but one important thing about prayer is that it is the process of asking or requesting. There are so many things that precede or surround this act of requesting or asking. There are certain rules and ethics which govern the act of asking and receiving. For example, a man just walked up to a certain fellow on the road that he never knew before and demands for a fortune, such request will be considered as ridiculous; in the first place, the man requesting doesn’t know the man he is requesting from and secondly making such request from someone you just met for the first time is more ridiculous. Considering another analogy, a father-son relationship, where the son just offended his father and went to his father to request for something without apologizing, it is quite obvious that such request will not be granted until that son goes to apologize for his wrongs then will he be attended to by his father.

The above instances also apply to our relationship with God, if we don’t know God in this case love Him, (1 John 4:8) then there is no way our request will ever be granted. Secondly, we can’t expect our request to be granted with a guilty mind and conscience until our guilty conscience is been resolved. Christ has given us an assurance in (Mathew 7:7); Ask and it shall be given unto you… Even though there is an assurance, there is also a prequalification for getting access to God’s generosity.

The above is just the few ways by which the answers to our request is been obstructed. Below is a list of ten on various ways by which our prayers are obstructed, delayed and unanswered.

1.      Sin: This is undoubtedly a major reason why our prayers are unanswered (Isaiah 59:2).

2.     Doubt: When we talk about doubt, we talk about been doubled minded. This is a state when someone is uncertain about the answer to his or her prayers and this poses a high hurdle to our prayers been answered. (James 1:6).

3.      Fear: Unlike doubt, the level of uncertainty here is very high. In this case you are not even sure if our prayer will be answered. To some extent you just believe that your prayer won’t be answered, and sometimes at the middle of your prayers, you decide to retreat.  This fear may be as a result of certain circumstances; such as fear of man, current traumatic experiences, ordeals, etc. (Isa 51:7; 12, psalm 111:10).

4.    Faithlessness:  According to Hebrews 11:1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Whenever we lack faith in whatever we do then the possibility of not getting a possible outcome is certain. According to (Mathew 17:20) and beyond, faith acts like a king who gives order that something be done in a given community and that thing required is been carried out. They king gives the order with confidence and believe that whatever he says will be done. So it is when we have faith, we make our request with confidence and believe that our request will be granted. It is also important to state that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

5.   Principalities:  (Ephesians 6:12) for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. A clear example is the case of Daniel, precisely in (Daniel chapter 10:12&13) where Daniel’s answer was held for twenty and one days by the Prince of Persia.

6.    Unpreparedness: This could range from unstable thoughts, feelings, emotions and grief as a result of some undesirable circumstances. It may also be as a result of an unsettled dispute with someone that troubles you continuously (Mathew 5:24), and this poses a huge threat to the effectiveness of ones prayer..

7.   Inordinate Request: There are certain requests that are abominable in the sight of God and some request are seen as not deserving or not of necessity in the sight of God. For example, a level 100 student requesting for a car rather than wisdom to enable him pass his exams, such request will considered as lousy and appalling likewise a fellow praying for the death of another fellow such request can never be considered by God.

8.      Lack of importunity: This point can find its bearing point from the book of Luke 11:5-9, the story Jesus narrated about a friend who was on a journey and came to his fellow friend by night to request for certain things, but his friend due to the weakness in bed together with the fact that he was with his family, was reluctant at first to yield to the request of his friend, but due to much asking and persistency in his request, the friend eventually rose up and gave him as much as he needed. Laxity in this case would be seen as a clear opposite of importunity. Some people just pray just because they are been asked to pray and without a clear purpose, some might have a purpose but are very shallow about it and this in turn makes God think we are not serious in our request and can easily blur the chances of us getting an answer.

9.   Nonchalant Attitude Towards Commitment To Tithe: There is no way we can rob God and still except Him to answer to answer our prayers as clearly stated in the book of Malachi 3:8-9. Except we do the needful by paying our tithes, then will Malachi 3:10 work for us.

10.  Inability to Follow Christ’s Model  of Prayer: Christ’s model of prayer also known as the “Lord’s prayer” is a perfect model for every effective prayer. The inability to trace the blue print of this model is one area where most Christians get it wrong and they seem to ask themselves this same question “where is it I am getting it wrong?” Inability to follow Christ’s model of prayer as recorded in Matthew 6:9-13, makes our prayer ineffective hence not giving us the required result. The prayer is a simple but complex prayer as most people still don’t understand the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer. First the prayer teaches us to reverence our heavenly fathers name at the start of our prayers. This is a significant indication that Jesus Christ himself knew the importance of hallowing God’s name and has set the model clear to us. The mistake we often make here is whenever we start a prayer we often use “In Jesus name” which is not right. Since we pray through Jesus Christ, then that phrase should always come at the end of every prayer as “In Jesus name we pray”. There are other things to be learnt from Christ’s model of prayer such as; selflessness, forgiveness, guidance and so on. Apply this model and you will see God’s speed in answering prayers.