Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple and Spotify and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. It's episode three of this mini-series on prayer that I've been calling a bit of a tune-up, you could say, for your prayer life. And we're ending on what I would also argue is a high note, even though this is going to be, for some people, a very uncomfortable topic. I believe it's going to give you uh what I would call a theological answer bank, we'll call it, where you can tap into some of the things I'm going to unpack for you when maybe a friend is going through a difficult time because they're not seeing open doors or they're not feeling like God is really answering their prayers and they have sin in their life, you could offer private counsel. But of course, first and foremost, your own life and my own life can be greatly helped in our walk with Christ and in our prayer life when we consider these particulars. The question for this episode is why doesn't God answer some prayers? And it's an important one. It has a lot of biblical foundations as far as where we would find answers, and the Bible does speak to this. We need to be careful we don't derive answers from other places. First, let me state the obvious. From a previous series that I did on God's will, you may remember that we talked about the sovereignty of God. And I just want to remind you and reiterate, of course, when we're talking about why doesn't God answer certain prayers? God is sovereign, he's gonna do as he pleases, but he will use our prayers to accomplish his purposes. You can actually go back if you want and listen to that series I did previously on God's Will. It's on our YouTube channel, it's also on Apple and Spotify if you want to just listen to it. But we walked through God's will and we know, of course, why doesn't God answer certain prayers? Well, because he has chosen not to at this time. So, on one hand, we don't really have the right to demand that God answer our prayers or do our will, because as we already know from this series, we've looked at it and thought through it. Prayer is about aligning our will with God's will. So we don't make demands of God and we know that he's sovereign. On the other hand, just because God is sovereign doesn't mean we don't pray. Why? Well, the Bible teaches that we ought to pray. Colossians 4, 2 commands that we pray. The Lord's prayer gives us a model for prayer, so many other reasons and other passages, but overall, you get the point. I know the point as well. We've talked about it. We do pray because the Bible calls us to pray, and the Bible has so many wonderful examples of how God has used prayer to open doors and to accomplish his purposes. We see that, of course, in the life of Paul the Apostle, who time and time again is praying for the church, and so many uh of his prayers are answered, and at times he's trying to go places or get the gospel somewhere, and God doesn't necessarily open the door. Second, it's likely that you've heard the Christian platitude that God answers every prayer. I know that even with the best of intentions, parents will tell kids this like God hears every prayer, or you know, God hears every prayer, and he either says yes, no, or not right now. And honestly, I want to speak to that briefly. I don't think it's really harmful to think that way because through circumstances, whether open doors or closed doors, God actually makes one of those three responses really clear. Every prayer is answered with either yes, no, or not right now or not yet. At the same time, I think that you and I should be so careful to jump to one of those conclusions without considering other reasons that God may not be answering or hearing prayers. For many Christians, it's just going to be a matter of God's timing and trusting his will. For many Christians, I want you to hear that again. For many or even most of us. For some professing Christians, and we would definitely say non-Christians as well, can be in this category. There are going to be at least eight reasons that God may not answer, or in some cases, and I'm going to prove this to you from scripture, won't even hear your prayers. Meaning he's choosing, he is selected to close his ear to a prayer. That may seem harsh, but that's why I said earlier, this can be uncomfortable but incredibly helpful. And you need to have this information and this teaching in your theological bank so that you can draw from it in the appropriate circumstances. Disclaimer, be super careful and so discerning to just lump this into a situation and just toss it in there and go, yeah, it's probably this. You know, you must be. And then, no, no, no. Same with your own life. Be so careful that you don't just start heaping guilt on yourself and thinking, oh, it must be this. Costi said that, and that was the verse he used. I mean, there's no getting around that. It is biblical. What he said is, I must be that. Slow down, be discerning, pray and assess the heart, ask the Holy Spirit for help, of course. And consider that in some cases, one of these eight reasons are going to be prevalent. You need to know these. These help us navigate our own sin, they help us counsel, they also diffuse anger at God for a lack of answers. We really need to slow down and be less inclined to blame God when we're not getting the answers we want, and more inclined to assess our hearts and ask, Am I trusting the Lord and waiting on Him? What I'm going to tell you is not to strike fear. You should feel liberated because as you consider these eight reasons that God doesn't answer prayers, if you're a believer, you really shouldn't find much that's a pattern from these. And if you do, you know what next step to take. You repent, you confess, you turn to Christ, and then you walk in his grace. You walk in the forgiveness that Christ gives to sinners who come and repent. Of course, if you're saved, you know in your relationship with God what the next step is. So growing up, maybe you're a parent, maybe you've heard this before, but we are told God hears every prayer. But that one liner is not really found in the Bible. And there's dozens of examples of people and prayers that God either will not answer or in some cases he completely ignores. Let me walk you through these. Here we go. Our list of eight reasons that God may not answer or even hear a prayer. Number one, when you ignore the poor. This in context, Proverbs 21.13 says this one who shuts his ear to the outcry of the poor will also call out himself and not be answered. So, in no uncertain terms, God takes our care of the poor very seriously. And I don't know about you, but if you take the Bible at face value, I do. What Proverbs 21, 13 is getting at here is an attitude that says, you know what? Who cares about people in need? It says, one who shuts his ear to the outcry of the poor. I have no regard for them. I'm just going to close my ear. Who cares? That reflects the kind of merciless attitude that Jesus warns about again and again in his ministry throughout the gospels. So we have to ask, Am I requesting or crying out to God for provision or for care in some way in my life? And yet I actively have a hard-hearted attitude towards others in need? Am I knowingly or pompously ignoring the cries of the needy? Your prayer life could suffer, and it's God's way of waking us up. He's not a vending machine on demand. Meanwhile, we've shut our ear and our eyes to those in genuine need. So when you ignore the outcry of the poor, there is biblical evidence that God will not be responding to your request. We need to be following the example of Christ and have mercy towards those in need and yet go to the Lord for our own. Number two, another reason God doesn't answer or hear a prayer, in this case, answer, you doubt that God can give you wisdom. So in the context here, I'm referring to James 1, 5 through 7. It's a passage in the New Testament that basically tells people they should expect nothing from God if they have no faith for it. Now, this is always a fun one to talk about because before you think I'm gonna go teach some crazy doctrine like just have enough faith and God will heal you, have enough faith and this or that. Listen to James 1, 5 through 7. It is one of, if not the only, real passage in the New Testament that actually does say faith can get you what you want as long as it's a certain thing. Wisdom, okay, that's what it is. James says this but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given him. But he must ask, see the condition here, in faith, without any doubting. So you can't doubt. You got to believe in faith that God will give the wisdom you're asking for. Why? For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought to not expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. The picture is the person who really doesn't trust in God. You don't believe in him, you don't have an anchor that is rooted in him for your soul. This is such a good warning that if you're going to ask for wisdom, and remember, in the context of James, we're talking about trials and things that people are going through. When asking God for wisdom, doubt can get in the way of receiving your answer or receiving what you're asking for. God won't pour out wisdom to somebody who really doesn't have faith. They don't believe that God can do it, which is ultimately a lack of trust in God that He knows what to do and can provide wisdom and opportunity either out of or through the situation. And really, the person who doesn't have faith doesn't want to listen to God because they don't really trust God. And then why would they need wisdom from God if they're not going to take it? So, what should we do? We go back to the character of God time and time again. We take him at his word, and the believer who trusts the Lord prays for James 1.5 wisdom and knows and believes in faith. Lord, I know your wisdom trumps all wisdom. Your ways, they're above, they're above all ways. Your thoughts are above my thoughts. Please grant me wisdom for how to navigate this situation. I believe you'll do it. I expect it. I trust you, and I'm excited to walk in the wisdom you provide. But when we don't trust, we're not going to receive it. Number three, if you're being prideful. Similar to the last warning, James as well here gets punchy with the truth. He tells his readers that pride is going to invite God's opposition. I would apply this to prayer because if somebody is being prideful and then they go to the Lord, they're asking for things, they're expecting things, they're seeking him for things, and they're prideful, that's not going to result in answers from God that are favorable. James 4, 6 says this, but he gives a greater grace. And then he quotes the Old Testament. Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James is rebuking prideful people. Well, if the Bible teaches that God is in opposition to the proud, then pride is the antithesis of a thriving prayer life. So you're not going to get answers in a sense. You're not going to get open doors. You're not going to see a blessing or God's favor upon your prayer life and feel a closeness with the Lord when you've got pride dividing you from Him. So what's the best step you can take? Humble yourself before God and repent of pride. He gives grace to the humble. In my own life, I know that pride can creep in so often. It's just that ever-present enemy seeking to destroy my life, my marriage, my ministry, my joy, all of it. I'm sure it's the same for you. Humility is the secret. Going to God and getting low is such a key to experiencing a thriving, powerful prayer life. Number four, when you are unjustly violent, God does not hear, he will not answer your prayers. Isaiah 1, verse 15 records the word of the Lord regarding unjust violence. And here's what he says: So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I mean, this is really specific, I will hide my eyes from you. It means God won't even look at them. Yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are covered with blood. The odds that a high percentage of you listening or watching this are unjustly violent would be quite low. I know that. I understand that the everyday Christian, for the most part, is not acting out in unjust violence. But perhaps you're listening to this or watching it, and you've been abusive to your wife or to your husband or to your children. And yet you get angry at God as it seems he's not listening to you. A warning that we see from the prophet Isaiah. And a warning that comes upon Israel, a warning that comes upon the wicked, the warning across the board in the Old Testament. God wants his people to act a certain way, and he rebukes and reprimands the wicked for the way they are. And it's all tied into this blessing of God hearing and seeing those who walk in his will. If you're unjustly violent, the best step is to repent and confess that sin. Maybe you go from harming other people to looking for a handout from the Lord. Maybe you explode and say, Well, if God would just, and you ought to consider that the God of the Bible purposely ignored prayers from those who were unjustly violent. This is obviously not about self-defense, it's not about protection of the innocent, it's about injustice. The best thing you can do for the most important thing you could ever experience is to repent and confess that sin. Why? Because the most important thing you could ever experience is a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is not going to happen. There will be no closeness, there will be no power in your prayer life, no thriving and joy in your prayer life if you don't deal with that sin of unjust violence. The prayer of humble repentance, no matter what you've done, will always invite God's grace. Number five, this is to every husband, okay? Some of these categories are specific, and maybe you on the last one you're thinking, yeah, I'm not unjustly violent, but it's good to know about that. Okay, this one, if you're a man, join the club. I think about this one often. Number five, you're insensitive to your wife. If you're insensitive to your wife, if I'm insensitive to my wife, it's like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. You go, where in the world are you getting that, Costi? 1 Peter 3:7, one of the most frightening passages for husbands. I say it with this big smile because I'm convicted, even as I'm reading this and thinking about it and talking about it with you, I'm going, Lord, help me. I need to be sensitive to Christine. I want to live with her in an understanding way. I love my wife. But at times, it's not always easy to understand another person. Here's what Peter says: you husbands, in the same way, after calling for the wife to be submissive and to operate a certain way. Live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she's a woman, talking about the weaker vessel, that's physical, emotional in that sense. You need to take care of a wife. Unless a woman is, you know, six-three on steroids, generally, by way of just normal biology, women are going to be weaker vessels physically. The idea being that we are to protect and care and nurture and be sensitive to the fears and the concerns that a wife may have. We are, then he continues, sh to show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, a co-heir so that our prayers will not be hindered. Let me just parse that out really quick. Show her honor as a fellow heir, meaning even if she's a physically weaker vessel or has to willingly submit herself to you and I as a husband, your wife, my wife, that's what they have to do for us as under the Lord, they are co-heirs. So a wife is not a less than. There's not like a ranking system, and it's like, well, you're you're lower than me. You're a less than, you know, I'm the heir, and you kind of get the benefits of my inheritance in Christ. No, we're actually spiritual equals. And then in the relationship, if you believe in complementarian theology, which we would hold to as a ministry and I teach, a wife then, according to Ephesians 5, willingly submits herself to her husband. All of that, very biblical. The husband is also then to love and sacrifice like Christ and to model that sensitivity and that care. She's an equal. You're to see her as God's daughter. Well, if you don't, when you don't, if I don't, when I don't, our prayers are hindered. The idea here, if I were to just put it in paraphrase or commentary, is as if God is making it clear, don't go to him with requests when you haven't done what he's requesting of you with regards to your wife. Go love his daughter. Go make it right with her. Go show sensitivity and care for her and then come to him. You don't need to go to God and say, you know, this woman you gave me, she's the problem. And I wouldn't be this way if it wasn't for her. No, go be sensitive to her, go work it out, and then go to the Lord. No doubt a reminder of how important a marriage covenant is to God, because God calls husbands to treat their wives that way. Number six, if you have selfish motives, James 4, 3, real blunt here, you ask and you do not receive. So God's not answering your prayer with what you want because you ask with the wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasures. The wrong motives can impact your prayer life in such a way that God doesn't give you what you want. He knows you have a secret agenda. So let go of the agenda. Ask the Lord to purge you of impure motives and go to him for the right things the right way. Number seven, you love your sin so much. When you love your sin so much, God doesn't hear or won't answer. Psalm 66, this glorious chorus that declares the mighty works of God, has within it this little clue that God doesn't hear or won't answer a certain prayer. Verse 16 in Psalm 66 says this, Come and hear all who fear God, and I will tell of what he's done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth, he was extolled with my tongue. Beautiful words. And then if I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. There it is. If I regard, meaning if I love, if I care for, if I if I just, this is what I have, this is what I hold on to in my heart, the Lord doesn't hear. But then the psalmist says, but certainly God has heard. Why? Well, because he's not loving his sin, he's not regarding it in his heart. He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. So if you don't regard wickedness in your heart, God hears. If you do, the Lord will not hear. He says, Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness. The psalmist knew that God will not tolerate wickedness as his roommate in the human heart. And so it's important. The wisdom there is repent, turn from sin, be humble. God to that person will forgive, show forgiveness, restore, he'll pour out his unconditional loving kindness. If we love our sin so much, regarding it in our heart, God doesn't hear. So we need to repent. Finally, number eight, when you mistreat God's people. Micah chapter three, verses two through five is a passage containing vivid imagery of what God thinks of those who mistreat his people, including false prophets and leaders. So when you mess with God's precious saints, he does not hear you even when you cry out. You need to repent. The prophet Micah warns You who hate good and love evil, who tear off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, strip off their skin from them, smash their bones and chop them up as for the pot and as meat in a cauldron, then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. Instead he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have practiced evil deeds. That is a warning passage for people who are devouring Christians, devouring church folk, wolves masquerading as sheep, devouring the flock of God, false teachers, false prophets, those who would seek to divide the slanderers, the gossips, those causing strife, and all of that is just wreaking havoc on the precious people of God. He will not hear you, he's not on your side, and he's not on my side. Act that way. So there's such a warning to care for, to love, and to be kind towards what Jesus has died for. Whom God has called, we should show much care. So in summary, what should we do? Since these eight reasons that God may or may not answer or even hear our prayers can be pretty frightening to think about. Where's the hope? Where's the encouragement? Remember that there's one prayer God always will hear, and it will reverse the course of any of these eight things that I've uncovered. Here's the key truth: you pray like King David. Psalm chapter 51 is the antidote to the venom, if you will, of those eight things that I've unpacked. If you think about snake bites or or some other poisonous venom, this is the antidote. Pray like King David. Psalm 51. The way he was after his adultery, after having Uriah, getting Uriah murdered, all of that, blood on his hands. He repents, he confesses, he is humbled. You read Psalm 51 and you see the way David speaks to God and the way that even after all that sin, God hears his prayer. Why? Because he came to God with a humble heart. His words in Psalm 51, 16 to 17, are a comfort to us in this regard. He says, For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You're not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are what? A broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. May that be our prayer. When we have been blinded in our sin, remembering that God always responds to the humble, repentant heart. I hope this mini-series has been a helpful tune up and giving you some things to think about when it comes to your prayer life. I'm looking forward to the series coming up next, and we're going to be very shortly heading to our summer series, where I'm going to share with you some incredible, life-changing sermons that will be a blessing to you all summer long. Thanks for listening, for watching, and for supporting our ministry for the gospel. I do want to say a special thank you to our monthly gospel patrons and those who give so generously on an annual basis for the way you support this ministry. Our resources, our reach, our team, and the impact by the grace of God all continues to grow because of your faithfulness. This is a team effort. And so I thank the Lord for your partnership daily. I know you don't do it for the recognition. I know so many of you give silently and secretly behind the scenes. I just want to say it though, thank you. I thank the Lord for you. And we always want to have an attitude of gratitude, ultimately crediting God, but He's flowing that through your faithful, generous hands. For more information about our ministry or to partner with us, you can go to forthegospel.org or you can click give on the webpage if you haven't already. Also subscribe on YouTube for free video teachings every week, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X for encouraging resources on social media every day. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.