What to do when you believe that God does not answer your prayers?

Time and time again things will not work out to be what we want them to be. We are faced with pressures from all angles, sometimes to the point of thinking that God does not exists or if He does exist, He possibly does not care. Many people pray, even non-believers do pray to God when they are faced with life challenges. When we do pray and our prayers are not answered, often to the point we don’t know what to say to God for Him to answer, our desperate prayers we tend to lose hope. I’m sure you can relate on a case where you also felt the same or you are facing that as you read this post.

Before I go to how our attitude should be in such cases, I want to start by referencing what other believers cited in the Bible did when faced with similar situations.

Bible examples

Below I reference 3 people that the Bible tells us about who had some difficulties that lasted more than expected. They were people like us, breathing the same air we breathe, living in the same world and living in the same body like us.

Job the man from Uz – Job lost all that he had and this pain could only be explained by him. His experience made others believe that Job was cursed for some wrong thing he had done against God, yet he had done no such thing. The whole book details pains and sufferings that God permitted the Devil to inflict on Job.

Hannah the wife of Elkanah – In the book of 1 Samuel 1, the story on how Hannah bore a son called Samuel. It is a story in the true sense yet so real because it happened as recorded. The pain Hannah went through could only be understood by her as you do with your own case.

Abraham – The Bible tells us that Abraham was a man who talked with God many times. I believe that there were a lot more conversations between God and Abraham than those that are recorded in the Bible. That as it was, Abraham had no child with Sarah his wife. As much as the Bible does not give us sorrow from Abraham with this, but it comes up by accepting a proposal by Sarah for him to have a child with Hagar (Genesis 16:1 – 2). Even with God’s promise of a child, it was hard for both Abraham and Sarah to believe the message of the Lord that they were to have a child. Isaac was eventually born to Sarah as God fulfilled His promise to them.

A personal typical case

As a matter of fact, I’m faced with a situation where I have prayed for God to heal my three boys from a stubborn flue like symptoms that have seen my last born, 22 months old, visiting the hospital more than four times in less than a week without much of an improvement. The medication has not made much of a difference even when stronger syrups were prescribed. There has been times when we thought we were losing my son. At one point, he couldn’t be sober for a long time. Even as I write this article, my son has not fully recovered.

Prayers have been made. Our Pastor held him in his arms and prayed for him on three days after we took him to hospital for the first time. We also have prayed in the name of Jesus relentlessly.

Other typical examples

The examples given below are typical cases where you may find yourself trapped in for a long time while you are praying for an answer from God about it.

• God’s intervention at work, in church, community and any other social group
• Demonic attacks for friends, family or yourself
• Working hard and requesting God’s part to make your work productive / rewarding
• Desiring and interceding for loved ones to turn to Christianity
• Political environment to change to Christian’s favor

Honestly, the list is endless. Think of the countries where Christians are persecuted for the Gospel. Definitely, these Christians and other Christians elsewhere pray for this situation.

What you should do

1. Don’t give up on God. God will answer your prayers according to His riches and yours is to make your requests known to Him (Philippians 4:19).
2. Practice righteousness. The prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16).
3. Know the facts – you may remain in your position (Do not Leave your Rightful Position at Any Rate -Ecclesiastes 10: 4).

Understand the following:

1. We are not fighting against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).
2. Our mistakes sometimes lead us to such position and all we have to do is to unwind. It may take time, resources and be painful.
3. There is not time a Christian should not fight. We have a target of holiness, righteousness and truth to keep up to. This calls for daily, minute by minute, even to the second of fighting with all the forces around us.

Conclusion

The devil we fight has been in existence way before the earth’s creation. He has all the experience to make people do what he wants yet people can escape only if they pray. It is through prayer that we cn overcome the devil, no other method given to man would work.