Christianity Defined

Praying and having our prayers remain unanswered can be terribly frustrating.

Adding to this, well meaning individuals repeatedly saying, “Just pray about it,” has a way of sharpening that frustration.

But the truth is, turning to God in prayer should always be our first response when we’re going through something difficult or have a need.

Those well meaning people aren’t wrong.

The question isn’t should you or should you not pray. The question is, why aren’t your prayers being answered.

According to Samuel, our very own hearts might be the issue.

A Divided Heart

The Israelites had a big problem, and it was named The Philistines. The Philistines were defeating them left and right in war, and they were afraid of them. They cried out to God for help, but they kept facing defeat.

Thankfully Samuel, a faithful Prophet of God, knew exactly why and knew exactly what to do about it:

Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 7:3).

The children of Israel weren’t properly serving God. They had divided hearts and it was affecting their prayer lives.

Attempting to serve God, while also serving and believing in false gods, will never work. Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5) and refuses to share His glory with anyone or anything else (Isaiah 42:8).

The message Samuel spoke to the Israelites when their prayers remained unanswered, is a message that still applies to you and me today. We may not have carved statues that we worship as gods, but we do have many modern day false gods. Things that we depend on, put our hope and trust in, and often value above God.

Money

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV).

How often do we put our faith and trust in money? When our bank accounts have enough, we feel safe and secure. When our bank accounts don’t have enough, we panic and succumb to both fear and worry. We find ourselves worrying about our future and what’s to come.

But money is not our provider, God is.

And when we put our trust and security in money or material things, we allow them to usurp God’s rightful position as the Lord of our lives.

Popularity

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10 NIV).

We can’t be both people pleasers and God pleasers.

When we care too much about being accepted, or what others think of us, we lose sight of living for God. Before you know it, we’re making choices and decisions that keep us in good standing with people, but not with God. We ultimately trade His acceptance and His approval, for theirs.

Comfort

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23).

If we’re not careful, comfort can become a god to us.

We won’t speak the truth because we don’t want to make things uncomfortable with people. Or we won’t take certain actions because they’ll make our lives too uncomfortable.

But following Jesus isn’t about comfort, it’s about obedience. It’s about denying yourself, and doing the things He has called you to do, even if it’s costly.

Dying on the cross wasn’t comfortable for Jesus but He did it for us anyway. Sometimes, doing the right thing by God is uncomfortable, but the rewards of obedience always supersede the discomfort.

Feelings and Emotions

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:6-7).

Dealing with our feelings and emotions can be tricky. While you don’t want to ignore them, you definitely don’t want to allow them to rule over you.

Our feelings and emotions are not dependable. One moment their inline with God, the next they’re leading us down the path opposite of Him.

How we feel is never an excuse to step outside of God’s commandments. Our feelings should be subjected to us, as we subject ourselves to God; not us subjected to our feelings.

The truth is, God wants to answer your prayers (Psalm 145:18-19). And the way to receive those answers is by fully turning your heart back to Him.

Ask yourself today, have I allowed something or someone to become a god in my life?

When dealing with unanswered prayers, making sure we are properly serving God is imperative. Because it’s as I said before, your very own heart could be the issue.

If you’re ready to have your prayers answered again, follow the response of the children of Israel after Samuel confronted them with the truth.

So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. (1 Samuel 7:4).

We also must turn away from every false god and serve the Lord only!