Unanswered Prayers

 Yes, there are times when the Lord does not answer prayers. I know that we have all heard that he always answers His children who pray in faith from an unselfish heart, and that is very true. He either answers, yes, no, or wait. However, there are times when he doesn't answer at all. Saul found that to be true. (I Samuel 28:6) He was deathly afraid of the Philistines who had amassed against him and the army of Israel. Saul cried out to the Lord, but God did not answer him. He tried to hear God's answer in his dreams. He went to the priest to use the Urim to discern God's answer, and that did not work either. He inquired of prophets, but they could not tell Him God's answer, as well. Saul was at the end of his rope, so he eventually went to a medium in Endor to seek an answer from God, even though he had banned mediums from the land. That is a terrible situation for any person to be in.

God wants to answer our prayers. He wants to answer the prayers of people who do not know Him, when they pray sincerely. However, God can't answer some prayers because sin gets in the way. The Bible makes it very clear that if we regard sin in our heart, the Lord will not hear us. (Psalm 66:18) Saul had sinned so badly after God had revealed Himself to him and gave him every opportunity to be a great king that God turned from him and would not answer his prayers. We don't even have to sin that much for this to happen. All we have to do is to fail to confess sins that the Holy Spirit has brought to our attention. If we are proud and hard-hearted enough not to listen to the Spirit, God will not listen to us. Therefore, if your prayers have been unanswered, stop and ask the Holy Spirit to show you, to convict you of your sin. Then, sincerely confess that sin to God by saying to Him what He would say about your sin. If we do that, He hears us, forgives us, and then, we are able to go to Him in prayer once again.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 29-31.