Dharius Daniels - 3 Reasons Why Your Prayers Aren't Answered

Hey, what’s up? Listen, I think if you’re like me, you don’t pray just to pray; you pray because you want answers. Well, in this teaching, I’m about to share with you three reasons your prayers aren’t getting answered. Stay tuned. It was easier—listen to me, family. All throughout almost every faith tradition, there is instruction, encouragement, and admonition to pray. I think when many of us pray, our hope is that those prayers are answered. I mean, we pray for different reasons, right? Some of us pray to establish intimacy. Why? Because there can’t be intimacy without communication. So, as we attempt to establish or maintain intimacy with God, one way we do that is through communication, right? I understand that some people use prayer simply for the purpose of communication. However, there are times—and frankly, this is probably the case for many of us, if not most—when prayers are also used for supplication. What’s that? We’re making requests. We’re asking God for something that we believe only He can directly or indirectly provide. He’s either going to do it directly or use someone or something to accomplish it. So, when we’re praying, we’re doing so because we want answers. Our faith isn’t in prayer; we have faith in God, and prayer is one of the ways we express that faith. The point I’m making is that when we pray, we desire, we want, we hope those prayers get answered. But if we are open and honest, if we honestly and objectively audit many of our prayers, I think many of us would have to admit that a lot of our prayers go unanswered. When I say they don’t get answers, it doesn’t mean they don’t get answered at all; they just don’t get answered the way we expect or desire. I think the question I want to try to answer in our time together is, «Why?» There could be a number of reasons our prayers go unanswered. Some of them have to do with us, but that’s not what I want to talk about in this teaching. There are other reasons our prayers aren’t getting answered that may not necessarily have anything to do with us; it could have something to do with God. So, what I want to do is share three reasons I think the Scriptures reveal that God doesn’t answer our prayers in a favorable way. You know, He always answers, but not always in a way we prefer. So here it is—here’s number one: one reason God doesn’t answer our prayers is that what we’re asking for won’t be good for us. Here’s something—a scripture that offers us a different angle to consider regarding this statement. Psalms 84:11 says, «For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor.» Listen to what He says: «No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.» So I want you to check this out: no good thing will He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Now, the caveat there is whose walk is blameless. But if you’re interpreting Old Testament scripture without a New Testament hermeneutic, without utilizing a Christ-centered hermeneutic, then you might think that your walk can actually make you blameless. But your own walk can’t make you blameless; only Christ can make you blameless. He makes you blameless, and this is what the Scriptures teach here: no good thing will He withhold from them. This means if it is good, listen to me, He won’t withhold it. So the only things He withholds are that which are not good. Now, watch this: I didn’t say what I’m asking for doesn’t get answered because it isn’t good. That’s not what I said. I said He tells me «no» because what I’m asking for won’t be good for me. Got me? So the question isn’t whether something is just good; the question is whether it is good for me. And some things that are good for you aren’t good for me. I’m going to say that again: some things that are good for you aren’t good for me. It might be good for you to get into medical school. Getting into medical school is not a bad thing, but it wouldn’t be good for me because my purpose required that I go to seminary. Now, this leads to the second reason our prayers aren’t answered: what I’m asking for will compromise my purpose. Wow! So reason number one is that what I’m asking for won’t be good for me; reason number two is that what I’m asking for will compromise my purpose. Watch this; I want to read you something. This is in the book of Acts—Acts 16, verse 6 and 7. Check this out because, to me, it is one of the most interesting examples in Scripture of how God uses «no» to push you into your next. Acts 16:6 says, «Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.» Listen to this: «Having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.»