Prayer not being heard?

[Paul73]

Sometimes I think because of some entrenched habit or sin that my prayers are not being heard or answered as punishment. I guess that reflects how sin can affect our spiritual lives. Anyone experience this?

 

[styrgwillidar]

Your prayers are being heard, and they are being answered, just not in the way you would like. Many times God doesn’t give us what we ask for, He gives us what we need. And sometimes it’s not about us, it is about someone else we are meant to influence. Either by their observing the way we deal with our lives, or by gaining the knowledge and experience, however painful, that will allow us to help someone else- because that is God’s will.

When Christ prayed to be spared the passion, God sent Him an angel to strengthen Him.

 

[Bohm_Bawerk]

Sometimes I think because of some entrenched habit or sin that my prayers are not being heard or answered as punishment. I guess that reflects how sin can affect our spiritual lives. Anyone experience this?

It’s certainly biblical that God can ignore a person’s prayer:

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen” (Isaiah 1:15).

Usually, this is indicative of “getting your priorities straight”. So if a person was a serial murderer, and was asking to win the lottery (this is just an example), chances are that his prayer wouldn’t be ‘answered’ as his spiritual need has precedence over his temporal need. This is emphasized in the following verses as well:

“Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:15-18).

And this foreshadows Jesus’ assertion that, “…]seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).

 

[Pilgrim020]

Sometimes with a sin/sins I committed on my mind, all I have for emotions are remorse, frustration, disappointment, fear, things like that. Perhaps that’s why I feel that my prayers aren’t being heard, because I don’t get any “good” feelings during or after prayer. I guess we have to remind ourselves of Christ’s love for sinners. One thing that helps me is reading Scripture, reading about how Jesus befriended notorious sinners and spent a lot of time with them.

And about God ignoring prayers…I used to feel that He ignored most of my prayers. But with time, I’ve come to know that He hears every prayer. He may answer it soon, He may answer it far down the road, He may answer it in a way we do not expect. I think the important thing is to keep talking to Him. He always listens to us, always.

 

[stmax]

In the garden of Gethsemene, God did not grant his own wish. That is evidence that not all prayers will be answered, even from Christ himself.