When Prayer Is Not Enough

Have you ever prayed about an issue and nothing seemed to happen? There is no resolution. You are still facing the problem. The stress is still there. The general consensus about unanswered prayer is that God is sending you a message “NO” or “It’s not yet time” for the prayer to be answered, or, He wants to answer the prayer in a different way than what we expect.

There may be another reason for unanswered prayer.

The book of Isaiah begins with a tough realization. Read Isaiah 1:10-20. It seems that Israel had a long history of turning aside and moving away from God. Under normal circumstances their sacrifices were sufficient to handle their sin; but after God had seen their departure from Him time and time again, He rejected them. I am sure that many Israelites were praying seriously with heart-felt prayers; but He wasn’t paying any attention to them. He wanted them to repent and come back to Him.

God wants us to respond to Him in love, obedience and faithfulness. How does God respond to our prayers if we have loved something more than Him? How does He respond if our life actions display disobedience to Him? How does He respond to our prayers when we are not faithful to His call on our lives—we go about doing our own thing rather than partner with Him in the work He has assigned to us?

Think back to a time when your relationship with God was vibrant, real, vital and you sensed His presence and peace in your life. Wasn’t that great! Well, what is your relationship with Him today? If it is not the same as it was, you have, to one degree or another, departed from Him.

What God wanted from the Israelites is what He wants from us today: Repentance. Many of us (individuals and churches) have drifted so far from God that the only thing that He will respond to is our repentant hearts. We want God’s blessings, but, the truth is, you cannot find scripture where God blesses people (or churches) that have departed from Him.

What is the solution? We have only one road out of our difficulties: the road of repentance, and we may be so far departed from God, that it make take several levels of repentance before we get to the spiritual level where God can work with us. Therefore, let me encourage you to repent, repent, repent. It is not only feeling sorry for our sins, but repentance is a change of direction, to display redirected behavior toward God. Repentance is an activity for all of us, not just for unbelievers.

Maybe the Father does want us to pray, but the prayer of repentance (and not a prayer of deliverance) may be the only thing He wants to hear.

Larry M. Richmond, Director of Ministries
Gateway Baptist Association
Granite City, Illinois