Why is God Not Answering My Prayers?
One reason is that you have unconfessed sin in your life!
God can do absolutely anything, but why not what I ask?
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:1-2, NKJV)
The prophet Isaiah tells us that God is so powerful; He can do anything that you may ask Him. But then we wonder why is He not doing anything about our requests? And Isaiah responds, “Because of your sins and your iniquities!” Let me quickly state here that this is just one of several reasons why God may not be answering your prayers.
God does not listen to sinners, except when they ask for forgiveness
When we have sin subsisting in our lives, God will not hear our prayers, let alone answer them. There was a man who was born blind but made to see by the Lord Jesus. In his discourse with the Sanhedrin, he said,
Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. (John 9:31, NKJV)
We must understand that regardless of what sin we may have committed, it is forgiven and forgotten once it is confessed. Thus, AN UNCONFESSED SIN IS AN UNFORGIVEN SIN! And if sin is unforgiven, then the fellow concerned is still a sinner. But the instant you confess your sin, it is forgiven.
Sin remains active as long as it is unconfessed.
You may have forgotten your sin, but the sin is very much alive before God, regardless of how long ago they committed the sin! Sin is very much active when it has not been confessed. Confession of sin kills sin instantly! Sin hates exposure, and heart-confession exposes it, thus, killing it!
In the days when photographs were taken using film-rolls, the photographer protected the film-roll from light before putting it into the camera. When it came time to develop the film, he again would go into a dark place called a “darkroom” to produce the photograph he had captured. The photographer took all these precautions because once the roll of film is exposed to light, every picture he had captured would be destroyed by the light.
Such is sin. Sin is always developed and nurtured in a “darkroom”, but once you expose sin to light, every work of sin is destroyed. The Lord Jesus said,
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (John 3:17-21, NKJV)
Sin thrives in secret and away from the light of God. It is developed in a “darkroom.” Those who love darkness enable sin to thrive, but those who turn to the light of God—through His word—destroy sin. The power of sin is shattered when, through confession, it is exposed to God!
Confessing to a man is not the same as confessing to God
Please understand that we are talking of admission to God! Merely confessing your sins to a man does not expose it to light; it is when you admit to God that it is exposed to light and destroyed! David said,
For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. (Psalms 51:3-4, NKJV)
We must recognise that sin is an offence against God! And so, you must make your confession to God!
Confession effectively shatters sin’s power.
Through confession, the power of sin is rendered ineffective to do anything against the one who has confessed. This is one reason why Satan devotes time to tell people not to confess their sins, pointing them to the shame and the ridicule they will go through should they do so. Satan also uses sin as a powerful tool to oppress sinners. He tells them that if they confess their sins, people will laugh at them, that their confession will irreversibly damage their reputation, and so on. But God says,
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13, NKJV)
To cover up sin is to aid and abet the perpetuation of sin.
The thief in the paint factory
A young man who worked in a paint factory stole a bucket of paint one weekend, when he was tight for cash, while nobody was watching, or so he thought. He sneaked the bucket of paint out of the factory, sold it and enjoyed the proceeds thereof. Upon returning to work the following week, his supervisor informed him that he saw him stealing the bucket of paint the previous week. The young man pleaded with his supervisor not to report him and that he would do anything the supervisor would ask of him. So, they struck a deal: the supervisor would place the young man on overtime duty and collect the overtime allowance, not the young man! The young man did not mind as it would protect his job.
Unfortunately, the young man continued to be on the overtime roaster, and this continued! One day, three years later, the young man thought to himself that for a bucket of paint, he had sold his life and livelihood to the supervisor. He then decided to see the Chairman of the company and tell him about the theft. When he did, and the Chairman got to know how long ago it had been, he told the young man that the company had written off the theft under “provision for thefts and bad goods” but that he should no longer engage in such acts. The young man was beside himself with joy as he gratefully left the Chairman’s office.
Later that day, the supervisor again put the young man on overtime roaster, but the young man declined, and the supervisor threatened to report the young man. The young man promptly replied, “I have already reported myself!” That put paid to years of extortion of the young man.
The young man had confessed to the man that mattered, not the man who was exploiting him to keep it a secret! And this is what confession of sin unto God is: it is making a report of yourself to God about the sins you have committed!
Unconfessed sin is Satan’s weapon against man.
When you have unconfessed sin, you open the door to Satan, who, like the supervisor, promises you protection from the shame and ridicule in exchange for ‘overtime duties’, which sadly never ends. You will labour for Satan but will never enjoy one day of your labour. But the day you report yourself to God—you may be thinking that God will kill you, but He will not—like the Chairman of the paint factory, He will forgive your sins and show you mercy.
Why people don’t confess their sins
Unfortunately, the world that we live in does not understand mercy. For this reason, lawyers ask their clients who are guilty of crimes to plead “not guilty” and then proceed to defend them. This is because, even if they plead guilty, the judicial system would not forgive them; they still would be punished under the law. Even if the Judge wanted to give a lighter sentence, he would be unable to because he would be bound by the law to prescribe the penalty therein. This is the world’s judicial system—every crime must be punished as stipulated, and a Judge may not use discretionary powers.
Heaven’s judicial system is different.
But in heaven’s judicial system, once you plead guilty, God forgives you. But if you argue that you are “not guilty”, then you must defend yourself. The difficulty here is that no legal representation will save you before God, for even the lawyer and his antics are bare before God. And there is no defence that you would be able to make before God. But the Bible says that we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1 John 2:1). When a person sins and approaches the Lord Jesus, the Advocate, He advises the sinner to plead guilty before God! The Advocate knows that the Judge of the Universe will forgive you if you plead guilty because He, the Advocate, has already paid the price for sin!
Unconfessed sin is the bane of many professing Christians
If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear. (Psalms 66:18)
Indeed, if you keep iniquity in your heart, that is, if you have unconfessed sin in your life, God will not hear your prayers! There is nothing you can do about that—you may try to wriggle out of it using human wisdom, but God who sees and knows all things cannot be deceived by human machinations and manipulations. Thus, David said,
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (Psalms 32:1-5, NKJV)
David spoke of how he almost died from a debilitating illness because he refused to confess his sins. But when he did, God restored him to life. Some of the diseases that some people contract would not be if they had confessed their sins much earlier! David noted that once he acknowledged his sins to God, he was delivered and made whole.
And as we noted earlier, in Proverbs 28:13,
He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13, NKJV)
Confession is an antidote to unanswered prayers
Thus, God’s mercy, forgiveness, and favour are a culmination of the confession and repudiation of sin in our lives. Indeed, many people trust God to grant them answers to prayers, yet they have unconfessed sins in their lives. How then will God answer such prayers?
Regardless of how heinous the sin, God will forgive if you but confess it. Confession is an acknowledgement of guilt based on a conviction that a wrong has been done against God. Any confession that does not result from such a conviction is not a confession but some recital that attracts nothing from God. But when you tell God that you have indeed sinned against Him and that you now want His forgiveness, He would hear and heal and restore you to a place where you would pray, and He would answer speedily.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ (Isaiah 58:9, NKJV)