If you are like me, you have probably wondered from time to time why it is that God does not seem to answer your prayers the way you want them to be answered. I’ve also wondered why God does not answer them in the time frame that I desire to have them answered. I discovered recently a secret about why God answers prayer. I call it a secret because I’ve never heard it mentioned or taught, and I have found that few people have any knowledge about this.
As I looked back on how I was praying, I discovered that many of my prayers were an attempt on my part to cause God to become compassionate toward me and toward what I saw as pressing needs. This type of praying is not new. If we look in the Psalms we see many expressions like that in Psalm 13:1 – 3a:
“How long, O Lord? Wilt thou forget me forever?
How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God.”
It is as if we believe, that is we can just get God to feel what we feel then obviously He would answer our prayers, because we don’t believe that a loving, compassionate, merciful God would want us to suffer or be in any kind of distress.
Have you noticed though, that God does not often answer those types of prayers to bail us out of trouble? I discovered that the truth is, God does not answer prayer because we are in difficulty, He answers our prayers based on our covenant relationship with Him. God does things that are in alignment with His word (Jeremiah 1:12).
That leads us to ask, “What is a covenant relationship?” and “When did I enter a covenant relationship with God?”
I will deal with the second question first. In Luke 22:20 Jesus is celebrating the Passover with his disciples. At the Last Supper, he took a cup of wine and said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.” Jesus instituted a new covenant between God and man when He shed His blood on the cross. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior now enters into that new covenant relationship with God.
So, what is a covenant relationship? It is an agreement between two parties wherein each party agrees to abide by a set of conditions and obligations. When both parties fulfill their portion of the covenant, both parties benefit. In our society, business contracts are a form of covenants.
The reason many Christians struggle through life these days, and seem to have so much trouble seeing answers to their prayers, is because they are not aware of the conditions and obligations incumbent upon them in this new covenant relationship they have with God. It seems as if most believers feel that all that is required of them is to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. When we begin to examine the scriptures, though, we find that there is much more to this relationship with God than we initially realized. God has given us conditions and consequences in this covenant, and He expects us to live by them. Let’s look at the covenant more closely.
In 1 Peter 1:14-16 we find that God wants us to be Holy in the same way He is Holy. This involves a transformation of our lifestyles. When we first came to Christ, most of us were self-centered. We were focused almost exclusively on our desires. God wants us to change from a focus on ourselves to a focus on the needs of others. We are also told to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) so that we do not carry out the desires of the sinful flesh we live in. Holiness or righteousness as we can also call it, is a condition for answered prayer. Note these verses: Psalm 5:12; 7:10; 18:20; 37:4,17,25,39,40. These are just a sample of the many promises God gives to the righteous.
We can also look in 1 John 2:7-11 where the Apostle John reminds us of the command Jesus gave us to love one another. John re-emphasizes this in 1 John 3:23-24 where he tells us that when we keep His commandment to love one another, we are abiding in Christ. The Apostle Paul also emphasizes this same point in Romans 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Then in John 15:7 Jesus had this to say about those who abide in Him, “If you abide in me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” By now, it should be abundantly clear, that when we love one another, we are fulfilling a large portion of conditions of our covenant with God.
In addition to these things God also wants us to be transformed in our thinking (Romans 12:1,2). It isn’t just our behavior that needs to change from unrighteousness to righteousness, but God also wants our way of thinking to be changed. Philippians 4:8 gives us a list of the type of things we should be thinking about – things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good reputation, excellent, and praise worthy. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above not on things on the earth.
God also calls upon us to recognize His provision for us by giving back to Him a portion of what He has given to us. As part of the covenant relationship, we are to give at least ten percent of our income back to God. If we are not giving our tithe and more to God, then we are not fulfilling our part of the covenant. We should not then assume that God will answer our prayers or supply all our needs. Yet, it is this part of the covenant that God specifically challenges us to test Him on (Malachi 3:10-12). He wants to prove to us that we can trust Him implicitly with everything we have. If God were to not keep this part of the covenant with us, then He would not be God.
Finally, we should pay close attention to those things which can hinder our prayers from being answered. These things include:
Husbands not living with their wives in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7)
Doubting God will answer our prayers instead of having faith (James 1:6,7)
Having wrong motives when we pray – being selfish (James 4:3)
Quenching the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
Grieving the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30)
Sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
Rebellion against God given authority (Romans 13:1-4 and Ephesians 6:1-3, 5-8)
The bottom line is this; when we live in covenant with our God, and we have kept our portion of the covenant, then we have the right to ask God to remember us and to reward us according to our faithfulness in keeping the covenant we have with Him.
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