Unanswered Prayer

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7).

Why do so many Christians experience so little power in prayer? Why does there seem to be so little confidence in prayer that causes Christians not to pray as they should? According to Jesus it is because we do not persist in continual fellowship with the Lord as He did with the Father in His life. It is because we do not enrich our mind, soul, and spirit on the Word of God as we ought. (Psalm 119:11) Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You, is not just a preventative declaration of the psalmist - it is a positive affirmation that fellowship with God’s Word is fellowship with God. We do not sin against God because our fellowship with Him is encouraged and supported by His Word. I submit to you that if we drink deep and often from the well of His Word, we would not seek satisfaction from the flesh or the world - we would not even desire it. 

When we do not live in Christ and allow His Words to live in us, our praying becomes futile and frustrating, and often goes unanswered. He who would experience answered prayer must keep intimate friendship with the Lord through His Holy Spirit and His Word. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20) .

It is quite possible to live in this sinful flesh and yet not seek to satisfy this sinful flesh. It is quite possible to live in this sinful world and yet not participate in the sinfulness of this sinful world. But it is never possible to do so apart from daily, consistent, committed fellowship with Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit and His Word. The Hebrew psalmist understood this. That’s why the longest song in the Hebrew hymnal (Psalm 119; 176 verses), is focused entirely on the importance of the Word of God in a person’s life. The 176 verses are broken up into 8 verse segments, each segment beginning with the consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This was so designed to teach the Hebrew children their alphabet as well as the value of the Word of God. 

119:9, How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 
119:11, Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
119:28, My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word. 
119:50, This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.
119:89, Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.
119:92. Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. 
119:98, You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies. . . .
119:105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
119:107, I am afflicted very much; revive me, O LORD, according to Your word.
119:110, The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from Your precepts. 
119:130, The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.  Amen.

G. Martin