4:Doubt and unbelief
We know that faith in god is the foundational to answered payer, so it stands to reason that doubt and unbelief-which are opposites of faith –will keep our prayers from being answered. Faith is a powerful spiritual dynamic, and it something God responds to and blesses. But our faith is not without opposition .Satan will attack our minds with doubt, unbelief and questioning, and when he does, we need to check in which our hearts and see what they say. We can believe something in our hearts even when our minds questions it, and we need to go with what is in our hearts and not with what is in our heads, We are not supposed to believe our doubts we are supposed to doubt our doubts and believe our God.
One of the keys to overcome doubts and unbelief is found in
Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Who is the leader and the source of our faith .. and is also its finisher.
Many times , doubt and unbelief start with distraction, when we are distracted from God’s promises or God ‘s ability to come thorough for us,then we begin to doubt. We start thinking more and more about our problems or our challengers, and then our faith begins to diminish But we need to do what Hebrew 12:2 says to do and keep looking to Jesus.In order to resist doubt ad stay in faith ,we need to stare at Him, at his goodness ,at His ability to help us , at his love for us, and meagerly glance at our problems. We do not deny the existence of problems but we do effuse to pay too much attention to them
We have to remember that He is the source of our faith and he finishes what he stars-so there’s no reason to doubt .
The apostle James said tat when we doubt, we become double –minded and the double-minded man receives nothing he asks for from God because he is unstable in all of his ways.
James 1:6-8
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways
We need to decide what we have believe and not change our minds when our circumstances begin to waver, We need to remember that
John 11:40
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
Promises that we will see the Glory of god is seen only, if we believe!
5:Praying outside of God’s will
Not praying according to God’s will of course, keeps our prayers from being answered One of the best way to make sure we are praying in the will of God it to pray the Word as much as we can.
We will not find Scriptures that address all our needs or wants in detail but we ill find Scriptures that tell us God will meet our needs.
Sometime there are thing we want to pray for but we are not sure whether those thing are god’s will for us, according to scripture. In those cases we simply need to ask God to give it if it is his will to do so, and to help us be satisfied with his decision
One the other hand, there are other things we know to be part of god’s will because He does specify them in his Word.
When we pray in agreement with gods will we will have what we ask for, We may have to wait because god’s timing is part of his will.
6:Prayer with the wrong motives
James 4:2
You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
Your do not have, because you do know ask, or you do ask and yet fail to received, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives.
In prayer, the reason we pray is much more important that the words we say . God look at our hearts, and when He see an impure motive, He cannot answer prayer.
Having a pure heart that truly loves God and loves people is always an acceptable motive to the lord .Selfishness is unacceptable; revenge is unacceptable ;manipulation and control are unacceptable; jealously is unacceptable ,pride is unacceptable , In fact everything that is selfish and unloving is an unacceptable motive .
We need to be asking God to purify our hearts on a regular basis so that we can pray with the right motives , We need to honestly examine or motives. Taking a look at our motives can be painful, but it must be done if we truly desire to live before God with pure hearts.