When God won't listen

God will not answer our prayers because of unresolved conflict. 

Jesus taught us to utilize prayer as a tool to eliminate strife out of our lives in Matthew 5:44.  When he said, Love your enemies. Pray for those who treat you badly”.  

This is the first time prayer is mentioned in the New Testament, and it dealt with eliminating strife.

In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus said  “Suppose you are offering your gift at the altar. And you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.  Leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and make peace with them. Then come back and offer your gift.”   

If you want to make peace with God, you must first make peace with others.  

A gift at the altar was how people at the time made peace with God; however, Jesus said that resolving strife with someone else is the first step in making peace with God.  

Jesus lived in Galilee about 80 miles from the temple, and

could require a 160 mile round trip, which could require walking.  

Resolving strife is that important. 

In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus introduced 7 pillars of prayer.  

He dealt with the removal of strife in pillar 5 in Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our sins,

just as we also have forgiven those who sin against us.”  

In other words, we are to pray that we are to be forgiven the same way we forgive others, or our forgiveness from God is conditioned based upon how we forgive others.  

I for one don’t want God to replay my sins in His mind when He is considering answering my prayer.  If I don’t want God to do this to me neither must I ever do it with others. 

In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus mentioned it twice!  

“Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.”   

It was the only pillar about prayer that Jesus mentioned twice!

    

In Matthew, 6:8, Jesus said that Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him.  

However, is God not hearing your prayers because he is preoccupied by recalling your past sins like you recall others people’s past sins?

In Matthew 7: 7-8, Jesus introduces the subject of prayer again for the last time in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, 

“Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find.  Knock, and the door will be opened to you.  Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find. The door will be opened to the one who knocks.”  

Is not this promise conditioned to what He has just said on prayer when He said  

(1)Eliminate strife from your life by praying for your enemies.  

(2) Get right with others before you approach God in prayer, and 

(3) forgive others like you want to be forgiven?

M. H. Dennis