Part 1: Problems in the Heart
Many people assume unanswered prayer means God is silent or distant. Scripture teaches something different. Often the problem is not in heaven; it is in us.
The Bible reveals three broad areas where prayer can be hindered: Inward problems (the heart), Vertical problems (our relationship with God), and Horizontal problems (our relationships with people).
The order is important. Scripture repeatedly shows that God deals with the heart before anything else.
Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
If the heart is wrong, everything flowing from it becomes wrong; including prayer. Part one focuses on the inward problems that stop prayer before it even reaches heaven.
1. You Never Asked
James 4:2 says, “…ye have not, because ye ask not.”
Many people exhaust themselves trying to solve problems through effort, strategy, or influence while neglecting prayer.
Countless blessings are lost simply because people never ask God for them. It is like a man sitting beside a well dying of thirst but refusing to draw the water.
2. Sin Allowed to Live in the Heart
Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me.”
To “regard” sin means to esteem or respect it rather than forsake it. This is a person knowingly allowing sin to remain rather than repenting of it.
It’s like a stone lodged in a pipe that stops the water from flowing.
James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
3. Asking With Lustful Motives
James 4:3 says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
Prayer fails when the motive is selfish. God refuses requests that would only strengthen pride, vanity, or sinful desire.
A wise parent does not give a child everything the child asks for, especially if the request can hurt him.
4. Doubt and Unbelief
James 1:6–7 warns us to “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. [7] For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”
A wavering person asks God while doubting Him at the same time. Prayer without faith is like trying to row a boat while constantly dropping the anchor.
Faith isn’t confidence in yourself; it is confidence in God.
Luke 18:1, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”
5. Pride
In Luke, the Pharisee prayed about himself while the publican begged for mercy.
Luke 18:11-14, “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. [12] I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. [13] And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Jesus said the humble man went home justified. Pride never truly prays; it only congratulates itself. God listens to humility.
Before anything else, God deals with the heart. If prayer is blocked, the first place to examine is inside.
