Joyce Meyer - Why Prayer Isn't Answered? - Part 4
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Well, before we start today’s teaching, I’m personally inviting you to this year’s Love Life Women’s Conference. My special guests and I will share God’s word and help you experience His presence and love in a life-changing way. I will show you what it means to be fully His. Take time away from all the cares of this world and focus on the One who has your name inscribed on the palms of His hands. He thinks about you every day.
Facing the truth about yourself is probably the most challenging thing to do. We love to blame and just feel sorry for ourselves instead of taking responsibility. I spent a lot of years feeling sorry for myself because I had been sexually abused by my dad. One day, God was correcting me about an attitude, and I was having a conversation where I said, «Well, anybody would act the way I do if they’ve been treated like I have.» And He said, «Yeah, it’s true. You were mistreated; that’s what happened, but don’t let it become an excuse to stay this way.» That’s why you are the way you are, but don’t let it become an excuse to stay this way. That’s right.
And boy, how many people do that? I was mistreated growing up. My parents gave me up for adoption, you know, whatever. My dad died when I was three. You know, you can hang on to something that becomes, and yes, it was painful, and it hurt, and it’s sad that it happened to you, but that was then. This is now. I’ve got the rest of my life to live, right? And I prefer to spend it getting the devil back for what he did to me when I was young, right? And you only overcome evil with good, right?
So the best thing I know to do is be as good to everybody as I can be. Yeah. And help people as much as I can. And I think preaching the gospel is the way to do that. Amen. The fifth reason why prayers are not answered is doubt and unbelief. Pray without doubting. Mark 11:23: «Truly, I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea, ' and does not doubt at all in his heart, but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.» Well, I’m sure we’d all have a little bit of a problem with that, looking at a mountain, I mean, a literal mountain. Say, «I pray that that mountain would move from here to there.» I guess I’m not there yet. I prefer to think it’s talking about a mountain of problems or a mountain of an issue that you’re dealing with that seems to you like a mountain-something that you could not move. God says you can pray about that and don’t doubt.
And one of the things that helps me, and maybe it’ll help you, when I’m in that waiting period, that patient period, the Bible says that we inherit the promises by faith and patience. Not just faith, but there’s always patience that has to go along with it. And patience is not just waiting; you’re going to wait whether you want to or not. But it’s how you act while you wait. That’s good. That’s important. It’s how we act while we’re having trouble that’s important. There’s no greater witness than stability. To be the same all the time, that’s the greatest witness you can be to a family that’s not serving God. Be happy. Be peaceful. Be stable. Treat them well; that does more than anything. Satan will attack your mind, but you need to shut your mind down and see what’s in your heart.
What I do when I’m in that waiting period, every time it comes to my mind and I start to doubt, I open my mouth and say, «God, I believe You’re working.» It’s just what I’ve come to, to help me get through those times. «God, I believe You’re working. I’ve been waiting a long time, but I believe You’re working. I think my breakthrough is coming real soon.» He says we are to look away from everything that distracts us unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. We don’t need to stare at our problems and talk about our problems and talk about our problems and stare at our problems and talk about our problems. We pray for God to take care of it, and then we go to lunch with somebody and talk about how awful it is and how we’re so afraid. No, you’ve got to line your confession up with your faith. Right?
The word «confess» means to say the same thing as. So we’re confessing the word, which is what God has said. We are saying the same thing that God has said. Now, the two of us are in agreement, and God can do something. Amen. But if He says, «I’ll deliver you,» and I say, «I’m afraid God won’t deliver me,» then I’ve kind of tied His hands. Look away from all that will distract unto Jesus, who is the leader and the source of our faith, giving the first incentive for our belief. And He is also its finisher. Yes, bringing it to maturity and perfection. He, for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before Him- I love this! Now, don’t miss this: Jesus, for the joy of the prize that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God.
I’m going to read that again. He, for the joy of obtaining the promise, He’s on this side in all this pain and agony. Can you imagine our holy Savior becoming sin? He didn’t just take our sin; He became sin. And He killed the power of it right there on the cross. You say, «What do you mean He killed the power of it?» I believe the power of sin is condemnation and guilt, and He killed that. He paid. So we don’t have to know. Amen. So while He’s on this side suffering, He’s thinking about the joy on the other side. And see, we can do that too. Man, I’m getting closer to heaven every day. Just think about it. You live your whole life, and we talk about, you know, when we die, we’re going to go to heaven. But I asked the Lord the other day, I said, «Are you going to come get me yourself, or are you going to send an angel?» I just kind of wonder who’s going to show up.
I don’t know if I’ve told you this or not, but friends of ours-the girl’s mother was sick for quite a while, and they did exactly what children should do. They took care of her. There were actually 16 kids in this family, so all the ones that lived in town took turns staying with her day and night because they didn’t want to put her in a nursing home. And she got to the point where she couldn’t raise up; she could only lay in bed. And right as she breathed her last breath, she suddenly raised up and said, «Yes! Makes a believer out of me!»
She saw something right at that moment of death. Yes! We’ve all got that yes coming. Yes! What’s it going to be like? There’s very little that we’re told about heaven. I mean, some things, but I think it’s too great-God couldn’t explain it. When Paul came back, he said, «I saw things when I was taken into the third heaven that I can’t even talk about.» Something so wonderful you don’t even have the words to talk about it. And we have to look forward to eternity. You’re never going to die. You’ll leave this earth, but it’ll be just like going through a revolving door. I mean, when she died, it didn’t seem like it took a long time. Yes.
So one more time: He, for the joy of obtaining the prize that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. There were 10 spies with no faith who looked at the giants too long, and they became afraid. They came back and gave an evil report, the Bible says. Well, yes, the fruit’s good, but there’s giants in the land. And there were two who believed that God was bigger than the giants, and they were the only two that entered in. They came back and they said, «Yes, the fruit is good. The people who dwell there are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And moreover, we saw the sons of Anak of great stature and courage.» And they go on and on and on. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, «Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to conquer it.»
It’s like David when he went to the battle line and he saw Goliath. «Who does this uncircumcised Philistine think that he is that he should defy the armies of the living God?» Yes! Little David with his slingshot. Wow! And everybody else-all the rest of this great army-was cowering in fear. But you see, David had this relationship with God that he had built out in the fields by himself. See, sometimes you may feel like the tail end of everything, but God’s got a different plan for you. You’re the one God’s chosen. The Bible says that God will be our vindicator; He will give us a double recompense for our former trouble. Amen. And I know that I know that I know that what God has allowed me to do is a reward to me for what I went through as a child. I believe that. Now, you know there’s certain guidelines that go along with that. I had to believe God and trust Him and serve Him.
You can’t have something bad happen to you and then spend your life bitter and resentful and expect God to bless you. Whoever is watching today by television, life is a constant series of changes. Yes, a constant series of changes. And when God’s finished with something, no matter how much you want to hang on to it, just let it go. Because you don’t want to let it go doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. I mean, just in the last month, I’ve gone through three or four major changes. We stopped having as many meetings as we did. You know, one time, we did 36 meetings a year-conferences, full-blown conferences. And way back in the beginning, they were five sessions, and I did them all. Come on! I did all the praying; I did the offering; I did the exhortation; I did the preaching five times in a row-three times a month -came home and barely got our clothes washed and got on the road and went again.
And now we have eventually gone down from 36 to 24. That was a big step of faith, 'cause, you know, most of our income came from those conferences, but not really-they came from God. And interestingly enough, He brought the same amount of money through 18 conferences that He did through 24, and then 18, then 12, then 8, and now 2. Things are always changing in your life-always. And, of course, I just released a book on change, and people need to learn how to handle it right. Just let it go! I mean, if God’s done with it, sure, I miss it. I miss not being able to go on the mission trips. I miss things, but I’m in this for the long haul. Right? Right? However long I live, I would still like to be doing this when I say yes. Amen.
And so that means I have to maybe give up a few things on the front end in order to preserve some of that energy for the long haul. So many people abuse and misuse their assigned energy, and they don’t take care of their health. They live on junk food, don’t drink any water, and don’t get enough sleep-really simple things that you can do to take care of yourself. But boy, when you’re 20, you don’t care anything about that. You think you’ll live forever, but someday you’re going to be old. I’d rather not have somebody look at me and say to the person, «Look, look at that old lady!» Sometimes Dave and I will say-or Dave will say, «Look, look at that old guy!» I say, «You’re probably older than he is.»
Abraham defeated doubt and unbelief-unbelief that came against his mind through praise. If the devil’s aggravating your mind, a good thing is some music. You know the Bible says that we are to talk to ourselves or talk to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart unto the Lord. And I’m not a very good singer, but honey, I can hum! I’m telling you, just that will help keep you happy. Yes, it really will because it keeps your mind off of your problem. And when you have a merry heart and a thankful attitude, boy, can God do some great things in your life!
No doubt or unbelief made Abraham waver, doubtingly questioning concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God. The sixth reason why your prayers are not answered: you pray, then worry. Worry is a sin. We should confess it and receive forgiveness like any other sin because whatever is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23; that’s a pretty heavy scripture. Anything that’s not faith is sin. Now, you know worry tries to come against all of us, yeah? And I’m no different. I had a situation last week and this week that could have — and tried to-really make me worry. And I did that for so many years.
And I can tell you it’s just useless. You can’t worry an answer into your life. Only God can do what needs to be done. Philippians 4:6 and 7-you should commit some of these things to memory so when the devil’s attacking you. I always say, «Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace that passes understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.» Maybe I got to say it five or six times, right? Yes! To get the enemy to shut up. «Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that in due time, God may exalt you, casting all your care on Him because He cares for you.» Amen!
Why? Why is it that humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God allows us to cast our care on Him? Because humility says, «I can’t do this. Only God can.» So I’m going to cast my care on Him and go ahead and enjoy my life. Because, you know what? If God’s not going to do it, you sure can’t. Amen! Sure! Matthew 6:34: «So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own.» Gee, I wonder what’s coming up tomorrow? I don’t think I’ll think about it!
«Lay not your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.» Worry places a burden on our spirit and gives us a heaviness when God wants our spirit to be light and free. Worry can stop the process that began when we prayed. What about if when you pray, you release your faith? God says to an angel, «Go help them!» And they get just a little way out of the spiritual realm, and God says, «You’re going to have to come back. They’re worrying!»
Satan can come against your mind, but you don’t have to take those thoughts and make them your own. You really need to pay attention to what’s going on in your head. If God doesn’t do what you ask, He might just do something better! Amen! Amen! Number seven: a lack of gratitude. I was praying one time, asking God for something, and He spoke to my heart and said, «Why should I give you more when you’re complaining about what you’ve already got?» How many things does God give us, and then we complain because we have to take care of them?
«Oh God, I want a bigger house!» I want a bigger house? Well, you just got more space to dust! What if God doesn’t do what I’m asking? Or what if He’s too late? God is never too late. He might not be early, but He’s not too late. If we’re grumbling about what God has already done, why should He give us something else to murmur about? An ungrateful person will be ungrateful no matter what they have. That’s right. You can’t give an ungrateful person enough to keep them happy. Some people are never satisfied.
Philippians 4:6 teaches us to pray with thanksgiving. Pray with thanksgiving! A grateful person is a contented person. You know, believe it or not, you don’t have to go around wanting something all the time! You’re all looking at me like, «We don’t?» Yeah! Paul said, «I’ve learned how to be content whether I’m abased or abounding. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, whether I’m abased or abounding.»
He said, «If I need something, I’m content. If I’ve got a bunch of stuff, I’m content.» Contentment. Are you at a place of contentment in your life? Or is it one more thing you need to be happy, and then one more thing after that? How nice it is to maybe get up in the morning, and when you begin your prayers, say, «God, there’s really nothing that I need today besides You. So what can I do for You?» All prayer doesn’t have to be asking God to give me something or asking God to fix all the people around me.
And then lastly-and I have two minutes and 30 seconds, so we’re in good shape-we can negate our prayers with a negative confession. Hebrews 4:14 and 10:23 both say, «Hold fast our confession of faith in Him.» «Inasmuch then as we have a great high priest, who has already ascended and passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession of faith in Him.» So sometimes you just got to hang on. There’s nothing in you that feels like God heard your prayer. There’s nothing in you that doesn’t look like God’s heard your prayer. But in those times, He still wants you to say, «God is working in my life, and something good is about to happen to me!» Amen! Amen! All right, give God some praise!
Father, thank You for the word today. We love You, love You, love You! In Jesus' name, we pray for all the viewers today that God will touch your life in a mighty way. And if you have not received Christ as your Savior, please call the number that’s on your screen and let one of our operators pray with you and answer any questions you have about what it means to be born again or to be saved. We love you, and we want you in the family of God! Amen!