19 Bible Verses about Not Praying

The Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

Then the Lord said, "As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you.

So, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf. Do not plead with me to save them. For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them."

Then the Lord said to me, "Do not pray for good to come to these people!

To all the supervisors of the kingdom, the prefects, satraps, counselors, and governors it seemed like a good idea for a royal edict to be issued and an interdict to be enforced. For the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human other than you, O king, should be thrown into a den of lions.

So they approached the king and said to him, "Did you not issue an edict to the effect that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human other than to you, O king, would be thrown into a den of lions?" The king replied, "That is correct, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed."

I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal and I have not sought the Lord's favor.' So I felt obligated to offer the burnt offering."

"But you did not call for me, O Jacob; you did not long for me, O Israel.

"I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; I appeared to those who did not look for me. I said, 'Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation that did not invoke my name.

All those who behave wickedly do not understand -- those who devour my people as if they were eating bread, and do not call out to the Lord.

All those who behave wickedly do not understand -- those who devour my people as if they were eating bread, and do not call out to God.

No one invokes your name, or makes an effort to take hold of you. For you have rejected us and handed us over to our own sins.

All of them are blazing like an oven; they devour their rulers. All of their kings fall -- and none of them call on me!

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not pray to you!

Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. Vent it on the peoples who do not worship you. For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. They have completely destroyed them and left their homeland in utter ruin.

The godless at heart nourish anger, they do not cry out even when he binds them.

They do not pray to me, but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive it, so that your joy may be complete.

I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.