20 Bible Verses about Why Prayer Is Unanswered
Most Relevant Verses
Ye ask, and do not receive, because ye ask wrongly, so that ye may spend on your pleasures.
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he will not hear.
And we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any man is a worshiper of God, and does his will, he listens to this man.
Ye offer polluted bread upon my altar. And ye say, How have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of LORD is contemptible. And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, [ye say,] It is no evil! and when ye offer the lame and sick, It is no evil! Present it now to thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or will he accept thy person? says LORD of hosts. [Ye say,] And now, I pray you, entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us; this has been by your means. Will he accept any of your persons? says LORD of hosts.
Thus says LORD to this people: Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Because I have called, and ye have refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man has regarded, but ye have made all my counsel void, and want none of my reproof,
He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from LORD of hosts. And it has come to pass that, as he cried, and they would not hear, so they shall cry, and I will not hear, said LORD of hosts.
He who stops his ears at the cry of a poor man, he also shall cry, but shall not be heard.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
Therefore thus says LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. And they shall cry to me, but I will not hearken to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem ye have set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.read more.
Therefore do not pray thou for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.
Then he said to me, Have thou seen [this], O son of man? Thou shall again see yet greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of LORD's house. And, behold, at the door of the temple of LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of LORD, and their faces toward Then he said to me, Have thou seen [this], O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provread more.
Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye shall not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.
But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by wind and tossed about. For that man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord,
For what is the hope of the profane, though he gets him gain, when God takes away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?
There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear an empty [cry], nor will the Almighty regard it.
Having stood by himself, the Pharisee prayed these things: God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, predatory, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice per Sabbath. I tithe all things, as many as I acquire.
Thou have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me. They cried, but there was none to save, even to LORD, but he answered them not.
Ye who hate the good, and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Then they shall cry to LORD, but he will not answer them. Yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.
