20 Bible Verses about Why Prayer Is Unanswered
Most Relevant Verses
Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, even to consume it upon your voluptuousness.
But your misdeeds have separated you from your God, and your sins hide his face from you, that he heareth you not.
For we be sure that God heareth not sinners: But if any man be a worshipper of God, and do what his will is, him heareth he.
In this: that ye offer unclean bread upon mine altar. And if ye will say, 'Wherein have we offered any unclean thing unto thee?' In this that ye say: the altar of the LORD is not to be regarded. If ye offer the blind, is not that evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is not that evil? Yea offer it unto thy prince: shall he be content with thee, or accept thy person, sayeth the LORD of Hosts? And now make your prayer before God, that he may have mercy upon us: for such things have ye done. Shall he regard your persons, think ye, sayeth the LORD of Hosts?
Then spake the LORD, concerning this people that have pleasure to go so nimbly with their feet, and leave not off, and therefore displease the LORD; insomuch that he will now bring again to remembrance all their misdeeds, and punish all their sins.
Seeing then that I have called, and ye refused it: I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded it, but all my counsels have ye despised and set my corrections to naught.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer shall be abhorred.
Nevertheless, they would not take heed, but turned their backs and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an Adamant stone lest they should hear the law and words, which the LORD of Hosts sent in his holy spirit by the prophets afore time. Wherefore the LORD of Hosts was very wroth at them. And thus is it come to pass, that like as he spake and they would not hear: "Even so, they cried and I would not hear, sayeth the LORD of Hosts,
Whoso stoppeth his ear at the crying of the poor; he shall cry himself and not be heard.
When ye hold out your hands, I will turn my eyes from you. And though ye make many prayers, yet will I hear nothing at all; for your hands are full of blood.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with unrighteousness; Your lips speak lies, and your tongue setteth out wickedness.
"Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, I will send a plague among you, which ye shall not be able to escape: and though ye cry unto me, I will not hear you. Then shall the towns of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem go, and call upon their gods, unto whom they made their oblations: but they are not able to help them in time of their trouble. For as many cities as thou hast, O Judah, so many gods hast thou also: And look how many streets there be in thee, O Jerusalem: so many shameful altars have ye set up, to offer upon them unto Baal.read more.
But pray not thou for this people; bid neither praise nor prayer for them. For though they cry unto me in their trouble, yet will I not hear them.
Then said he unto me, "Hast thou seen this, thou son of man? Turn ye about, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations." And so he brought me into the inward court of the LORD's house. And behold, at the port of the LORD's house, betwixt the fore entry and the altar, there were five and twenty men that turned their backs on the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, and these worshiped the sun. And he said unto me, "Hast thou seen this thou son of man? Thinketh the house of Israel that it is but a trifle to do these abominations here? Should they fill the land full of wickedness, and undertake to provoke me unto anger? Yea, and purposely to cast up their noses upon me?read more.
Therefore will I also do something in my wrathful displeasure: so that mine eye shall not oversee them, neither will I spare them. Yea, and though they cry in mine ears with loud voice, yet will I not hear them."
But let him ask in faith, and waver not. For he that doubteth is like the waves of the sea, tossed of the wind, and carried with violence. Neither let that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
What hope hath the hypocrite, though he have great good, and though God give him riches after his heart's desire? Doth God hear him the sooner, when he crieth unto him in his necessity?
If any such complain, no man giveth answer; and that because of the wickedness of proud tyrants. But if a man call upon God, doth not he hear him? Doth not the Almighty accept his cry?
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithe of all that I possess.'
Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn their backs upon me, and I shall destroy them that hate me. {TYNDALE: And thou madest mine enemies to turn their backs to me, and them that hated me, and I destroyed them.} They shall cry, but there shall be none to help them: Yea, even unto the LORD shall they cry, but he shall hear them not. {TYNDALE: They looked for help, but none came to save them: unto the LORD they cried, but he heard them not.}
But ye hate the good, and love the evil: ye pluck off men's skins, and the flesh from their bones; ye eat the flesh of my people, and flay of their skin; ye break their bones, ye chop them in pieces as it were into a cauldron, and as flesh into a pot. Now the time shall come, that when they call unto the LORD, he shall not hear them, but hide his face from them, because that through their own Imaginations they have dealt so wickedly.
