The Prayer Initiative, Pt. 3 - Hindrances

1.  Search Me 

2.  Send Me

3.  Break Me

4.  Not Me

Matthew 7:7-8 [NIV], "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

James 5:16 [NIV], The prayers of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Matthew 6:6 [NKJV], "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

"Our prayers are going unanswered."  

Possible reasons...

• timing
• learning to wait
• faith is being stretched
• it's really a "no"
• spiritual warfare
• We are HINDERING our prayers!

8 Reasons for Unanswered Prayers:

1.  Not God's Will
1 John 5:14-15 [NIV], This is the confidence we have in approaching God:  that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. 

2.  Doubt
James 1:6-7 [NIV], But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.  

MSG, People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves.

"We need to quit telling God about the mountain, and start telling the mountain about God!"

3.  Wrong Motives
Look at...

James 4:3 [AMP], You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [own] desires.

4.  Unconfessed Sin
Psalm 66:18 [AMP], If I regard [cherished] sin in my heart [that is, if I know it is there and do nothing about it], the Lord will not hear [me].

5.  Lack of Forgiveness
Mark 11:25 [NIV], And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. 

Matthew 5:23-24 [NIV], "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."

6.  Unhealthy Marriage
1 Peter 3:7, In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives.  Treat your wife with understanding as you live together.  She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift to new life.  Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. 

7.  Forgetting the Poor
Proverbs 21:13 [NASB], He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.

8.  Failure to Ask
James 4:2 [NKJV], "...you do not have because you do not ask."