4 Hidden Reasons Why Your Prayers Are Hindered

“Daily, regular answers to prayers should be normal for all Christians.” ~ John R. Rice

Did you know that God delights in answering your prayers? I recently read a book called “Prayer: Asking and Receiving” by John Rice that gave me a fresh perspective to my prayer life. Mr. Rice claims that as Christians, we ought to expect God to answer our prayers. After some thought, I realize there’s a lot of truth in what he is saying. It makes sense that if you are in an intimate relationship with God, know His character, and trust His love for you, that your prayers will align with His will.

Answered prayers prove God’s existence and that He hears the cries of those that have a personal relationship with Him.

When our prayers are hindered there is a very good reason for it. It’s important to find out what the reason is and to remedy the issue so that all your prayers can be answered. In his book “Prayer: Asking and Receiving,” John Rice makes an interesting analogy on this point. He says the following: “When I turn faucets in bathrooms or kitchen, I expect water to pour forth every time. If I turn the tap and water does not come, I will be surprised. Also I would know that something radically was wrong and I would immediately set out to find out why the water did not run.” This is exactly the mindset every Christian ought to have in regards to hindered prayers. We need to seek the Lord and look deep within to find out why our prayers are not being answered.

“Every Christian ought to be in daily communion with God and ought to live the joyful life of answered prayer.”~ John Rice

There are some obvious reasons for unanswered prayers, like living in unconfessed sin, unforgiveness and not being in an intimate relationship with Jesus, etc. However, there can be hindrances to our prayers that are not so evident. In this post I’ve written about 4 hidden reasons why your prayers may be hindered. Please keep in mind that God sees your heart and sometimes He doesn’t answer our prayers not because we are doing something wrong but because we can’t grasp what He’s doing.

God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are not like ours. We must always trust in His Sovereignty.

1. Being double-minded

James 1:8 says, “He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” A double-minded Christian is a lukewarm Christian. It’s someone that has one foot in the world and one foot with God. This is someone that worships God in a Sunday service, but gives Him little to no attention the rest of the week. His life is not intimately joined to Christ and, therefore, is fruitless (John 15:4). A double minded Christians will struggle with confusion and disbelief because he does not know the Father’s heart or character. He wavers in everything he does and thinks. God is very clear that our loyalty must be to Him only. We must be grounded in Christ’s love, allowing Him to sit on the throne of our hearts.

Being double minded puts a barrier between you and God and hinders your prayers.

The Passion Translation explains a double minded person like this: “Just make sure you ask empowered by confident faith without doubting that you will receive. For the ambivalent person believes one minute and doubts the next. Being undecided makes you become like the rough seas driven and tossed by the wind. You’re up one minute and tossed down the next” (James 1:6).

2. Living in Fear

God tells us over and over again to not be afraid. There are so many Scriptures on fear (click here to read some and here to read a blog post I wrote called “Bible Verses And Quotes To Help You Fight Off Your Fears”).

God wants His children to have radical faith because it’s our faith that moves mountains (Mark 11:23-24) and brings Him glory. Jesus says in Matthew 21:22 “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.” Our prayers are hindered when we live in fear because fear is the opposite of faith.

When we struggle constantly with fear, worry and anxiety we hinder our prayers.

The only fear God wants us to have is fear of Him. As Christians, we must not only love God but also have a holy fear of Him.

Fear is probably one of the hardest areas for me personally. I’ve worked very hard with the Lord to overcome my fears, as I have many of them. Praise God, I’ve conquered some, and some I’m still working on (like my fear of dogs!). God wants us to have faith that He is a God that answers prayers. He wants us to believe in His power and ability to help us overcome fear in our lives and be able to walk in radical faith.

Fear blocks our prayers because it prevents us from having the faith to believe that God can show up in our circumstances in miraculous way.

3. Being a poor steward of God’s money

As Christians we ought to have the understanding that our money belongs to God and that He expects us to steward these resources well. Sadly, however, many are greedy for money and hold on tightly to their it as if it was theirs. Martin Luther once said, ““There are three conversions necessary to every man: the head, the heart and the purse.” In Hebrews 13:5-6 God tells us, “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have…“

God wants us to be “cheerful givers” (2 Corinthians 9:7). This means if He has blessed you financially, He expects you to bless others.

Another area of being a good steward of your money is to be debt free. Proverbs 22:7 says “…the borrower is slave to the lender” and in Romans 13:8 we are told to “owe nothing to anyone.” God wants freedom for us in all areas of our lives and when we have debt in our lives we become, as the Proverb says, the lender’s slave. This is a tough one for a lot of us since most of us have some kind of debt. It may be a student loan, a car loan, a house mortgage, etc. Although the Lord understands that sometimes we have to take a loan out, I believe He wants us to make a goal of getting out of them.

Being a good steward of our money includes being wary of our debts.

If you have ever cheated anyone out of money you owed them, this is a debt too. For example, if you moved out of an apartment or house and owed back rent that you never payed. Or any unpaid medical bills to doctors, or if you borrowed money from someone, promising to repay it within a certain time, but never did. These are all unpaid debts. You absolutely must make right any debt that you may owe, even if it’s from many years past.

“I beg you who read this, if you have debts unpaid, go now and make them right at any cost so God will hear your prayer.” ~ John Rice

An important area of being a good steward of God’s money is tithing to your local church. God wants us to give not only to charities and others, but He wants us the firstfruits of our income to Him. In Proverbs 3:9 we are told, “Glorify God with all your wealth, honoring him with your firstfruits, with every increase that comes to you.” The truth is it is a terrible sin to not tithe, because when you don’t tithe you are actually robbing God. God’s word is very clear that He expects us to give to our local church. You can click here to read what the Bible has to say about tithes and offering and take this issue seriously. It’s important to the Lord and therefore it should be important to us too.

How you manage the money God has given you can affect your prayers.

4. Prayerlessness

God has told us to “Never stop praying” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This may sound like an impossibility but it’s not. As a Christian you ought to be seeking the Lord and having conversation with him consistently throughout your day. Prayer is how we communicate with our Father in Heaven. So, if you aren’t praying on a regular, daily basis, God will not answer your prayers. He wants a relationship with you, and like any other relationship in your life, it requires communication. God isn’t a genie in a bottle that you pull out only when you need Him because you are in a difficult situation.

The Lord commands us to pray. There are so many scriptures that tell us so. Click here to read a few. A Christian that does not have a deliberate and strong prayer life is a Christian without fruit, power and joy.

“Prayerlessness is a terrible sin. Prayerlessness is another name for unbelief.” ~ John Rice

There are many other reasons why God does not answer our prayers. I love John Rice’s attitude, that “Daily, regular answers to prayers should be normal for all Christians.” However, I don’t completely agree with him. God doesn’t always give us what we want. He gives us what is best for us and we have to learn to live completely surrendered to His will.

More than answering our prayers, God is interested in our character. When our prayers are hindered we can feel like we are unworthy, but that is a lie from the enemy. God is full of grace and He doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He does, however, desire for us to strive for holiness and purity of heart (1 Peter 1:15-16). We ought to seek Him regularly and cry out, like the Psalmist, in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. “May the four points above encourage you in your pursuit of the fullness of who God wants you to be.

If your prayers aren’t being answered, spend time being still with your heavenly Father in listening prayer and ask Him to show you what may be hindering your prayers. He will be faithful to reveal it to you, because He loves you deeply and He wants nothing more than to bless you by giving you a joyful life of answered prayers.

“Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.”~ Psalm 55:17

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