I am sorry for your disappointment in the Lord because He has not answered your prayers as you asked Him to do.  I want you to realize that how and when the Lord answers our prayers are indications of His great love for us.  Even as the Lord was disciplining His people, He also told them in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  The Lord works to provide us with the same things: prosperity (spiritually or physically), a future, and a hope. 

Sometimes it may seem the Lord is not hearing our prayers or refuses to help us when we are in need.  This is simply not the case and faith in Him will help us understand His love and care for us.  Let’s consider the faith of Job when he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15).  Job realized that he did not know the thoughts of God, but he trusted Him to do what was right.  Even if the Lord decided that to take Job’s life was the right thing to do, Job was determined to trust in Him who knows everything and loves with an unlimited love. 

The fact that the Lord has not answered your prayers as you desire could be an indication of several things.  Let us look at a few of them.

John 9:31, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”  Unless someone has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his/her savior, the Lord will not submit Himself to meeting their needs…unless it is according to His sovereign will.  If one rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, deciding to live in sin, the Lord will not listen to them when they pray.

Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  If a believer refuses to condemn and reject sin in his life, the Lord may stop listening to his requests. 

James 4:3, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”  If our prayers are only to make our lives more comfortable or to fulfill the desires of our flesh, the Lord will not give us our desires.  He loves us too much to pamper our flesh.  Rather, He wants us to die to our flesh and its sinful desires. Romans 8:13 tells us, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

There are ways we can use to ensure the Lord will answer our prayers.

Psalm 37:3-5, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”  When we put our trust in the Lord and delight ourselves in Him…He will give us what we ask for.  When we commit our ways to the Lord and ask Him to guide our lives, He will do that.  Of course, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, the things we desire will change.  When we delight in Him, we will only want His will in our lives.  We will want what He wants us to have.  We will want to honor Him with our lives and will hate that which displeases Him.  We will trust Him to do what is right.

1 John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”  When our prayers align with the Lord’s will for us, He will hear and answer!  After all, isn’t that what we really want?  Don’t we want God’s perfect will for our lives?  Don’t we want the One who knows the beginning from the end to give us what He knows is best for us? 

I encourage you to cry out to the Lord.  Put your trust in Him for all matters in your life.  Confess any sins you may have committed.  “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9).  Ask Him to bless you according to His perfect will.  When hard times come, instead of immediately praying for the Lord to take them away, I encourage you to ask the Lord if there is a lesson he is trying to teach you by allowing you to suffer.  If you belong to the Lord, He only wants what is best for you.  Learn to trust Him, His power, His wisdom, and His love for you.  (454.4)