'GOD ARE YOU LISTENING?'
- WHEN PRAYERS GO
UNANSWERED
By: Afia Bobia Amanfo
Does God really listen to our prayers?
Does he really hear us when we cry
out to him? Most likely you have also
struggled with these questions at one
point or the other.
Sometimes we pray for a long time
about big things, like a health issue or
a wayward relative or an academic /
career situation, or even marriage
and things don’t seem to change. We
wonder if God’s been paying attention
to us.
I prayed for several years concerning
an opportunity in my life. I prayed,
fasted, applied and searched for
opportunities and still I was stuck in
that same situation.
My prayers seemed to be falling on deaf ears
and I was left with many questions and
doubts. So what do you do when your
feelings and experience seems to
contradict what the bible says about
God?
Simple answer? YOU STAND BY THE WORD.
In our Christian walk, we will daily be
confronted with situations where we have to
decide whether we will walk by our feelings or
by faith in the word of God and who He says
he is. As Paul rightly said, ‘We walk by faith
and not by sight.’ 2nd Cor 5 v 7
When push comes to shove, who will you
believe? Your experience and other people’s
experiences or God and His word? The true
test of faith is being able to stand firmly and
believe the word of God even when all else
around is saying the opposite.
I always find it interesting how in the book of
Job, God finally appears on the scene and He
doesn’t answer any of Job’s ‘Whys’. Instead, He
tells Job about His greatness and majesty and
Job gets the message. I cannot give you all the
answers for why this prayer or that prayer has
not been answered afer several years of
waiting. But the Bible is full of verses and
instances of God’s faithfulness to answer
prayer and to keep His word to us.Like this
one: ‘ Keep on asking and you will receive
what you ask for, keep on seeking and you will
find, keep on knocking and the door will be
opened to you. For everyone who asks
receives…’ Mathew 7 v7
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