This is the fourth part in my series about unanswered prayers for healing. 

Prologue    Part One    Part Two     Part Three

Remember, our premise is God is never wrong, so if something isn’t working as the Word says it should, it is because we are at fault somehow, or it’s the enemy, or a bit of both.  Each of these posts is dealing with just one possible reason prayers go unanswered, and should not be deemed to be all-inclusive! 

The fourth possible explanation for unanswered prayer is:

Disobedience

Catherine has two daughters.  Daughter A is happy and willingly obedient, kind, and loves spending time just being with her mom.  Daughter B is critical and begrudgingly obedient, if she obeys at all, and resents spending any time with Catherine.  Since they are her kids, Catherine loves them both.  Yet, she is more inclined to respond and bless the happy and obedient one and to withhold from the critical and rebellious one.  It is not that she wants to do that, but choices have consequences and one must reap what they sow – good and bad.

It is the same with us and God.  God loves us all, but He has put in place certain rules.  If we follow the rules, all goes well with us (Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and John 14:15); if we don’t follow the rules, we will pay a price for that choice (Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and Galatians 6:7). 

When we’re doing something we know we shouldn’t be doing a barrier goes up between us and God.  It’s like a heavy veil that separates us from Him so we don’t see clearly.  There is an uneasy undercurrent of shame.  The Word says in John 3:21-22, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”  It is hard to have confidence, and receive answers to prayer, when we are not doing the right things. 

In regard to healing, we can go back to the example of the man I know who is diabetic yet continually eats the wrong foods.  He knows it is wrong.  It goes against God’s Word.  He does it anyway, all the while praying to be healed of diabetes.  When he doesn’t get healed he starts to think “well, it must be God’s will that I have diabetes because He hasn’t healed me yet”.    Not at all!  God is doing all He can to get healing to the man, but the man refuses to use wisdom and to obey. 

God will not go against His own rules!  It behooves us to follow them.  I am not speaking of legalistic “works”, as many accuse any discussion of obedience of being.  I am talking about the Word!  God puts it all in there FOR us, so we can live in divine health.

There is a simple remedy…. repent!  Repent means more than just being sorry; it means turning around and going in a different direction.  God is faithful to forgive, and to answer prayer!

Keep the faith!