Prayers and Answers to Prayers

Impediments to answers to prayers

We are not doing the right thing

Isaiah 1:15-18 Darby

(15)  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

(16)  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; —cease to do evil,

(17)  learn to do well: seek judgment, gladden the oppressed, do justice to the fatherless, plead for the widow.

(18)  Come now, let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

We lack faith

James 1:6 Darby

(6)  but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed about;

Faith is required to be healed

To be healed by the prayers of the saints, the subject needs to have faith in the name of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 9:2 EMTV

(2) And behold, they were carrying a paralytic to Him lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Have courage, child; your sins are forgiven you."

Acts 14:9-10 EMTV

(9)  This man heard Paul speaking; who, gazing intently on him and seeing that he had faith to be healed,

(10)  said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet!" And he was jumping and walking about.

Unless, like Jesus, God would want to make a point.

Luke 14:1-4 EMTV

(1)  Now it came to pass, when He came into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they were watching Him closely.

(2)  And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.

(3)  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

(4)  But they were silent. And taking hold of him, He healed him, and let him go.

We do not keep bothering God with prayers