Each of us from time to time has to ask God for something. We mostly turn to the Lord when we find ourselves in some difficult situation, experience difficulties, or face the need to solve one or another life problem. Fulfillment of desires is very important for a person; it indicates that the Almighty heard his request and responded to it, showing his mercy and love towards him. But what about those who remain unheard? Priests often hear this question.
Despite unceasing zealous prayers, help from God sometimes does not come for some reason. Why does a sincere, heartfelt prayer appeal go unheard? What are the reasons? How should you pray to receive God's much-needed help? In our article we will try to figure this out.
Apostasy
Religious experts say the most obvious reason why a person’s prayers remain unheard is apostasy from God. This does not include the position of atheists: an unbeliever will not pray. Sometimes people turn away from the Lord and turn to the devil. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to openly profess Satanism. But recently, various spiritual practices and occultism that have nothing to do with faith have gained incredible popularity. It is not appropriate for an Orthodox Christian to be interested in esotericism, occultism, eastern spiritual practices, magic, extrasensory perception, paganism, etc. Even reading horoscopes is destructive to the soul and therefore forbidden for Christians.
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"Air for the Soul"
– Vladyka, many people, including believers, sometimes have a question: why are morning and evening rules needed?
– If we believe in God, then our whole life should be filled with His presence. To believe in the Lord means to trust, to constantly remember Him, to always open your heart to Him. And, of course, the most important manifestation of our life in God is prayer. Those who are little familiar with church life usually think: prayer is a certain duty imposed on a person. It is often perceived as a burden or a duty that must be fulfilled. In fact, prayer is a need of the believing heart. If we constantly feel the closeness of God, then it is completely natural to strive for communication with Him. Prayer is air for the soul. Without prayer the soul withers. As sons of the Heavenly Father, we are called to turn to Him with words of gratitude, with requests for help and support.
– What does the very concept of “prayer” mean?
– If you remember the Church Slavonic word “to speak”, then it becomes clear: we are talking about a conversation. Thus, prayer should be a simple, sincere, humble conversation with God. Each of us should strive for this ideal. To achieve it, you need to accustom yourself to prayer. The prayer rules that the Church offers are spiritual exercises that help us get closer to the ideal of genuine prayer. Morning and evening prayers are perhaps the most famous prayers.
– When and by whom were they compiled?
– Modern morning and evening prayers, which are printed in prayer books, were formalized in our usual form only by the 18th century, and became commonly used in our Church in the next century. More ancient practice suggested otherwise: a person must attend divine services in the morning and evening (and then he simply does not need a separate rule) or read at home the prayers that are said in the temple in the morning and evening. Therefore, until the 18th century. The norm was considered to be home reading of the Midnight Office in the morning (this is the name of the divine service that is performed in monasteries early in the morning), and in the evening - Compline (this is a divine service performed late in the evening, after evening/dinner).
– It turns out that modern morning and evening prayers are close in meaning to the Midnight Office and Compline?
– We can say that this is their abbreviated and simplified version. Of course, we are talking about modern prayer books of the Russian Orthodox Church. Other Local Churches do not know the morning and evening rules in the form in which they are presented here.
Lack of faith and doubts
Another obvious reason why God does not answer our prayers is lack of faith. The Gospel presents many stories of miraculous resurrection, healing, cleansing, casting out demons, etc. Christ called faith an indispensable condition for performing all God's miracles. He said to Jairus, the synagogue priest, who was pleading for the healing of his daughter, who was lying dying:
Do not be afraid, just believe, and you will be saved (Luke 8:50).
Through Jairus' faith, his daughter was raised from the dead and healed.
Faith is the first and important condition that moves a person to prayer. It is not at all necessary to ask for something global. Any prayer request of a true believer will be fulfilled. It is necessary to believe firmly, unconditionally and without any doubt.
With the power of faith and prayer attached to it, miracles are created. Lack of faith does not produce any good fruits. And if a person is also consumed by doubts about the power of prayers, God has no reason to provide him with his miraculous help.
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Why doesn't God hear our prayer?
I wanted to ask you: when you talk to God, does He hear you? When you ask for something, does He give it to you? I don’t always, God doesn’t always hear me. Sometimes I think that He does not respond to my call, to my voice, to my prayer. And you sometimes tell me the same thing, and now you say to yourself: “God does not always hear us. We pray to Him, we stand in church, but something doesn’t feel like we are receiving what we ask for in prayer.”
Let's see what is the reason for this and why God does not hear when we say something to Him. Why, when we send our request, our prayer to Him, does Christ not give us what we want? What to do, how to stand before Him, how to approach Him, what is the prerequisite that will make our prayer, our request, our strong desire come true?
Today we will talk about prayers for other people - when a mother prays for her child, her spouse, or a father for his children, his wife, or for others. How can we ensure that our prayers for our neighbors are heard?
This Canaanite woman will reveal several secrets to us
I remember one story from the Gospel of Matthew - the case of the Canaanite woman, it accurately describes the situation of a current parent praying for his child. If you ask most parents what they want, then they all have one prayer - a prayer for the child: that he recovers, develops normally, behaves well, is smart, that he improves, returns home, leaves a bad company... Parents who bear in heart this pain, they want their prayer - and most of all the prayer for the child - to be heard and for God to respond.
Christ heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman
I believe this Canaanite woman will reveal a few secrets to us. Let me remind you of this case:
And so, a Canaanite woman, coming out of those places, shouted to Him: have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is cruelly raging. But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came up and asked Him: let her go, because she is screaming after us. He answered and said: I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she, coming up, bowed to Him and said: Lord! help me. He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said: yes, Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said to her: O woman! great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour (Matthew 15:22-28).
This woman had a problem with her child - he had a demon. However, isn’t any human passion a demon? Your child may not be like hers, but he can drink. Isn't this the devil of drunkenness? Or gambling, constantly betting - all these are unhealthy, demonic things. In other words, this addiction of his, this passion is demonic, isn’t it?
And while this woman cried out, the Lord did not answer her. Nothing. Silence! The sky is locked. A person tormented by pain speaks to God, but He says nothing, doesn’t answer! The Lord’s disciples go and say to Him: “Let her go, because she is screaming after us! Do what she wants and let her leave here, because she is screaming, following us and raising a cry.”
However, we will not dwell on this case, but take from here only the reason.
The Lord says: “I did not come to deal with all people, I was sent only to the lost sheep, to the house of Israel, to those who are Israelites.”
The Canaanite woman hears these hurtful, discouraging words, as if the Lord were telling her: “Don’t get your hopes up, I’m not here for you, I perform miracles for others.” But, despite this, she approached, bowed to Him and said: Lord! help me.
Canaanite woman at the feet of Christ
The Lord does not answer her and rejects her, He offends her and, it would seem, leaves her without hope. He tells her: “Look, it’s not good to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs, to give the food of My children to some stray dogs. It won’t work like that, it won’t work like that. I can’t do this – deal with you.”
He pushes her away, but she grabs onto these words of His and again turns them into prayer. Instead of despairing, she responds: “Yes, Lord, it is just as You said. I don't mind, I don't deny what You say, You have the right to do so. I understood what you are saying. You called me a dog - okay, I accept it: yes, I am a dog, a stray dog, I should be thrown out, as You said, I should be despised, and so be it.” But then he says: “However, the dogs on the street don’t even get some crumbs. So give me at least some crumb. Baby! I don’t ask for good food, You will give it to Your children, You give me the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”
And then the Lord bows to her. This God, who does not need anything, the Almighty, who does what he wants, to whom everything obeys - and now He, who does what he wants, fulfills the desire of this woman. He, to whom everything obeys, obeys Himself, He, our Lord Jesus Christ, obeys this woman. Yes, he obeys, God obeys man and is amazed at His creation. He is surprised, amazed and says:
“Oh, woman! great is your faith! What a creature! What a beautiful soul, what a beautiful woman, what a beautiful heart! Great is your faith! Do you still believe Me? Do you still love Me and do not give up? I drive you away, push you away, humiliate you, and you still believe me? Great is your faith! Well done! May it be done according to your will. Let it be as you said. What did you say? So that your child gets better? Whatever you want, I will do!”
And the Gospel says that her daughter was healed at that hour. Good case. Happy ending, as the children say. What a good conclusion, what a good ending and what a good development of things! Her child recovered.
Now compare your problem and this woman’s plea, compare them
Now compare your life, your problem and this woman’s prayer, compare them and say: “In many ways, we are similar to her, but in many ways we are not. And I go to meet God, and I go to do something, but I don’t have this wonderful phrase in my life yet, I can’t say it. Which one? The one who was her daughter at that hour... In other words, so that I would also say: “I prayed for my child, and he recovered! How amazing! My child returned home, he quit drugs, created a good family and stopped disappearing into God knows where, not returning home all night long, walking around, and torturing himself and me.”
So, we don’t have such developments in things. Somewhere we lose the direction of our prayer, somewhere everything goes bad. How can we approach Christ, how can we incline Him, how can we approach Him correctly, so that what we pray to Him for will happen, so that a miracle may happen? Where is our connection with God interrupted, where do we go wrong? A? I want us to focus our attention on this today.
Let's stop and think for a moment. Why doesn't God hear our prayer?
I think the first very important condition for your prayer to be heard for a child, husband or wife is hopelessness. When you stop hoping for your money, your intelligence, your beauty, your opportunities, your rights, when you “despair” of all this, I think then your prayer to God will begin to be done properly, and I think people who have lost this hope have the best prayer. Because they cry out desperately, they have lost everything, they have no hope, they have been disappointed by doctors, psychiatrists, philosophers, lawyers of the world, the “wise men” of this century, politicians, artists, singers. He who has lost this hope begins to hope for something else.
However, we have not yet despaired of ourselves, our capabilities, bank savings, our good home, property, and we trust in something other than God. For a miracle to happen, beloved friend, in short, it is very important not to trust in the things of this world, because they cannot give you anything that you are looking for.
And when you say, “I have no hope!” – then you begin to hope in God. Then comes the hour of God
Therefore, it is necessary that you cut off all hope on this earth and say to yourself: “That’s it, it’s over! Only God can help me, I have reached the very limit, to the edge of the abyss, I am in complete despair! And when you say, “I have no hope!” – then you begin to hope in God. Then the hour of God comes.
One friend, Pavel, told me this; he was paralyzed and died at the age of 45. When he reached hopelessness - mental, emotional, spiritual, fell into temptation, etc., he told me: “I can’t take it anymore, I’m in complete despair. This is God's hour! This is what he told me:
– Sooner or later a miracle will happen in my life!
- How do you know?
“I understood this from the fact that I lost hope.” I despaired of everything human.
When people cease to be your hope, God becomes your hope, you begin to turn in the other direction, look at the sky, raise your eyes up, cry out with all your might or cry silently, but this quiet cry touches God and shakes the heavens.
We, most of us, still have some consolation. I remember the fires in Greece, when people became desperate. I remember that hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods were raging in different countries of the world at that time, and people wrote on the roofs in large letters: “God, help us!” God, help us, we have stopped relying on people, no one can save us, only You!
Photo: Emilya Gataullin / Expo.Pravoslavie.Ru
Treat your despair correctly: turn it into a turn towards God
If you treat this despair, this hopelessness correctly, if you see it with a kind eye and do not drown in your ego, your depression, despondency, despair, but turn it into a turn towards God, into a landing point towards Christ, as a sign of theophany, so that to feel Christ’s touch right now, when you are on the edge of an abyss, not to put a cross on yourself, but to feel that you are inspired and begin to land, instead of dangling over the abyss, is the best moment in prayer. The best person to pray is the one who is filled with pain and has lost hope. It is easier for him to talk to God and be heard.
“You know, I have money, but I can’t rely on it. What can you do for money? Can money give me back joy, health, can it make my child, my neighbor healthy the way I pray to God?”
Money can’t, people can’t, but then who can?
And you, who have money, and a good house, beauty and everything else, you say to yourself: “Yes, I know all this. I can change heaven and earth for money, but no one can give me what I’m asking for now.”
- Yes, your position is very good!
- How come, I’m in complete despair!
“That’s what’s good about your situation.” Despair for the world's help will become your greatest hope. There will come a moment when you say: “Leave me, get out of here everyone, I want to talk. I will now speak with the One who is above you, who is outside of you, with the only One who can perform a miracle.”
Photo: Pavel Ivanov / Pravoslavie.Ru
Therefore, in order for our prayer to be heard, the first thing we need is not to place our hope in anything in this world. Therefore, never go to preach to a person who finds consolation in his wealth, who imagines himself to be great, who thinks highly of himself. This person is self-confident, he tends to justify himself, he feels good on his own and therefore cannot start looking for help from anywhere else. Or maybe, but he wants to be in everything himself. “I do everything myself,” he says, “if something happens, I’ll put him in the hospital, I have money.”
So he tries, but when the hopes that he placed in people fade, then he begins to think, becomes distraught and says:
– I have millions more, maybe I can give them if necessary?
And the doctors tell him:
- Yes, it’s not about millions. We are already powerless to help here.
- But why, I have a lot of money?
“Your money cannot lift a sick person.” Your money cannot save another person, your person.
Then you go crazy.
And this woman went crazy too. She was desperate, shaking, and it was written that she was screaming. She let out screams. Out of despair, a man screams and screams. That's why I say that the first prerequisite is to despair of the things of this world.
However, the second step, the second step to ensuring that God hears your prayer for your neighbor is so that your discouragement does not turn into depression, does not paralyze your self and you do not become numb and do nothing, but so that it becomes an impetus to Christ , to God, Jesus.
Many people lose hope and want to turn somewhere, but do not turn to the proper Person. We must understand this and cry out: “Lord, have mercy.” You don’t just call, you don’t just shout, but you cry out to Christ. Do you understand this? To Christ. Nowhere else.
Lord Almighty. Mosaic of the Church of St. Sophia of Constantinople
You go to different magicians, I heard about this from suffering mothers, they told me this. In moments of trust and revelation of the heart, many tell me this: “Wherever I went,” to deities and demons, and this is in the literal sense. When you go to mediums, magicians, fortune tellers, here and there, just to find at least some hope, to believe in something, to ask for help...
Did you say this: “Jesus, only You!”?
Look, you have already done the first thing - you have lost hope, but you are doing the second wrong. You don't look for help where it is, you look for it in clogged sources, in a place where they can't help you. You are not coming to Christ. But think about it, at that hour in front of the Canaanite wife were the apostles, maybe there were other lawyers, and other people, important, good, smart, capable, grace-filled, possessing various gifts of this world. But where did this woman turn her gaze? Where? Did she speak to any of the apostles? Have you reached out to people? No, she walked around everyone: “Let me through!” Here is the holy Apostle Thomas, here is the holy Apostle Andrew, the holy Apostle... “Let me through, I ask you, let me through!” - "Where are you going?" - “I am going to the Lord. Only He is what I need, only He will give me what I want! I will run, bow to Jesus and say: “Lord, only You! Only You!”
Did you say that? “Jesus, only You! If You just tell a miracle to happen in my life, if You touch the soul of my child (spouse, friend, brother, neighbor, father). If only You, You... I don’t rely on people..."
People are people, and they do well that they do not despair, they do well that they do not betray us, but - don’t get this wrong - people will not give you what you want, because what you want, my dear man, it is very big, very important, it is huge and endless. You want something perfect, but the person doesn’t have it. Only the Lord Jesus Christ has this. Not some higher power, not some universal or universal good and other such vague things, but Jesus Christ.
This call must come from you, so that you cry out: “My Jesus!”
Lack of practical faith
Not all people are churchgoers, that is, those who regularly attend church, pray, participate in religious sacraments, study the Holy Scriptures, etc. Most come to the temple from time to time and pray occasionally. At the same time, people are responsive, kind, and help their neighbors. Faith, according to the definition of the Apostle James, without works (that is, churching) is dead. What happens when people without practical faith or those who persist in sin offer their prayers to God? The answer can be found in Holy Scripture:
These people draw near to Me with their lips and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me (Matthew 15:8).
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The Lord will support in sorrow and illness the one who repents of sins, honors the commandments and constantly resorts to God with his heart.
How to understand the language of worship?
– During home prayer, we have the opportunity to think about the content, look into the dictionary and figure out an incomprehensible word. But what to do in church, where it is much more difficult to assimilate the content of prayer?
– Temple worship (in its modern form) was formed over many centuries. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in this situation: a person who takes his first steps in the Church is not able to grasp with his mind what is happening in the church. Comprehension of temple worship is a special work. You need to prepare for the service in advance: review the sequence of services and become familiar with the main text that will be read in the church. Today this is not at all difficult to do. There are many publications and websites with liturgical texts and explanations. It is especially important to read and understand passages of Scripture in advance. By doing this regularly, you can gradually come closer to understanding the language of worship.
In addition, today there are Sunday schools at churches, where they also study the liturgical traditions of the Church.
– Are new prayers being created in our time? Or does the Church use exclusively the texts of ancient authors?
– New prayer texts will always be created as long as the Church exists. After all, prayer, as I have already said, is the embodied experience of the Church. Prayers addressed to newly glorified saints are constantly written. For example, several years ago the Council of Saints of the Kyiv Theological Academy was established. In this regard, they painted an icon of academic saints and a prayer addressed to them.
– Who can write prayers?
- Only one who has a special gift that can be compared to a poetic gift. The author of prayer texts must feel their special inner poetry. In addition, he must be a deeply churchly person in order to convey in words the prayer experience of the Church. Among our contemporaries, such a special gift was possessed, for example, by the blessedly reposed Metropolitan of Kharkov Nikodim (Rusnak). He owns many beautiful canons, akathists and prayers that are used in worship today.
A man prays for something that is not good for him
Often in their prayers people ask God for something that is not useful for them and, moreover, can even lead to the fall. God's providence lies in the salvation of each of the people. Man is given free will so that he can personally participate in the work of his own salvation.
Therefore, if a prayer contains a desire for something that could ultimately negatively affect a person’s salvation and plunge him into sin, God will refuse help. It doesn’t matter that at the moment a person does not understand what bad consequences his prayer appeal is fraught with. The Lord knows everything in advance.
The time will come when the light of the Lord will illuminate us and let us know that our prayer has been heard
Let us return to the Savior’s prayer and think: was it heard? Without a doubt. The Son of God received strength and help, and although the bitter cup of trials did not pass Him, the Heavenly Father will give Him the strength to accept this cross and carry it to the end.
Let us also be sure that
“The hand of the Lord is not too short to save, and His ear is not too heavy to hear.”
(Isa. 59:1)
God always sees us and hears our prayers.
And, despite the fact that today it seems to us that the Creator does not hear us, the time will definitely come when the light of the Lord will illuminate us and make us understand that our prayer has been heard.
The time will come and the Lord will let us know that our prayer has been heard
Why doesn't God hear our prayers? [Gospel of the Day]
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Prayer exclusively for material things
Often people ask God for material goods, completely forgetting about the Savior’s instructions:
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Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break through and steal, for where your treasure is, there it will be and your heart (Matthew 6:19-21).
Those whose hearts are aggravated by the passion of acquisition have appropriate prayers. But God will not fuel this passion:
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, but to use it for your lusts (James 4:3).
Prayer for bad things
It happens that people ask the Creator for things that are not just unhelpful, but downright harmful: for punishing offenders, for retribution. Often they try to impose on the Lord the role of some kind of destructive weapon. In such prayers there is no Christian humility and trust in God; the sense of justice that drives them is nothing more than wounded pride. Christ taught to forgive your personal enemies.
We want to get everything at once and without difficulty
It is in vain that some believe that God, at their request, will do everything for them himself and that they do not need to make any efforts to achieve what they want. This is not true at all. It is important not to forget the well-known folk wisdom:
Trust in God, but don’t make a mistake yourself.
The Lord will not directly and radically interfere in our lives. He expects us to work, trying to achieve what we want, then God’s participation in our destiny will become clear.
Prayer against someone else's free will
Under no circumstances should this be done. When a girl or woman asks the Lord to return a departed lover or a husband who has left his family, God refuses, since he is not a matchmaker.
You can't pray:
Lord, he is mine, give him back to me.
It would be more correct to say this:
Lord, give him some sense and help him not to sin anymore.
God will hear such a prayer and answer it.
