Why Isn’t God Answering Me?

2 Reasons for God’s Silence that May Surprise You

The struggle is real. The pressure is rising; you feel it on your shoulders like a weight. It pulls down on your heart, making it heavy.

You have a decision to make, possibly a big one….. Maybe even a life-changing one.

You’ve prayed more times about it than you can remember at this point. You’ve asked God for all the things: peace, guidance, an obvious sign from heaven, a yes, a no…. something!

There have been so many times I have been so jealous of the bible stories, where angels would visit people in the night, the voice of God himself would speak out of nowhere, the burning bush……

Oh how I longed for God to come down in a ball of glowing light and just TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!

If you can relate to me on this, I have to give you credit. Because I believe this comes from a good heart desire to do the right thing. To do the things God wants you to do, and that it awesome. Not everyone feels this way.

But as I have gone through many things in life now, and matured in my relationship with God, slowly but surely…..

I have had to come face-to-face with some hard truths about myself. Truths that answered my question:

Why isn’t God answering me?!

If you have often asked yourself this question, or felt the pain of God’s “silence”, I want to share with you 2 POSSIBLE REASONS FOR GOD’S SILENCE THAT MAY SURPRISE YOU.

REASON #1: GOD KNOWS YOU WOULDN’T LISTEN EVEN IF HE TOLD YOU

Reason #1 can initially sting a little, right? I became defensive a bit when I first felt God whispering this in my ear. (He, of course, does everything lovingly and graciously).

But this wasn’t something I had learned or heard from someone else. And it wasn’t something I could remember reading in the bible, or a book.

It was an observation I had made over time, which was then, afterwards, confirmed to me when God knew I was ready to hear it and admit it.

I was randomly thinking one day, (something I do often. *tehe*), and I thought about how I had gotten a lot better at hearing God’s voice than I used to. I was thinking how He seemed to answer more of my prayers than He used to. I noticed that asking God a question and waiting for, and expecting, an answer from Him hadn’t felt as much of an arduous task as it once had. This gave me confidence that He would answer me again, and again.

“Hmm…..but why is that?” I asked myself. Why would God suddenly be speaking to me more? Or why did my ears suddenly seem more attuned to His voice?

Looking back, I feel it must have been the Spirit leading me. It’s crazy how many conversations we THINK we’re having with ourselves, that we’re REALLY having with the Holy Spirit. LOL.

I then began to slowly realize how much I HAD CHANGED OVER TIME, for the better. My thoughts, my heart, my desires. Also, I had stepped out in multiple ways that were huge and scary for me the past few years prior. Which meant that I was actually willing to do the HARD THINGS when I felt that God was leading me to them. (I used to never be willing to do the hard things).

Then the epiphany hit me: “Maybe God doesn’t give me certain answers, or tell me to do certain things, because He knows that I wouldn’t be willing to do them even if He told me……” *wince*

I then began to let this marinate over time. I have thought about it multiple times, applied it to multiple scenarios. And I have even gotten to the point a few times where I went to pray about something but realized I wasn’t sure if I would listen when God told me what to do, so I didn’t pray for an answer, I prayed for God to change my heart instead, and give me His desires.

WELL……A few days ago I was reading the Bible, and I received a confirmation to this thought process!

It was something in the Bible that I had read more times that I can count, and it stood out to me in a new way this time. (So cool how that happens. That’s why the Bible is called the “living” word).

Luke 20:1-8 KJV

“1And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, 2And spoke unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority does thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? 3And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: 4The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? 5And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? 6But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. 7And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. 8And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”

Wow, do you see that? He knew that no matter what He told the scribes and religious folk, they would make up some way to twist it and manipulate it in order to discredit Him and not believe who He was. So why would He waste time telling them? They even admitted it amongst themselves…. #embarrassing.

If you think about it, we can relate to Him in this. After all, we were made in God’s image. If you knew for a fact that someone wasn’t going to listen to you or believe you in a certain situation….would you waste your breath trying to convince them? Would you waste your time? Would you stir the pot by arguing with them, only causing more anger and frustration on both sides than there already was?

That wouldn’t be a wise thing to do. It would be like handing them more amunition against you.

If we were honest with ourselves…. How often do we pray and ask God for an answer, for guidance…. But we only want to hear the answer we want? And if God told us otherwise, would we choose to disobey? Choose to disregard? Choose to reason and logic our way out of believing that He actually said it? Would we choose to somehow validate why we “couldn’t” do what He asked?

For example, You’re asking Him to help your house sell, but you aren’t willing to move where He wants you to.

…..You ask Him if you’re supposed to marry this person, but if He told told you no, you wouldn’t break it off with them anyways.

…..You ask for help in your marriage, for Him to fix your spouse, but you aren’t willing to change yourself when God gently points out one way you’re damaging the marriage.

I know…. OUCH. 

When I was honest with myself, I realized that I had done this all my life. And what a coincidence it was that when I started getting serious about stepping out and doing the hard things, the uncomfortable things that God was leading me to…. I magically started hearing Him more.

I believe this was not a coincidence at all. This is one thing that has led me to start praying more bold prayers, like: “Change my heart and desires.” “I will do what you ask even if I don’t want to, just tell me what it is.” Which I wrote about in another blog post: 4 Biblical Truths That Will Empower You To Pray Bold Prayers

REASON #2: HE ALREADY GAVE YOU AN ANSWER AND IS WAITING ON YOUR TO FOLLOW THROUGH

The second reason that God may not be “answering you”…. Is because HE ALREADY DID.

“Whaaaaaaat?” you may be asking.

There have been times when I was so desperate for an answer or a change of situation, that I completely skipped over something God had told me to do. But then continued to ask Him for another answer. *sigh*

It’s sad to say that I could give you many personal example of this. It could be something He told me to do for my marriage, something He told me to do for my health, something He told me to do for my mind and unbelief.

As we discussed above, sometimes God asks us to do hard or uncomfortable things that we want to avoid. But sometimes….. the things God’s tells us to do FOR OUR OWN GOOD can seem…. Small. Insignificant even. We expect these big answers and big epiphanies. We expect some crazy testimony story or parting of the clouds moments. And when we hear that small whisper to just “drink more water”, or “start declaring a certain bible verse over this particular situation”…. We think, “Eh, that’s too simple.” And we can either dismiss it as not being God and forget about it altogether, or just neglect it and keep asking Him for a different suggestion that seems more “holy”.

But He’s not going to tell you step #2 if you didn’t listen to step #1. That’s not how life works. That’s not how faith works. That’s not how obedience works.

If you feel like God is being silent, STOP. THINK. Was there something He already told you to do that you haven’t done yet?

Make that thing your #1 priority, and give it some time….. see what He brings next.

Parting Thoughts

When we feel that the Lord is being silent, satan wants us to believe the lies that He is ignoring you. That He’s not even listening to your prayers. That God doesn’t care about your problems, and doesn’t want to help you fix them. He may even feed you the lie that God is angry with you and so you don’t deserve for Him to answer your prayers or help you.

Don’t believe these lies. Look to the GOSPEL of Christ to learn about God’s intentions towards you. GOD DOES HEAR YOUR PRAYERS. HE DOES WANT TO HELP YOU. AND THERE’S A GOD CHANCE THAT HE HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU SOME ANSWER OR LEVEL OF GUIDANCE THAT YOU’VE BEEN IGNORING. 

Take some time to look inward. Be honest about your heart and your intentions.

If you feel like this may be you….. you are guilty of one or both of these things…. That’s okay! Just admit it to yourself, then admit it to God. Ask forgiveness and then ask Him to re-show you what you need to do. Or, if you already know what you need to do, then ask Him for the heart, and strength to carry it out.

He’s not angry. You can pick up right where you left off. That’s just one beautiful thing about the Lord and our relationship with Him.

If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to drop them below, or send me an email.

Until next time, take each day one day at a time.

Her Life In Season