Why God Doesn’t Always Answer Prayers

This devotional is part of a DIY tutorial on painting a door to look stained: How to Paint a Door to Look Like Wood

There’s another door in our home that also has multiple coats of paint on it.  This door was once in the LaSalle Hotel in Bryan, Tx before it was renovated, which means it is at least 100 years old.

I first painted it red to match the décor of our old home and later painted it navy and had white lettering made for it. (This was before I figured out how to paint my own lettering the easy way.)

The verse is Matthew 7:7-8:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Sometimes I think this verse gets a bad rap because it almost seems too good to be true.  

This verse isn’t saying that God will grant our every desire as if He’s our own personal genie in a lamp.  It’s saying that if you ask and seek, God will give you what you ask for as long as it is in accordance with God’s Will.

John 5:14 tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

These verses together say that we will have anything we ask of God as long as it is according to His Will.

This is actually so much better than having a “genie-in-a-bottle” type of God.

How many times have you asked God for something that you later realized would have been your life’s biggest dumpster fire had it come to pass?  Fortunately, God has the foresight to give us what’s truly best for us.

God doesn’t grant our every compulsory desire because He knows what we truly need and want.  And yes, He’s interested in our “wants”, not just our “needs” because we are His beloved children.

Matthew 7:7 presents a truth that is better than a “genie-in-a-bottle” prayer life because God guards us against ourselves by only granting actions that are best for us.  God knows His will is what’s best for us and He is the only thing that will truly satisfy the desire of our hearts.

So, when you see this verse, don’t shrink back in faith, doubting the truth of this promise.  But ask in faith knowing that Your Good God loves you too much to give you anything that is less than His Best.

Because of his goodness, we have a safeguard against the things we pray for ourselves that might actually be to our future detriment.

So pray in faith, knowing that there is incredible power in prayer and God personally directs this power for good.

For more spiritual encouragement, click here for the rest of my project posts that also include Renovate Your Faith devotionals.