Values Blog
Confusion over Prayer
A clear majority of Americans pray regularly; but according to their reports, God rarely, if ever, answers.
Yet a recent survey indicates more than half of those polled (56%) say their religion is very important in their lives. A much smaller number of Americans attend some type of worship service (39%), but a greater number (75%) pray every day.
While most Americans (92%) believe in God, most viewing Him as either a “personal God” or an “impersonal force” (25%), they don’t believe God is answering their prayers.
The Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey reports that on average 23 percent of those who pray said they “seldom or never” hear back from God. Members of mainline churches (29%) and Orthodox churches (26%), Catholics (31%), Jews (23%), Buddhists (28%), and Hindus (27%) had the highest number of respondents indicating they seldom, if ever, received an answer to a prayer. The Pew Forum talked to over 35,000 Americans in compiling the results.
Among those who do hear from God on a regular basis are Evangelicals (29%), members of historically black churches (34%), Jehovah’s Witnesses (36%) Mormons (32%) and Muslims (31%) said they receive answers to their prayers at least once a week. Not surprisingly, these same people also report attending religious services at least once a week.
Those who come to God, unburdened from unforgiven sin and in God’s will, will hear from God (1John 5:14; 1 Peter 3:12). God hears and answers His children’s prayers. Scripture also tells us that He does not hear (and therefore will not answer) the prayers of the degenerate (Isaiah 59:1-2), unless it a prayer of confession and plea for salvation.
It is worth noting there are individuals in the survey who hold to faiths with heretical teachings who state their prayers are answered. God’s Word is clear that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can have access to the Father. Those who do not know the One True God are deluded. Their rituals and false beliefs have confounded them. If someone is “answering” their prayers, it is not God.
Yet many of those who do know Him, at least as indicated by the faith company they keep, aren’t even listening for His voice. The disconnect, it appears, is on our end of the line.
There is life-sustaining and life-expanding power in prayer. When we fail to draw near to God in prayer, we cannot be the person God desires us to be. And our world is the less for it.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14
Comments
1
I just want you to know that God does answer prayers. My husband and I pray nearly every night for our families and we have had several of our prayers answered and we are certain there will be more, but in God’s time.
posted at 2:39pm on July 29, 2008 by William & Betty Chunn
2
I think a lot of this confusion is over what it means for God to answer a prayer. He can answer, “Yes, No, [or even]later.” We cannot dictate how God will answer or prayer. He may know that if He answers our prayer in the way we specify, it will ruin our lives. However, to say God does not answer our prayers because He does not do exactly what we ask is to miss the point of prayer. We basically go to God to make ourselves available for whatever His will determines our life should be. In some instances this may entail answering a specific request by someone living in God’s will just as spelled out in the prayer. On the other hand, He may not answer this way because He is achieving some higher purpose for either us personally or for mankind in general. I think people should be careful about saying God does not answer their prayers. Sometimes He does speak in a still, small voice and if we are not carefully listening, we will miss it.
posted at 7:42pm on August 01, 2008 by Richard Landess