You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on evil desires.
Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.     James 4:2-4 HCSB

There is a problem among many that call themselves Christians today. They think that they can live however they want and say that they love the Lord and all will be well. But, this is not the case. I am speaking from personal experience. I went through many years of wondering why God wasn’t answering my prayers. It took me many years to figure it out. I’m trying to save you from wasting time like I did.

Many of us claim to love the Lord, but all these other things in our life get in the way of us spending time with Him. We claim to love Him with all our heart, but our heart is kept busy with many other loves as well. And sometimes these other loves get in the way of us focusing on Jesus Christ, our Savior. We let our family activities, clubs, possessions, jobs, hobbies and all kinds of other things get in the way of us spending time with Him.

But, oh when we cry out, we want Him to answer. Well, it just doesn’t work that way. For many years, I would ask my mom to pray about things that weighed heavy on my heart. I was noticing that often times my prayers went unanswered, but it seemed as though God always answered her prayers. At the time I didn’t understand what was going on. I mean I loved the Lord. I was really busy with work and my social engagements, but I loved Him. I didn’t often have time for church, but I loved Him. I didn’t have a lot of time to pray and study my Bible, but I still loved Him. When I occasionally cried out, why didn’t he answer?

Our scripture passage tells us that we serve a jealous God. God wants to be number one in our lives. God wants our time and attention. He wants to be our main focus. Oh, it’s okay to have other interests on the side, but I had other interests as my focus and had put God on the side. That was not okay. My friendship with the world had made me God’s enemy.

1 John 2:15-17 warns against loving the world or the things that belong to the world. It tells us if anyone loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him. It tells us that this world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

See, God doesn’t want to be your 911 call. He wants to be the one you wish to speak to first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. He wants to be first on your mind. He wants to be considered in all that you do (Proverbs 3:6). He wants you to love Him with all your heart (Matthew 22:37).

I used to tell my mom all the time that I needed her to pray for me because she was a good prayer. I later came to realize that a good prayer is someone who puts God first. It’s someone who stays in constant communication with Him and strives to do His will.

Psalm 66:18 says, “If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” We are told in Isaiah 59:1-2 that the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. But our iniquities have built barriers between us and God and our sin causes Him to his His face from us so that He does not listen. Now Isaiah was speaking this as a warning many years ago to the Israelites, but it is very applicable to us today. Do you have deliberate sin in your life? Have you built a barrier between you and God?

All of us grow weary of the person that only draws close to us when they need something, right? Well, God is no different. He wants first place in your life. He doesn’t want to be your 911 call, He wants to be your constant companion.

If you feel God is not listening, take a good hard look at your relationship with Him. Does He truly have first place in your life? Or is He wedged between a bunch of other activities and often squeezed out because you just don’t have time for him?

If you are going through hard times and feel that your prayers aren’t being answered, look at where you place God in your life. Is he first or does he fall somewhere down there in between all the other stuff? Maybe that’s your problem.

Have a great day!