"God’s Delays in Answering Our Prayers"

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January 14, 2026 Wednesday Night sermon series


“Lord, he whom You love is sick.” 


So, when Jesus heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.


 (John 11:1-16)


God never says No to our prayers! We’ve always heard that He doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we want Him to, but that He answers one of three ways: 1. Yes, 2. No, or 3. Wait.  That teaching is found nowhere in the Bible. Read through the teachings of Jesus in particular and the New Testament in general and you will see. What we perceive as God’s No simply means we did not pray right, according to what the New Testament teaches on prayer. When we pray the way we are taught in the Bible the answer to our prayers is always Yes. When we pray the will of God in faith, God will answer that prayer with a resounding Yes! Read 1Jn.5:14-15, Mk.11:22-24, Jn.15:7, and any other place and you will see that is true.


1Jn.5:4-5 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.


  Mk.11: 22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.


  Jn.5:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you[a] will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.


Most people don’t know how to pray and their lack of answers is interpreted as a No from God. But God never tells us He might say No to our prayers. We need to learn how to pray. This is the point of James 1:6-7 and Jas.4:3.


Jas.1: 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.


Jas.4: 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.


But there is sometimes a mysterious delay, what is called Wait. Why is that? We’ve all experienced these unexplained delays and would like to know, “Why is God delaying in answering my prayer?” That is exactly what happened in this story of Jesus and Lazarus. The sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was sick, implying that they wanted Him to come and heal him. That’s what the wording of v.3 “sent to” and v.6-7 mean: “When He heard, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” Then in v.21 & 32 both sisters said, “Lord, if you had been here (if You had come when we called You) my brother would not have died.” Jesus obviously delayed His coming. Why? Why the delay? (What should we do during this delay I will address later.)


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