Treadwell
YouTube
Why Prayers Go Unanswered: Faith, Fasting, and Self-Examination
12:46
What the video says
The speaker explains that unanswered prayers stem from weak faith and a doubting heart, not from God's unwillingness. He stresses the necessity of prayer and fasting from passions, and that true change begins with self-examination and repentance rather than blaming others. Using the mustard seed analogy, he urges listeners to trust God completely, acknowledge their own sinfulness, and seek God's help to transform themselves, noting that God's love endures despite human unfaithfulness.
Key moments
- The speaker opens by questioning why sincere prayers seem unanswered and life doesn't improve.
- He identifies the cause: lack of faith and praying with a doubting mind rather than a full heart.
- Referencing the disciples' inability to cast out demons, he explains that such things require prayer and fasting.
- He defines fasting broadly as abstaining from passions like judgment, anger, and lust, not merely food.
- Jesus says faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, but the congregation admits they do not believe this.
- People ask God to change others, but God calls them to change themselves; they refuse because they don't truly believe.
- An anecdote illustrates the need to ask God to 'slap me in the face' and wake up to one's wasted life.
- No one harms us more than we harm ourselves through weak faith; we must trust God, not ourselves, to change.
The speaker addresses the painful experience of sincere prayers that seem unanswered and lives that do not improve. He identifies the root cause not in God's unwillingness but in the petitioner's weak faith and doubting heart. Drawing on the Gospel account of the disciples' failure to cast out a demon, he explains that such spiritual work requires both prayer and fasting.
Fasting is defined broadly as abstinence from the passions — judgment, anger, lust — rather than merely from food. Christ's promise that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains is contrasted with the congregation's honest admission that they do not truly believe it. The talk turns to a common pattern: people ask God to change others, while God calls them to change themselves.
This refusal stems from a lack of genuine faith. An anecdote illustrates the need to ask God for a decisive awakening — to "slap me in the face" — so that one recognizes a wasted life. Ultimately, no one harms us more than we harm ourselves through unbelief.
The path forward is to trust God completely, acknowledge personal sinfulness, and seek His help to transform the self, resting in the assurance that God's love endures despite human unfaithfulness.
Main points
- Unanswered prayers arise from weak faith and a doubting heart, not from God's reluctance.
- Effective spiritual warfare requires prayer and fasting understood as abstinence from passions.
- Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, yet believers often admit they do not trust this promise.
- God calls us to change ourselves rather than demanding He change others; refusal reveals unbelief.
- Self-examination and repentance — asking God to awaken us — are the beginning of true transformation.