Please allow me to suggest that what you are asking is not really why your prayers are not answered but why they are not answered in the way that you want them to be answered. These are really two very different concepts.
In the beautiful prayers that are recited before each new month we ask God to answer all of our most heartfelt prayers “for the good”. That means that we are admitting to God that we do not know what is truly good for us and what is not. Therefore, when we ask Him to give us what we imagine is what we need or what we want, it comes with a disclaimer that if it is not for our good we do not really want it. In effect, what we are being taught is that God does in fact answer every single one of our prayers — it is just that when it is to our detriment He says “No”.
And if you’ll ask, “So what’s the point of praying when He always says no to me?” — here’s what I would tell you:
Does God really always say no to you? Or is that a perception because He said no to some very serious requests? We ask God for life and health. We ask God for a good livelihood. We ask God for wisdom. There is no end to the things that we ask God for, and many, many of them are given to us. It is just that when we concentrate on what we did not get we tend to lose sight of what God did give us, and keeps on giving us on a continual basis.
May God always answer your prayers, and all of our prayers, “for the good”, and may we also truly realize (although I admit it is not easy) that our prayers are always answered for our good.
