As we live a life of faith, we can experience times when our prayers go unanswered. It can happen because we are being protected from the results of an immature prayer that can put us in a place of danger that we cannot yet see. Being out of God’s timing can also produce no results. There is a greater reason why our prayers are not answered. It is because of unforgiveness.

Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too” (Mark 11:24-26).

Jesus said we can pray for anything, and we will have it but it’s not a free pass. There is a condition. He said that before we pray, we need to make sure we have forgiven the people we are holding a grudge against. An unresolved grudge of unforgiveness will stand in the way of God answering our prayers.

We all have excuses to hang onto our unforgiveness, but none of them matter in God’s sight. As Jesus said, we need to make sure unforgiveness is not being harbored in our hearts before we pray, even when our reasoning and evidence have created the scaffolding to support such an attitude. A more important reason was also stated by Jesus – we forgive so that the Father will forgive us.

Before receiving communion, the Lord asks us to prepare our hearts. There is a reason why He makes that request. “So, anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died” (I Corinthians 11:27-30). Harboring unforgiveness is an unworthy choice.

Jesus came to forgive the world as the primary goal of His mission. If we do not align our hearts with that purpose, we are working against the very reason why Jesus came into this world.

There is tremendous freedom in choosing to have a forgiving heart. It is worth the effort to push through the excuses we use to support our unforgiveness. The choice to hold onto such an attitude has eternal consequences if we choose to not forgive. Choosing to forgive opens the doors of Heaven to pour blessings onto our lives that we could not imagine when we lived trapped in the blinding prison of unforgiveness.