59:2 that he will not hear. It is futile to fast and pray if the Lord does not hear, and He will not hear if our sins have not been confessed and put away. When prayers are not answered, it is not because God cannot hear them. “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?” (Psalm 94:9). It may be that He simply refuses to hear. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). There may be other reasons, of course, but we need at least to consider this possibility in any given situation of apparently unanswered prayer. Also see note on James 4:3.