God loves to answer the prayers of His people. He enjoys blessing those who call on His name. But sometimes our prayers can be hindered or not answered because of the condition of our heart. Scripture calls us as followers of Jesus to do heart work with the Holy Spirit for our prayers to be answered. Please note: there are many other factors that hinder prayer; these are just a few that pertain to our heart. And remember, God is sovereign and can choose to answer prayer above and beyond our sin and brokenness. Now let us examine some areas where Scripture makes clear the standard God has set for His people in relationship with Him.
Deal with Your Sin
At times, sin is trivialized and not confronted from the pulpit nor from our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But God takes sin seriously. Sin has strong repercussions in our prayer life and relationship with God. Sin can metaphorically plug the ears of God. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I had held sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." So if we hold unconfessed sin, and live with unchanged hearts and lives, God will not answer our prayers. Think about it. This is serious business. God has a high standard for His people. If we live our lives with known, unconfessed sin from which we have not been seeking to change, our prayers will seriously be hindered; God will not listen. So Scripture calls us to appropriately confess our sin, and have a changed heart and life with the help of the Holy Spirit. When we deal with our sin, God answers our prayers more fully.
Forgive
For those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus, we know a major part of the Gospel message is that we ourselves have been forgiven of all our sins on account of Jesus' death on the cross. Through Jesus, God freely forgives us of all our sin; past, present and future. We are in right relationship with God through Jesus when we accept this wonderful gift of forgiveness. Because of this, God cares about how we respond to others, especially in the area of forgiveness. Matthew 6:14-15 says, "If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins." That is a serious statement. If we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us and there is a major divide in our relationship with Him. When we hold unforgiveness in our hearts, it hinders our prayer life. We are called to forgive others as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32) so that we may have a right relationship with God. We must do the heart work of forgiveness for answered prayer.
Reconcile
When we forgive, we do not actually need to do anything apart from making an internal decision between us and God, without the person present. But reconciliation is another matter. God takes our relationships with others very seriously, so seriously that they can have an impact on whether God receives our gifts or prayers. Matthew 5:23-24 states, "If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make things right with your brother or sister and then come back and offer your gift." God wants us to make sure that our relationships are reconciled and made right before we bring Him offerings and worship (prayer included). He desires that we seek to reconcile with those we have wronged and those who have wronged us. We must make the intentional effort to repair and restore our relationships with all people to the best of our ability and what are within safe boundaries. The heart work of reconciliation leads to answered prayer.
Check Your Motives
The motives and attitudes of our hearts are very important to God. He often looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) rather than how we appear on the outside. Because of this, our motives in prayer are extremely important to God; they can influence whether our prayers are answered or not. James writes, "You don't have because you don't ask. You ask and don't have because you ask with wrong motives, to waste it on your own cravings" (James 4:2b-3). Why are you asking? For whose benefit? For whose glory? It is important for us to prayerfully, with the Holy Spirit, examine our hearts and ask ourselves what our motives are in our prayers. If our motives are selfish, then our prayers will be hindered. But if our prayers are for God's glory, the Kingdom, and of the good of others, then the likelihood of our prayers being answered are increased.
Approach God with Humility
"God opposes the proud, but gives graces to the humble" (James 4:6). Our attitude directly determines whether God opposes us or gives us grace. I believe the parable of the tax collector and Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 illustrates this concept so well:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So, which one are you? Are you the Pharisee filled with pride and self-justification? Or are you the tax collector who recognizes his or her own sin before a holy God? Approaching God with humility will impact our prayers.
Let us do the heart work with the Holy Spirit for answered prayer.
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Heavenly Father, would you do a deep work in our hearts through your Spirit. May we walk with you in holiness, forgiveness, reconciliation, right motives, and humility. Lord hear our prayer. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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