02Apr
I hope that yesterday’s “CV19Daily” encouraged you to pray. Prayer is not hard or complicated, and it works. However, I would be remiss if I did not take some time to inform you that some conditions keep us from getting answers to prayer. As easy to execute as prayer is, it is also very easy to erect prayer blockades.
Many prayers go unanswered because they are simply not expressed. James explained, “You do not have because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2 NIV) If prayer is so easy and God so ready to answer, why don’t people ask? One reason is that people just shut him out of their thoughts. Why would people exclude him? Some ignore God because they were taught that he does not exist. And for some reason, they choose not to examine that conclusion thoroughly.
Some turn their backs on him because of their prior disappointment because of unanswered prayers. God allowed something to happen that they desperately pled with God to stop, and now they are holding a grudge against him. Do not forget, “If God said no, it was for a good reason!”
Another reason God seems to ignore our prayers is our purpose for the request, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:3 NIV) God is not a Genie in a bottle who grants our wishes. His sovereign responses are designed to direct our free wills toward the noblest human motivations. When we are wrongly oriented, he refuses our requests to get our attention and move us toward the highest of human motives.
I will conclude with one more common prayer blocker. Earlier, one hindrance to prayer that I described was holding a grudge against God. Perhaps I could have been more succinct by merely explaining that God does not look with favor on grudge-holding toward anyone. In one of the most well-known passages in the Bible, The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus explains that if we do not forgive others, he will not forgive us. (Matthew 6:12, 14-15) In a specific application of Jesus’ teaching, Peter explains that if a husband is not considerate and respectful to his wife, his prayers will be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7) The principle behind Peter’s warning should not be limited to husband/wife relationships. “Answer blockers” are not that hard to avoid!
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