Today during Bible study, a question came up about prayer. A sister in Christ told me she had a friend who told her that the Lord does not hear your prayers if you are living in sin. She said that there are Bible verses that back this up. I did some research and.....
Here are my thoughts on this matter:
We know that God is omniscient, which means that He knows all things. Psalms 44:21 says, "Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart." This means that He knows the depths of our hearts. He knows when we sit and when we rise, He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows the secrets we hold in our hearts--whether we are truly seeking after Him. He does hear our prayers--when we mumble a silent prayer to Him, or when we seek in our hearts to do His will in a certain situation. Even those things are a prayer, uttered from our hearts. And He hears those prayers.
Yet, our God desires to be at the center of our hearts. It grieves Him to see us run astray. In Isaiah 1:2, Isaiah proclaims the words of the Lord to all, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: 'I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me...'" It saddens the Lord to see His children rebel and turn from Him.
This is where I think we get distracted. When we turn our little faces away from the direction of the Lord, we start wanting our own selfish agendas. If our hearts and actions are not in line with God, we are only focusing on ourselves.
Here is a verse about how God hears the prayers of the righteous. 1 Peter 3:12 says "For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil." And again in Psalms 34:17, "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles." Is this not a wonderful promise to those who seek after the Lord earnestly? He hears the prayers of His children!
In Isaiah 1:15, the Lord says "When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." The imagery here in the words of the Lord is amazing. It's not that He can't hear the prayers of the wicked, but rather, He chooses not to hear them. He hides His eyes. If we are living in sin, the Lord God calls upon us to repent and remove the things in our lives that cause us to stumble. Acts 3:19 tells us to repent. "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." The Lord's presence is among those who earnestly seek after Him, and continually repent from their sins.
Overall, it is a matter of the heart. Even if we are in the depths of sin, if we come with an open repentant heart, He will hear our pleas for help. The Lord can save anyone with a willing heart. Isaiah 59:1 says, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear."
http://gracehead.com/junk/trackback.php/725
Automatically aggregates all posts from all other blogs. This allows you to easily track everything that is posted on this system. You can hide this blog from the public by unchecking 'Include in public blog list' in the blogs admin.
Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<< < | > >> | |||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 | 31 |