What blocks your prayers from being heard? Why do you cry out to God, and it seems like He does not hear you? Are there certain things in your life that need to be in place for you to be heard by God?
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” – Psalm 66:18 KJV
Iniquity is sin. If you have known sin that you are committing that you have not repented and turned from, then you will not be heard by God. He promises not to hear you if you are sinning.
The Seared Conscience
Our morality has gone so far off the course that what we once knew were sins–our consciences are seared to those sins. This happens through the erosion of morals in the people around us and by watching television, movies, and ungodly websites.
I know of a pastor who led many people to the Lord, who because of tens of thousands of hours of television watching, became seared in his conscience. His daughter had been brutally raped by a stranger, but years later he cracked a joke about something similar. The people with unseared consciences were appalled at the joke as they stared in horror at this man. The others in the room with seared consciences laughed.
Even the godliest men fall into depravity when they do not regularly fast and pray before God to purge them from worldly influence. Abstaining from ingesting worldly influence can reverse some of the damage.
Our time belongs to God. But we don’t even consult Him about what to do with our time. Instead we squander it on worthless things that lead us to seared consciences.
We are not devoted to the Lord. We are not wholehearted. We do not care about the things of God except as mental exercises at church that are disconnected from our experience. We have a form of godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). God never reaches our souls. We don’t commune.
Do you want your sin more than you want God?
You don’t want a relationship with God if you want your sin more than you want God. Jesus is not Lord if you are continuing in known sin. You don’t know Jesus if you continue to walk in sin because God is holy. The only way to draw near to God is to get rid of sin. Are you broken about sin? Saying some words into the air does not make you saved. Jesus must be functionally Lord of your life in order for you to be saved.
Whatever you are placing higher than God–the sin you are committing–that is Lord. If you are controlled by greed, anger, gossip, lust, ungratefulness, laziness, or complaining, then you are not controlled by God. If you are a man who wants to harm your wife rather than love her–you are under fleshly, demonic, and worldly influence. The reason you are reaching for another drink is that you are miserable and are doing whatever your flesh wants. You are enslaved to it–in chains. You are in bondage to whatever you are overcome by. You will never be satisfied by gratifying your flesh. It is an insatiable pit. There is nothing there but misery for the people around you.
“They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity–for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” – 2 Peter 2:19 NIV
So what blocks your prayers from being heard by God? Sin. If you want a real relationship with God, ask Him to expose your sin, and then get rid of it.
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Tags: Christian Living, prayer, repentance
Thank you for sharing this. I’ve been dealing with sadness and envy lately when God does amazing things in other people’s lives. My first response is, “God doesn’t love ME that much.” I know it’s wrong, but that’s where I’m at right now.
It’s hard when you have to go through suffering, and it seems like everyone else has blessings. Lord, give us Your presence during the hard times, that we might have even more joy when You send blessings to us.
I remember when I was saved, the obvious difference in the way I prayed, and His frequently obvious answers. Makes for real joy!
There is so much joy when we see God answer our prayers! He is definitely a good Father.
Yes! We can only have one lord. It’s God or our sin. We can love ourselves most, or we can love Jesus most. But I’m so thankful for His grace.
His grace covers our sin. But yes, we must choose who we will serve: God or ourselves.
Whatever we put first, that’s our god – and it should be God FIRST!
Absolutely! Only God deserves first place!
If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just, and will forgive them.
Amen! We are free from sin the moment we repent!
Sin can be so subtle too. We can be prideful and jealous, gossipers and gluttonous…all of these can keep our prayers from reaching Him. That is why confessing our sin is so important. Thanks for sharing. – Amy
We often are blind to our own sin, which is why we need to open our hearts to God to see if He has anything to say to us!
Sin is not an easy thing to acknowledge or let go of sometimes, but just as you said whatever we are putting first in our lives is Lord. I choose my God over since, always. Without him I’d be broken.
I always strive to put Him first in my life, too!
Several years ago I had a wake up call to what I was allowing into my mind and heart. Due to that my style of music changed as well as what I watched on TV. I just happened to turn on a show the other day that I used to like and was appalled at what I used to laugh at. We do have to be so careful. Like you said, we can sear our hearts to the point of not allowing ourselves to recognize sin. Thank God for the opportunity to change our hearts and allow Him to take his rightful place even when we once allowed other things to occupy it.
Television slowly erodes our morals until we are not appalled at sin any more.
I think it’s important, yet scary, to ask God to expose our hearts. We all have things to work on, but that’s no excuse.
The less sin we have in our lives, the more joy and peace as God’s presence is revealed more and more.