SIN SHUTS OFF PRAYER

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭66‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭
SIN SHUTS OFF PRAYER
“If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

“Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life,” writes A. W. Tozer. “All things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives.”

How true! How we live determines how we pray and whether our prayer gets a hearing. None of us can claim a perfect sinless life when we pray. But when we “cherish” iniquity in our heart, a reference to any habitual sinful attitude which we refuse to confess and address, we make prayer a mockery before God.

Such was the case when King Herod met Jesus. “Herod was delighted when Jesus showed up. He had wanted for a long time to see him, he’d heard so much about him. He hoped to see him do something spectacular. He peppered him with questions. Jesus didn’t answer—not one word. Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭MSG‬‬

King Herod had heard John the Baptist and had refused to address the iniquity in his heart. He received a deafening silence from our Lord. So would we if our requests issue from a hardened heart. But the psalmist adds, “But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”

We can have the same confidence when we first examine our lives before we issue our prayer. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him….” 1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭

How we live undergirds how we pray.