Sin Is Your Greatest Enemy To Prayer

 

"Iniquity, regarded in the heart, will certainly spoil the comfort and success of prayer, for the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Those that continue in love and league with sin have no interest either in the promise or in the Mediator, and therefore cannot expect to speed in prayer." - Matthew Henry Commentary

 

"If there is still the love of evil in his heart, if he has some cherished purpose of iniquity which he is not willing to abandon; if there is any one sin, however small or unimportant it may seem to be; which he is not willing to forsake, he cannot hope that God will hear his prayer; he may be assured that he will not. All prayer, to be acceptable to God, MUST be connected with a purpose to forsake all sin." - Barnes' Notes

 

In Psalm 66:18, David declared - "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

 

The Lord will not regard, accept, or answer any prayer that does not manifest a purpose to forsake all forms of sin. Period! This is elementary knowledge - Prayer 101, if you will - the great and most important principle when it comes to praying.

 

What did David mean when he said - "If I regard iniquity in my heart..."?

 

It has various meanings.

 

If I -

look upon sin with pleasure

cherish it in my heart

purpose to commit it again

delight in it

continue to gaze upon it without aversion

excuse it

downplay it

have a side glance of love toward it

have favorable thoughts toward it

treat it as a friend

bid it welcome

make provision for it

get angry at the suggestion of parting with it

gloat over past sins

 

- then God will not hear nor answer my prayer. I will be left without the help and support that I need.

 

Such prayers come under the category of being - "an abomination" in the sight of God - for surely everyone who "turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination"(Proverbs 28:9). God commands us to forsake all sin and return to Him in truth and sincerity. To practice sin is to walk in disobedience to His commands and hence, to set ourselves up to be rejected by Him in our prayers.  

 

The Apostle James said it this way - "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."(James 4:3)

 

Here he blatantly announces that lust is the hindrance or spoiler that oftentimes keeps the answer to prayer from coming our way.

 

"because ye ask amiss" - In other words, we are asking evilly and wickedly...for improper objects and with improper motives...with a view to self-indulgence and fleshly gratification...not for right ends or in a right manner...not to glorify God or do good...but with lustful, contentious, sensual, worldly, or covetous intentions.

 

Many in James' day were praying for success in their employment...seeking more and more property... asking for worldly prosperity...and desiring to further their own personal pleasures - not so they could glorify God and do good by relieving the poor and distressed  - but to live in splendor... pamper their lusts...have the means of luxurious and sensual dress and living to employ it in riotous living... and gratify pride and vanity.   

 

The Apostle made it plain and clear to the believers - "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."(James 4:3)

 

In Job 35:12, we find a very interesting statement which says - "There they cry, but none giveth answer..." The problem was not that the people were not praying. It seems as though many people don't mind praying. In fact, they like to pray. But God is not bringing deliverance. Why?

 

In this particular case, the people were experiencing horrible afflictions, calamities, troubles, and sorrow as a result of their oppressors. But the remarkable thing about it all was that they were complaining and bewailing their oppressors, yet they were ignoring God. Their affliction was not driving them closer to Him but away from Him. They were not humbling themselves before Him nor allowing the affliction to bring them to its intended end -  in a right relationship with Him.

 

Job 35:12 continues onward in saying - "There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men." Even in affliction, these people were still filled with great pride. They refused to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. They shared their complaints with other men, but were too proud to acknowledge their desperate need of Him for His sustaining grace and relief in their trial. Theirs was an independent spirit - one that relied on their own resources and refused to admit any dependence on another being. 

 

Although Elihu misdirected this statement toward Job, nonetheless, it applies to evil men - "Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it"(Job 35:13). He does not regard empty cries - vain, hollow, heartless, hypocritical cries - cries uttered in an unhumbled spirit.

 

Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary offers this remark - "One reason God does not answer when people cry out is that they are full of pride and devoid of pure motives."

 

God knows very well the difference between those who are seeking Him for His Name's sake and those who are simply crying out for deliverance from their troubles with no intention of ever serving Him after the relief comes. 

 

"Iniquity, regarded in the heart, will certainly spoil the comfort and success of prayer..."

 

"...All prayer, to be acceptable to God, MUST be connected with a purpose to forsake all sin."  

 

Are your prayers getting through?