HINDRANCES TO PRAYER
"That your prayers be not hindered" (1Pe_3:7)
There is surely something wrong when we sow much in prayer and bring in little reward. That your prayers be not hindered, see that ye-
I. Love the Lord. "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psa_37:4). Is thy heart right with God? It is the nature of love to seek Himself, and to those who love Him hath He promised to manifest Himself. Delight also in His Word if your petitions are to be unfettered in their approach (Joh_15:7).
II. Confess Sin. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psa_66:18). Sin discovered in the heart, and unconfessed before God, remains a barrier to prayer. Such sins hide His face from you that He will not hear (Isa_59:1-2). The Lord looketh upon the heart, there must be no secret controversy there with Him-no traitor in the camp. It is not a question as to what others may think of me. If I regard iniquity there, then I must deal with it if I would prevail with God.
III. Put away Idols. "These men have set up their idols in their heart…should I be inquired of at all by them" (Eze_14:3). An idol is anything that is set up in the forefront of our affections, taking the place of God. Seen or unseen by men, it is erected before His face. It may take the form of Pleasure, Fashion, Friends, Business, Sin, or Self. There is no room in the heart for an idol and the Holy Spirit. The heart must be cleansed if the spirit of prayer is to prevail.
IV. Deny Self. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your pleasures" (Jam_4:3, R.V.). The desire after our own personal pleasure strangles multitudes of prayers. The petitions are right in themselves when we plead for wisdom, power, grace, or the salvation of our friends; but if our motive is our own pleasure, we ask amiss. Has not our Lord said, "If any man would come after Me (in prayer), let him deny himself?" God still hides many things from such "wise and prudent" self-seekers.
V. Be Steadfast. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth..let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord" (Jam_1:6-7). There is no stability about a wave; it is utterly purposeless, being driven about with the wind, a creature of mere circumstances. The prayer of persevering faith storms the fort of blessing. A prayer may be like a wave tossed up against the throne of God, through the force of some tempestuous trial, but this is not a wavering prayer. "All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
VI. Consider One Another. "Likewise, ye husbands…giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered" (1Pe_3:7). What is true of husbands is true also of wives, and, in a great measure, of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and of the whole household of faith. They are "heirs together of the grace of life" (1Pe_3:7). All one in Christ Jesus, and the lack of giving honour one to another, especially the weaker vessels, acts as an hindrance to prayer, because it is a grieving of the Holy Spirit, and a dishonouring of the Father’s love and the Saviour’s redeeming grace. Agreement with one another is a powerful condition of prevailing prayer, so much so that, "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven" (Mat_18:19)
Autor: James Smith