Hindered Prayer

Before writing any blog, I usually say a prayer asking God what topic should I write about? I want to be sure that whatever is written is not from my own ambition, and what God wants me to write.  What is very interesting is that I started praying and asking God about a topic about a week ago.  For the entire week, there was nothing.  Not a single topic, idea, or subject popped into my brain.  Yesterday I asked God again, “Lord, what do you want me to write on the Blog webpage?”  There was still silence.  When I woke up this morning (Saturday morning, 10/19/2024), He started talking.  I was still in bed and had to grab a pen and 3 x 5 cards to write down some notes.  By the way, I strongly suggest that you keep a pen and paper on your nightstand because you never know when God will speak.

This topic is probably Part B to a previous blog that was posted titled, “Answers to Prayer”.  The previous blog is about understanding how God answers your prayers.  This blog focuses on things that you are doing or not doing that hinder your prayers.

In 1984, an R&B group called New Edition released a song called “Mr. Telephone Man”. The single reached Number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and was the group’s third Number 1 single.  The funny thing about the song is that the song is about a young boy who tries to call his girlfriend, but every time he calls, she hangs up on him.  The boy is pleading with the telephone repair man asking for help because every time he dials his girlfriend’s number, he hears a click every time.  If you read the entire lyrics of the song, it never explains why she won’t talk to him.  The hit song is only talking about why he can’t get through to talk to her.  The immediate question that anyone would ask is, “What did he do to cause her not to speak to him?”   That is the main theme of this blog.  What is blocking or hindering my prayers to God?

What is prayer? Prayer is you talking to God.  Prayer is not just asking God for stuff.  You are going to the one to request the needs in your life and to listen for direction.  It is a way of staying connected to the one who created you.  You are talking to the creator of everything who knows your thoughts, motives, and intentions. He knows your needs and He wants a relationship with you.

Things that Hinder Prayer:

1. Lack of Belief and Faith

Hebrews 11:6 “It is impossible to please God without faith”.  Whenever you go to Him for prayer, you must have the expectation that He exists, you must have faith in Him and believe that He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek after Him.  God doesn’t like to be treated like a magical Genie in a bottle.  And if you have the attitude thinking that God must do something for you to impress you, you’ve got the wrong idea.  God knows your thoughts and your motives.  If you have the right motive, He not only hears you but is willing to respond.

2. Unconfessed Sin

I’m not talking about all the sins that you have committed before you became a Christian.  I’m referring to the individual sins that are committing during your daily Christian walk in life.  This is the sin in your life that you refuse to acknowledge, nor do you take any responsibility to admit that you’ve done anything wrong.  This is the sin that the Holy Spirit reminds you to get right with the Lord, but you are too busy, or you ignore His prompting because you feel as though you’ve done nothing wrong.  If you ever wonder what grieving the Holy Spirit is, well here is a good example.  Refusal to acknowledge sin in your life and refusal to repent.   God uses the Holy Spirit to convict and remind you that something is wrong in the dynamic relationship you have with Him.  Conviction is not condemnation.  Conviction is the Holy Spirit telling you that you don’t have something right, and you need to fix it to re-establish God’s flow into your life.

The way to fix it is simple: Confess it, ask God for forgiveness, and He will forgive you.  (1 John 1:9). Don’t say, “Lord, if you think I did something wrong, then ok.”  No.  You need to say, “Lord, I am wrong, and I was blinded by the enemy to make me think that I was right.”  Now that is making it right.

3. Unforgiveness (Not forgiving others)

I wrote about this in another blog, so I won’t repeat a lot of the details.  But unforgiveness is very, very serious.  If you have a grudge against another person and you feel as though they owe you an apology, you have the wrong attitude that God doesn’t like at all.   Forgiving someone else isn’t about what is fair, nor is it about having the emotions to say “Ok, I forgive you.”  Forgiving a person is about releasing your right to hold the other person in bondage or accountable for doing something wrong to you.  Jesus warns us twice about unforgiveness.

Matthew 6:14, 15 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

4. Husband Not Honoring Your Wife

Men easily overlook this because they look at women with different brain cells.  Men forget that a woman has needs that are different and since they are different, it is not given any attention or priority.  Because not every woman is the same, men should take the time to learn their wives.  I will never say that you will learn 100% how a woman thinks.  But you need to make the effort to try by listening and doing the right things as God leads.  Women want to be loved, led, honored, and secure. If God gave you a wife, then He knows how to guide you in giving her the things that she needs to grow.

1 Peter 3:7 (NLT) “In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so YOUR prayers will not be hindered.”

5. Judging Others

Jesus warns about doing this because you are basically acting the same way as the Jewish Pharisees did thinking they were better than others.  They felt since they knew the scriptures and followed the law that they were better than others, holier than others, and closer to God.  When you judge others, you are not thinking about helping them.  Judging others is about you promoting yourself.  You are using other’s shortcomings to make yourself look better.

Matthew 7:1 (NLT) “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.”

Jesus spent time talking about prayer in the book of Matthew chapter 6.  Jesus clearly said when you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on the street corners and in the synagogues (church) where everyone can see them.  When you look up the definition of a hypocrite, it comes from a Greek word (hypokritēs) which means an actor, stage player, or pretender.  A person who is a hypocrite is not authentic.  A hypocrite is a person seeking after self-attention and self-promotion to puff up their ego.  They want others to look at them saying “Ooo, Ahhh, look at how they use elegant words while they are in praying…”.  Trust me, God isn’t impressed.  In fact, Jesus says in the scripture of Matthew 6:5 “…I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.”

Jesus said four things when you pray:

1. Get to yourself – get alone
2. Shut the door behind you
3. Pray to the Father.
4. Don’t Babble – Constantly repeating yourself.

Keep in mind the four things that Jesus said is about personal prayer.  This is different when someone is asking you to pray for them.  When you pray according to what Jesus said, our Father who sees everything, will reward you.  Prayer is personal communication with God the Father. There are many times when Jesus went to the mountains to pray, and he spent days away from His disciples.  If Jesus humbled himself to operate as a Man on this earth, and He needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray?  And if we need to pray, shouldn’t we make sure the communication pipeline is unclogged and open?

If you address the things that hinder your prayers, you will see changes in your life.

Be tremendously blessed!

Ron

Ron Cobbs Ministries © Copyright October 19th, 2024, All Rights Reserved