Here’s one for husbands. 1 Peter 3:7:
“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as
you live with your wives, and treat them with respect . . . so that nothing
will hinder your prayers.”
The degree to which we treat others
with consideration and respect, particularly regarding a husband’s treatment of
his wife in this verse, is the degree to which our prayers are unhindered.
And here are three that scare me:
Proverbs 21:13: “If a man shuts
his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”James 4:17: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
Romans 14:23: “. . . everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
Yikes! The first verse tells me that God does not
listen to us if we ignore those in need.
And the second two broaden the definition of sin. Sin is not just doing things that we know we
shouldn’t do; it’s also sin to not do what we know we should do and to do
anything that doesn’t come from faith.
And sin hinders prayer.
This really opens up a whole new
side of our responsibility, of what God expects from those of us who call
ourselves Christians. Do we ignore needs
that we see? Do we turn a blind eye at
injustice? Do we fail to treat others
kindly? Do we fail to do the good that
we know we should do? This is sin!
Do we decide things based on what
our faith tells us to do or do we just do what we think is best? What, in our lives, are we doing that is a
result of faithlessness? Do we hoard
money because we don’t have faith in God to provide? Do we seek our own ways out of trials because
we don’t have faith in God to help us through?
Do we look to satisfy our desires outside of the boundaries God has
given because we don’t trust that God’s way is best? Do we fail to obey because we are afraid of
what obedience will cost us? This is
sin, too!
We can open up to just about any
passage in the Bible and find something we should be convicted about, something
that will lead us toward a deeper relationship with Him and a better idea of
how to live righteously, which leads us toward more “powerful and effective”
prayers. But how many of us take the
time to do that? How many of us read the
Bible with the intention of seeking to live more righteously? Or have we become comfortable in our own little
world, behind our walls of fear, self-sufficiency, self-centeredness, and
sin?
1 John 3:21-23: “Dear friends, if
our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from
Him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”
Notice that it’s not just an
inactive, passive command to avoid doing anything that doesn’t please Him. It’s an active command that instructs us to
live our lives doing the things that please Him. But we shouldn’t look at obedience as a way
to manipulate Him to get what we want or as something that we have to do out of duty or irrational
fear or to earn His love. The desire to
obey is the natural response of a heart that properly fears God and that is so
full of His love and of love for Him that you want nothing less than to do His
Will and bring Him glory.
Now, let’s look again at John 15:7: “. . . ask whatever
you wish, and it will be given you.” If we ended with that verse, it would sound
like a blank check. But most of us don’t
realize there is a beginning to that verse, “If you
remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
given you.”
As it talks about only a couple
verses before, we need to abide in Him as a branch abides in the vine, and this
will lead to fruitfulness. But not the
fruit that we decide to grow; fruit that the vine wants to grow through
us. We need to be remaining in Him and
storing up His words in our hearts.
Really understanding the Word of God and the character of God (as seen
in the Word) will help us understand which prayer requests are in line with His
Will and which are not. But we have to
remember to never leave off the first part of that verse. It is what the rest of the verse hinges
on. And abiding in Him and His Word is a
lot of responsibility. And if we go on to the next verse, we find out what kind of prayers God is talking about. Is it really “whatever you wish”?
Verse 8: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” God grants the prayers that are centered on bearing fruit for the Father’s glory, that show others that we are His disciples. And this comes as a result of remaining in Him, which means way more than just reading our Bibles, going to church, and praying every now and then for what we want. Remaining in Him, as a tree branch remains connected to the trunk, means being vitally connected to Him. It means absorbing and living in His Word, love, power, grace, etc., and it means desiring what He desires. It is not a casual thing, and it is not about just getting our wants and desires fulfilled!
When I consider all these verses
together, I can see that it doesn’t mean that He will always grant anything
that I ask. Am I abiding in Him
daily? Or am I just running to my
Vending Machine God to ask for what I want or think I need? Do I have my plans, pleasure, and glory in
mind, or God’s? (And here’s a scary
question: Does my life currently show obedience and reflect His
glory and His love and His Word? How
about in my home, in how I treat others, in how I speak and think, when I am in
a crowd, when I am alone, etc.?)
