Hearty Iniquity Impedes Prayer

Focus: Psalms 66:18-19 - KJV

18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: 19. But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

James 4:1-5

Sin emanates from the heart. And when the heart conceives sin, it grows into lust and if care is not taken, it becomes actualized in action. Many assume, albeit wrongly that until lusts are consummated in action, they do not amount to sin. Yet, the Lord looks to the heart and not the action itself. And because the body of man is the temple of the Holy Spirit, once the thought goes into the heart of the man, the Spirit is affected by it. Hence, the Lord says adultery is already committed once we look at the opposite sex lustfully. By reason of that, whatever prayer the one whose heart is found with iniquity prays, does not ascend to the Lord and therefore unheard by God.

Many approach the place of prayer thinking about sin. Some do not even identify their thoughts as sinful and therefore keeps at it in their asking. For instance, God says thou shall not kill; yet some will pray that God should kill for them those He seeks to preserve. They ask amiss as they seek to consume the benefit of their prayers on their lust. Jesus Christ being the Son of God, whilst He was yet man, had a lust – that the cup of sin and death be made to pass over Him against the will and purpose of the father for which He came to earth. Of course, the Lord did not hear Him since it was a prayer prayed amiss.

Today, the Lord is pointing our focus to the fact that His hands are not short that He cannot rescue nor His ears heavy that He cannot hear but that when iniquity is found in our hearts, our asking are considered to be against His purpose and therefore will not be heard. If, however, we purge our hearts of the iniquity that blocks our prayers from being heard, then will the Lord respond swiftly to our legitimate requests and we will be better children of the Most High God.

Please pray:

Thank you, Lord for being a prayer answering and compassionate father. Please help us to keep our hearts pure and free from all iniquity and evil thoughts so that we may find audience with you, always, in the place of prayer. From this day, let our prayers be heard unhindered in Jesus’ name. Every prayer that had been hindered in the past, please hear them now and answer in Jesus’ name. This very day, let there be an avalanche of answers to our pending requests in Jesus’ name.

Please share with others. God bless you.