How can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

How can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

Is God hearing your prayers? You say you are a believer, that you have been saved and born again. Still, your prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling and return like echoes from a cave. The Psalmist said if we allow sin to continue in our heart without repenting, or turning away from it, we will not be heard, Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me….” On the other hand, he also assures us that when we turn away from sin God comes near and listens once again, (v.19) but verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.” If God has made no change in us, if we have not repented of sin, then how can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

I am often mystified by who would dare calls themselves Christian. Christian means Christ like. In 2Corinthians 5:17 the Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” And then in 2Corinthians 13:5 he recommends a serious self-examine, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Where is the change, the repentance, the turning away from sin? Look into your own heart, “examine yourselves” by a comparison with Biblical teaching. Are you attending church? Are you studying the Word? Are you living as an example to the lost?  That last one especially, “living as an example.” This includes the person you live with now; wife, husband, roommate or adulterous companion. Would that person continue living with you if you tried to win them to Christ? Or, are you silent in order to keep peace and not lose that relationship? Are you content to let that person spend eternity in hell so that you can continue to live peacefully? In every area of life, we are to be an example of the believer, never surrendering godliness for the sake of harmony. Without living a godly testimony, how can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

How is it that those calling themselves Christian continue to live in open opposition to the God of this universe with no fear of God? Is it some sort of dare? Is there a mental image of them shaking a fist in the face of God declaring He cannot judge them, because 30 years ago they recited some sort of prayer? II Corinthians 6:14-18 lays out a very clear mandate to remain separate from those who are not saved. We cannot work side by side with the lost in this life. We are not headed the same direction. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (v.15) and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (v.16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (v.17) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (v.18) and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” For many today, our best friends, those we spend our quality time with, our “love interest” (a term used lightly here) or even the person we are shacking-up with, are all lost. They are destined for an eternity in hell and we say nothing. We are afraid of destroying these relationships. Yet, these people would leave us today if we truly began to live for Christ. They only stay because we compromise. They are not willing to serve two masters either. They will not serve Satan and Jesus, Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Yes, I said they serve Satan. Jesus said to religious Jewish rulers of his day, John 8:43-44 “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. (v.44) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Is it any wonder God’s ear is turned away from our prayer? We pretend to be Christian while serving Satan with our silence against, and compliance with, the sin of this world. We live every day knowingly sinning against God. We do not separate from sin as commanded by God’s Word. We choose to disobey. Then, we dare to bow at His Throne with our requests. How can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

Imagine standing at the Great White Throne Judgment seeing that special person you claim to care so much about. As that person approaches (assuming you are saved) will he cry out in horror, his eyes fixed squarely upon yours, “WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME? You said you loved me. You didn’t warn me! Instead, you lived just like I did, in the same sin.” Will your response be, “I didn’t want to cause anyone any discomfort? I didn’t want to rock-the-boat.” If we allow those we “love” to face the terrors of an eternal hell, how can we ever expect God to answer our prayers?

Is the problem one of being so backslidden we don’t witness or live godly lives because we have lost our zeal? Or, is it that we have lived a lie? You said a prayer many years ago but your heart was never changed, you never actually repented and turned away from sin because you never saw sin the way God does. You never saw sin through divine eyes. You never understood that God MUST judge sin, even in you. With so many false professions of faith, how can we ever expect God to answer prayer?

God does not take sin as lightly as so many of us do. He will judge sin in us with eternal damnation. Or, if we receive Christ as Savior, God will judge our sin in His own Son (1Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed). But, when we ask him to bare our sin for us, there should be evidence in our lives of that salvation. As in I Peter 2:24 above, we are expected to “live unto righteousness.”  We must stop living in sin. And start living for Christ. Then, we can humbly expect God to answer our prayers.