Hindrances to Prayer
How to get into God's inbox . . . but no further
It may surprise you to learn that while God always hears our prayers, He sometimes puts them “on hold” until we get other things right.
Isaiah 58 describes Israel as seeking God daily, delighting to know his ways. Sounds good, right? And yet they still ask, why have we fasted and humbled ourselves, but God takes no notice of it?
God replies: because on the day of your fasting, you spend it on your own pleasure, on fighting and on making humble religious displays.
But what God really desires is, v. 6-7, to free the oppressed and those bound in wicked slaveries; to share our bread with the hungry; to bring the homeless into our houses; and to clothe the naked. In short, to not hide ourselves from others like us. After all, we were once dead in our trespasses and sins, and He had pity on us, and raised us in His Son.
Thus when we come to worship God, and we do so having ignored the plight of our fellow man, God finds this distasteful. But the inverse is also true: when we humbly attend to what HE wants, our light shall break forth, and the glory of the LORD shall follow us. And then, v. 9, when we call, He WILL answer and say, “Here I am.”
This is why we bring gifts for the poor as part of our church’s Lord’s Day worship. This is why the early Christians went out looking for exposed babies on Sunday. We’re doing the family business - in pity, bringing mercy to those in need, just as our Father did with us.
A second hindrance to prayer comes in 1 Peter 3:7. After telling wives to obey their husbands like Sarah, Peter tells husbands to live with their wife “with knowledge.” The first bit of knowledge is that though she is weaker, especially in position, she is equal in value to the husband. Thus when she obeys she looks like Jesus, who, though he was equal to the Father, took the position of weakness, that we might be saved. We must notice her likeness to Jesus and honor her for it.
This is so important to God that if we don’t, our “prayers will be hindered.” God will put them in His heavenly inbox, until we get this right.
We overcome these hindrances to prayer by repenting of self-absorption, by seeing others through the lens of Christ crucified.