God s Word on Prayer When Do My Prayers Hit The Ceiling

Transcription

1 God s Word on Prayer When Do My Prayers Hit The Ceiling Three preachers sat discussing the best positions for prayer, while a telephone repairman worked nearby. Kneeling is definitely best, claimed one. No, another contended. I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven. You re both wrong, the third insisted. The most effective prayer position is lying prostrate, face down on the floor. The repairman could contain himself no longer. Hey, fellas, he interrupted, the best prayin I ever did was hangin upside down from a telephone pole. We have been talking a lot about prayer and seeing what God s Word has to say about. Didn t really see anything in God s Word about the best position to pray in, but I bet hanging from a telephone pole upside down would be a passionate prayer! (ha ha) Now we have spent a couple of weeks looking at powerful prayer, then last week we took a look at when the answer isn t what you wanted to hear. When we look at God s Word we learned that we are not alone, there were some pretty godly men who didn t always get the answer they wanted when they prayed. Sometimes God even says no to the godly. We talked about Paul s thorn in the flesh that he prayed for God to take away. Paul prayed for it to be taken away not once, but three times we are told. But God s answer was no. But we also learned that God often times works through what we want taken away. Paul seemed to make it clear in the Scriptures that this thorn in the flesh that God wouldn t take away was used to keep him humble. Paul had seen a tremendous vision, he had a reason to feel proud, but this thorn in the flesh certainly kept him grounded. But not only that, but through Paul s weakness God strength shone through. People were able to see Paul do great things despite his thorn in the flesh. People could see God working through Paul and it brought glory to God. That is what it s all about, bringing glory to God. But we also need to remember that when God says no He gives us the power to cope when He says no. God didn t tell Paul he had to just deal with it, no, he gave Paul the strength to deal with this thorn in the flesh. Paul knew that, we of course know that Paul said, I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Now there is a difference between not liking the answer that God gives you and not feeling like God is even hearing your prayers. I think almost everyone has felt like at one time or another that their prayers were just hitting the ceiling, like they weren t even descending all the way to God. The scriptures are very clear that there are some things that can really hinder our prayer life. You have heard

2 of call block, well there are some things that can cause prayer block. I am not using a main text this morning, but we will look at what is said in different places in God s Word about this very subject. Now this first thing that we will look at that can cause a serious prayer block in our life is something that is not really a surprise. Let s take a look at Isaiah 59:1,2. It says, Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Your iniquity is the same as saying your sin. Plain and simple when we harbor sin in our life it separates us from fellowship with God. Here in Isaiah His people were full of sinful hearts and sinful ways. Yet they wondered why it seemed like their prayers were bouncing off the ceiling. Their hearts were far from right. When you re harboring sin in your life you can t expect that God is hanging on to every word of your prayers. So when do my prayers hit the ceiling? When I am being sinful. Isaiah isn t the only one who tells us that sin blocks God from listening to our prayers. Listen to what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 66:18. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Plain and simple, if you are holding on to a sin in your life don t expect an effective prayer life. But if you are allowing sin to remain in your life I can t imagine that you have a powerful prayer life anyway. When the Holy Spirit reveals an area of sin in our life then we have to seek His forgiveness and His help in dealing with that area. Sometimes people have that one area of disobedience and they justify it by saying besides this one area of my life I m doing pretty well. So they don t really deal with it, instead they look around at others and compare themselves to them. Compared to them I m doing really well. But we can t hold on to any form of disobedience in our life. When we go to God in prayer, our disobedience is not hidden from Him. In his book Why Prayers are Unanswered, John Lavender retells a story about Norman Vincent Peale. When Peale was a boy, he found a big, black cigar, slipped into an alley, and lit up. It didn't taste good, but it made him feel very grown up... until he saw his father coming. Quickly he put the cigar behind his back and tried to be casual. Desperate to divert his father's attention, Norman pointed to a billboard advertising the circus. "Can I go, Dad? Please, let's go when it comes to town." His father's reply taught Norman a lesson he never forgot. "Son, he answered quietly but firmly, "never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smoldering disobedience."

3 When you are praying and taking your petitions to God, don t try to hide your disobedience. He knows what is in your heart and He knows when you are holding on to sin. Don t expect Him to grant you the desires of your heart because your heart is not what it needs to be. As His child when we have something in our life that shouldn t be there we should feel broken because we know that it affects our fellowship with God. Failure to deal with it plain and simple is having a prayer life that never makes it past the ceiling. Let s go back to God s Word and look at another reason our prayers may be hitting the ceiling. James 4:3 says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Asking with wrong motives and spending what you get on your pleasures indicates selfishness. So when do my prayers hit the ceiling? When I am being selfish. When my prayers are all about benefiting myself instead of God then they can be viewed as selfish. When I am praying for more money is it because I want to give more to others, or so I can do more for the kingdom of God or is it because I can buy the size house I have always wanted to buy? Am I praying for more money so I can get that gadget that I have been wanting for some time? We talked about Jesus prayer when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus was praying about the road ahead, the cross, If it is at all possible let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours be done. Jesus prayer life was dedicated to seeing His Father s will be done. If you remember, a couple of weeks ago we talked about where in I John it tells us, This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. When we are concerned with God s will and not our own God is all ears when we pray. When we are praying earnestly for others and their needs, God knows our hearts and I believe He is listening. But when our prayers are for our own self-gratification, God sees and knows your heart. Let s go back to God s Word once again. I Peter 3:7 brings up a really interesting point about what can hinder our prayers, other words, what can make them bounce off the ceiling. It reads, Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. How we treat our spouses can affect our prayer life! How about that! We talked about this a few years ago didn t we men. We are supposed to treat our wives with love and respect. Matter of fact, Ephesians 5:25 puts it this way: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Other words, not only are you to treat her with respect but you are

4 supposed to love her like Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church? He died for it. He gave up everything for it. He loved with a sacrificial love. We are called to love our wives with a sacrificial love. If we fail to value our wives like we should, if we fail to treat our wives with the proper love and respect they deserve don t be surprised if your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. A real man of God knows how to love and value His wife. He doesn t disrespect her. Now wives I believe that you have a responsibility to treat your husband with love and respect as well. If you treat your husband with disrespect don t be surprised if it has an effect on your prayer life as well. I have said so many times it is impossible to be in wrong in our relationships with others and be right in our relationship with God. If you are a person who values relationships and treat others with value, that is a value of God. But if you are someone who treat others wrong and have broken relationships because of your actions I believe it is going to affect your prayer life. I believe our relationships are important to God. That is why in Matthew 5:23,24 we are told, Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. So what is God saying, Before you come and honor me with your gift, you go and make that relationship right. How we treat others and our relationships with not only our spouses is important to God. If we treat others with contempt or we do not value them then don t expect God to be all ears when you are praying. How you treat people can definitely have an effect on your prayer life. Being in right relationship is so important that He tells us in His word that in order to receive His forgiveness we have to forgive others. I guarantee you that you won t find a real prayer warrior who has broken relationships everywhere nor will they be a person who treats their spouse with disrespect. They will be a person who values and loves others and how they live their life will show that. I know that is true because people who have a powerful prayer life are people who share God s heart. My prayers will hit the ceiling when I am being a slob. I m not sure slob is really the right word. But a slob is someone who is lazy and just doesn t care, they are crude. There are people who are slobs in their relationships. They don t care enough to work on them. They just let things go and their relationships are messy and unkept. Your relationships are important to God and they are a reflection of the type of person you are and they can have an effect on your prayer life. Let s turn back to God s Word one more time to take a look at when we might hit a prayer block. James 1:5-7 says, If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask

5 God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. When you pray without having any real faith it will clog your prayer line. James is very clear in what he says here. If you are praying with doubt, if you are praying and not really believing don t think that you are going to get anything from the Lord. When I am being skeptical my prayers will hit the ceiling. Skeptical prayers are not something that grabs the Lord s attention. When we were talking about powerful prayers we talked about having enough faith to ask. We talked about in Mark chapter 11 where Jesus talked about if a man has enough faith he can tell this mountain to go throw yourself into the sea, and it will happen He said, if he believes it and does not doubt in his heart. Now once again, if it is a selfish prayer all about benefiting you that prayer will turn God off. But when you are praying with the right motive and you are praying with real faith then those prayers grab the attention of God. We are reminded in Hebrews 11:6 about just how important faith really is. It says, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Without faith we cannot please God. Without faith being a real part of our prayers we will not please the Lord. Yet there have been times where we go to God for intervention in our lives when in our minds we think that there really is no hope. We are just throwing a last hail Mary hoping that it might somehow change something. I think I told this story once on a Sunday night, but a tale is told about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly thereafter lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not." If our prayer life is going to have results, if we don t want our prayers bouncing off the ceiling then we have to pray without doubt. We have to pray with real faith for our prayers to be effective and powerful.

6 Maybe this morning you have been struggling, wondering why it feels like your prayers aren t making it any further than the roof. These are some things that God s Word tells us can cause that problem. Maybe there is some unconfessed sin in your life, something that you are holding on to and not letting go. Maybe you should ask if there is some sin in your life that you aren t aware of and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you. Maybe your prayers are selfish, or maybe the relationship with your spouse or others isn t where it should be. That can really hinder your prayers. Or maybe you have been skeptical in your prayers. God will reveal to you why your prayers haven t been coming through if you ask with a sincere heart. I guarantee you that prayer of yours would make it through. Whatever your need is this morning, our altars are open. It s hard to have an effective life for God if your prayer line with Him is blocked. Let s pray.