Although this is a short verse, it is a powerful verse. It can teach us many things about how sin will impact your prayers and your prayer life. I wanted to take a few minutes to break down the verse in small pieces and see what can be learned and applied to our lives. This will be a brief study! I'm going to bullet point key words and phrases and offer some commentary on them.
- If If is a conditional clause. If I do this, then there will be a result. In this case, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord won't hear my prayers. So the opposite is true, if I don't regard iniquity the Lord will hear!
- I This verse is personal, not corporate. It's all about me and I am responsible.
- regard iniquity in my heart When we regard iniquity in our hearts, it means we know that we are sinning but we are doing nothing about it. For example, if I get angry at someone and treat them badly and do not apologize but instead continue to knowingly treat them badly, I am regarding iniquity in my life. It is a state of living in known sin without addressing it by confessing and repenting of it. (See 1 John 1:9; Revelation 3:19)
- Lord All sin is an offense against the Lord. This is God, the Creator of the universe.
- will not hear me Note that the verse doesn't say, "cannot hear me." It says the Lord will not hear me. Cannot indicates ability while will not indicates choice! Yes, when I am living in unrepented of sin, God hears my prayers but chooses not to respond to them. Will any parent reward a misbehaving child? Of course not! Our Heavenly Father will not respond to our prayers while we continue in known misbehavior and sin.
Sin will have a negative impact on your prayer life. When we are aware of sin in our life we need to repent of it and confess it. That will restore our fellowship with the Lord and restore our prayer life with Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment