WHY PRAYER IS HINDERED, pt 2.
Yesterday I began a five-part blog series as to why prayer is hindered. I commenced with the “bottom line”- Wrong actions and attitudes will always cancel our prayers. And it’s in recognizing our wrong action and indifferent attitudes that will determine the breakthroughs we’re looking for.
Here we go… Part 2.
2. Pride and Strife
1 Pet. 3:8, “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.”
- Agreement is the key word to answered prayer. Friction, fighting, strife and pride grieve the Holy Spirit and keep Him from moving in your situation.
- Matthew 5:23–24 says, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (NASB).
- Jesus said “that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father” (Matt. 18:19 NASB).
- The word “agree” means to “form a symphony,” like playing the same song but with different instruments and timing.
- The solution is to reach out to the person who has a grievance against you and do your best to be reconciled. It is then when our prayers qualify themselves to be heard!
- The Holy Spirit was not poured out in the church until they were in one accord. Act 2:1, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”
- One of the most important scriptures in the New Testament pertaining to churches and families… James 3:16 – For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
- When we are in dis- agreement our prayers make no sense! They become unnecessary noise. When there is strife, envy and selfish ambition, we give dominion and authority to Satan. And our prayers are hindered.
- At this point, the only prayer that God will give attention to is the prayer of forgiveness and repentance. Mark 11:25 “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
Anxious to read your thoughts,
Pastor Manny
Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. He endured so many horrible insults and injuries from the hand of man and yet, still forgave and continues to pray on our behalf. Sometimes we hold grudges and unforgiveness towards each other for the smallest things, most of the time just simple misunderstandings. We all need to take Jesus’ example and kill our pride, kill our egos, and forgive each other so we may walk in strength and unity.
We must remember always that we are not perfect and still God loves us and forgives us of our sins. Who are we not to the same for our brothers and sisters. Good lessons to learn, thanks Pastor.
We need to keep on going and leave everything at the cross and don’t have anything against anybody. if we don’t want our prayers not to fail we need to stay focus.
Love is the greatest gift. Although, we may have disagreements sometimes we have to learn how to kill our flesh and unforgiveness. When Jesus was asked about forgiveness. Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:22.
Pride hinders anything from being united and that is something that I fight daily. When I keep it at bay, it is easy for me to agree with others but when it is strong the last thing I do is agree with anyone. With the absence of pride in my life, prayer becomes so much easier and that is what I am striving for daily.
Forgiveness comes from the verb forget, and a lot of times we don’t want to forget what happen, or what someone did to us. And that breaks union and creates division in a friendship and agreement.