40 Days of Prayer - Tuesday, June 18 - Devotion 22 - Good Gifts

Good Gifts

Matthew 7:11 - If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Psalm 34: 8-10 - Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!   Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!
 The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Upon first reading of these Scriptures, it may seem our Father has some Santa Claus attributes where He is willing to give whatever we ask in prayer.  However, the verses say He gives good things and that His children lack no good thing.  Our Father’s view from Heaven allows Him to know what is good.  He knows what gifts will draw His children to Himself and what will bring Him glory, honor, and praise.  His good gifts may be illness or disappointment or a loss of job and they can be finding a job or encouragement or health.  When we pray in accordance with His will, we should feel confident that His deep love for His children and His name will only allow good things to be given.

Those who seek and trust Him have all the things necessary to serve and bring Him glory.  We lack nothing good.  Therefore, if there is something we want and the Lord hasn’t provided it after we have asked with right motives, then that thing must not be good.  Knowing we have what He considers good should result in contentment in our lives.  The Word teaches us to be content in all circumstances.  Without contentment, we become influenced by our desires for things we do not have and James 1 says our desires are what lead us to sin.

Praise Him today for all things He has given regardless of whether they seem good in our own understanding.  Trust Him to know what is good.    

40 Days of Prayer - Monday, June 17 - Devotion 21

Hindrances to Prayer  Part 1
Sunday's Message

It is a fact that, although all Christians pray (for prayer is indeed the believer’s source of all that is good), yet there are many who cannot record in actual experience a definite answer to the plea & cry of their hearts.

 It is important for us to hear, in our focus on prayer in this 40 Days, that there may be, and often are, hindrances to prayer that would cause God to withhold what we ask of Him. To Israel He said, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). And the Psalmist plainly declares, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). Words like these are often forgotten? Do we not, at times carelessly come into the God’s presence making requests of Him, only to get no answer from heaven because we have been careless and self-absorbed instead of absorbed by Him?

Let me explain why these hindrances keep us from getting our prayers answered.

1^st remember why we pray. For God’s Glory and for His will to be done. This is why we must ask in faith, this is why prayer changes us and when our concern is for His glory and His will He so aligns us and we receive what we ask of Him.  That’s the first thing we must remember. That was the challenge for us the last two weeks.

 2^nd We must remember that God said in Romans 8:28, that we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  Now, our definition of good and God’s definition of good may be different. As Jesus said, No one enters the Kingdom of Heaven unless he changes and becomes like a little child. We must so humble ourselves before him and depend upon Him for all goodness to happen in our lives and that He will so treat us in a way that is good for He alone is good. 

 3^rd Jesus said in Luke 11:9-13,  9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 So often we may think we are asking for a fish or an egg but what if the very thing we are asking for is really a serpent or a scorpion, something dangerous to us. Would we as parents give such a thing to our children if we knew it would do more harm than good? So who do you trust, yourself or your God?

 This is why Hindrances keep God from giving us what we ask. I say this so that we may truly understand the love of God in not answering our prayers when there are hindrances in our lives. Why?, we are asking amiss. We are asking with cherished sin in our heart. We are asking with the wrong motives that we may spend what we get on our own pleasure. We are asking with a heart that is not right before God and if He gives us what we ask it may do more harm to us than good. So remember the Love God has for us in not answering because of hindrances in our lives.

 Hindrances

1.     Cherished sin – Psalm 66:18-20
18 If I had cherished (regard, seen, perceived, gazed upon)  iniquity (Sin) in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 19 But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!

 Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

See also Ezekiel 14:1-11

 

2.     Not listening to God’s word - Proverbs 28:9 If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

 1 John 3:20-22 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

 John 15:7 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

 If we are not willing to listen to God, why should God listen to us.

Without submitting ourselves to Scripture, we may not even know what and how to pray. We pray best and most effectively when we are saturated in the Word of God.

 3.     Wrong Motives - James 4:1-10 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

 This word wrongly here in the Greek means sickly or diseased.  It’s as though James is saying you are diseased with earthly passions and pleasures and desires instead of for God’s pleasures and desires. You pleasure is to feed the flesh and not the spirit. It is a self-seeking asking. Matthew 6:33 says to seek His kingdom first

4.     Doubt – James 1:6-7

Now you won’t catch this next one in the ESV but it ever so clear in the Greek.

1 Timothy 2:8 (ESV) 8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling

1 Timothy 2:8 (KJV) 8 I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. (NIV) - disputing

The Greek word that is translated here as quarreling in ESV and doubting in KJV is the word dialogismos and it means the thinking of a man deliberating with himself,  a thought, inward reasoning,  a deliberating, questioning about what is true,  hesitation, doubting, disputing, arguing

 

Spend time today in prayer asking God to search your heart and reveal hindrances to your prayers.

40 Days Of Prayer - Saturday, June 15 - Scripture Reading

Hindrances to Prayer

Psalm 66:18
¹⁸ If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

2 Chronicles 7:13-15
¹³ When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, ¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

James 4:3:10
³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴ You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Matthew 6:5-6
⁵ “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

James 1:5-8
⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

1 Peter 3:7
⁷ Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Psalm 34:12-16 & 1 Peter 3:10-12
¹² What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁵ The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

 

40 Days of Prayer - Friday, June 14 - Devotion 20 - Hindrances to Prayer

Hindrances to Prayer

"That your prayers be not hindered" (1 Peter 3:7).

The greatest hindrance to the life of prayer is sin. "The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." God would rather let Israel be defeated at Ai and go into captivity to Babylon, notwithstanding the prayers of Joshua in the one case, or even Noah, Daniel and Job, if they could have interceded, in the other, so long as the answering of these prayers would have countenanced the sin of His people. Yes, even that beautiful and consecrated temple must be consumed to ashes and the very name of Jehovah dishonored by His enemies, rather than sin in the slightest degree be sanctioned by a holy God.

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Even the cherished purpose of sin will thus hinder our prayers. The Apostle John most clearly adds his testimony to this heart-searching truth when he tells us that, "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight."
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God can hear the prayers of sinners, or else none of us could have access to the throne of grace, but this is a different matter from expecting Him to answer our prayers while we are deliberately committing sin without an honest purpose to abstain from it. This is the coolest insolence and presumption in the face of heaven. The sin may be confessed and put away, and the Lord will freely bless; but while we stand with evil conscience and wrong intent and expect God to countenance our disobedience and presumption, we can only accept the awful message which He gave to the leaders of Israel in the fourteenth chapter of Ezekiel; "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols. . . . For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the Lord will answer him by myself: and I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

This will frequently be found to be the cause of long unanswered prayers and the failure of God's people to enter into the fullness of the blessing they are seeking. God is searching their hearts and bringing to their remembrance long-forgotten sins with which He wants them to deal thoroughly.

By A.B. Simpson (C&MA Founder)

Spend some time today in prayer asking the Lord to search your heart to reveal any hindrance to your prayer. Scripture promises us in 1 John 1:8-9, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

40 Days of Prayer - Thursday, June 13 - Devotion 19 - He Sees

He Sees

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6 ESV).

What a privilege it is to have such a promise from our Lord.  If we seek Him privately, He promises to meet with us personally and to see us, to focus His attention on us.  We were created for fellowship with our Lord and our hearts long for His attention and nearness, but sin distracts and destroys that connection and the ability to abide in Him.  Abiding in Him, fellowship with Him is meant to be an all day, every day condition, but we easily lose focus and return to following our own wisdom, our own desires, our sin nature.  Meeting with the Lord in secret provides childlike assurance that He is with us and He cares for us.  By focusing our eyes on Him and Him on us in the secret, living in that assurance all day long becomes possible.

Our secret time with the Lord may become filled with a list of to-do’s like reading a devotion or studying Scripture which are good things, but our fellowship, our relationship with Him must come first, must be our foundation.  Secret prayer shouldn’t just be about asking for comfort, or things, or strength; but a giving away of our lives into the sure and safe keeping of our Faithful Father.  When the secret fellowship is secured and maintained, then the reward of strength and wisdom to live an obedient public life of following Him is provided.