How to Pray #3

This is the last installment of the study. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did. I learned a lot about my lack of focus and laziness in my prayer life. Remember James 4:17, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." I believe that applies here. Once you have learned proper prayer technique and you chose not to follow it, then to you it is sin. When God presents a spiritual or life lesson to you and you chose not to learn or follow in the right both, then you have chosen to sin.

Praying with Thanksgiving

Phil. 4:6,7, "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." The two important words often overlooked are, "WITH THANKSGIVING."

In approaching God to ask for new blessings, you should never forget to return thanks for blessings already granted. If you would stop and think how many of the prayers which you have offered to God have been answered, and how seldom you have gone back to God to return thanks for the answers thus given, I am sure you would be overwhelmed with confusion. You should be just as definite in returning thanks as you are in prayer. You come to God with most specific petitions, but when you return thanks to Him, your thanksgiving is indefinite and general.

Doubtless one reason why so many of your prayers lack power is because you have neglected to return thanks for blessings already received. If any one were to constantly come to you asking for help, and neglect to say "Thank you" for the help you've given, you would soon get tired of helping one so ungrateful.

God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness and ingratitude of which so many who are guilty of it. When Jesus healed the ten lepers and only one came back to give Him thanks, in wonderment and pain He exclaimed,  "Were not the ten cleansed? but where are the nine?" (Luke 17:17)

How often must He look down upon you in sadness at your forgetfulness of His repeated blessings, and His frequent answers to your prayers.

Returning thanks for blessings already received increases your faith and enables you to approach God with new boldness and new assurance. Doubtless the reason so many have so little faith when they pray, is because they take so little time to meditate upon and thank God for blessings already received. As you think about the answers to prayers already granted, faith grows stronger and stronger, and you come to feel in the very depths of your souls that there is nothing too hard for the Lord. As you reflect upon the wondrous goodness of God toward you on the one hand, and upon the other hand give such little thought and time that you put into thanksgiving, you may choose to humble yourself before God and confess your sin.

Thanksgiving is one of the inevitable results of being filled with the Holy Spirit and one who does not learn "in everything to give thanks" cannot continue to pray in the Spirit. If you would learn to pray with power you would do well to let these two words sink deep into our hearts: "WITH THANKSGIVING."

Hindrances to Prayer

As mentioned at the beginning of this study, the first hindrance to pray is not being a child of God. You must be born again to even begin to see God answer any prayers.

The second hindrance to prayer you will find in James 4:3, "Ye ask and receive not BECAUSE YE ASK AMISS, THAT YE MAY SPEND IT IN YOUR PLEASURES."

A selfish purpose in prayer robs prayer of power. Very many prayers are selfish. These may be prayers for things for which it is perfectly proper to ask, for things which it is the will of God to give, but the motive of the prayer is entirely wrong, and so the prayer falls powerless to the ground. The true purpose in prayer is that God may be glorified in the answer. If you ask any petition merely that you may receive something to use in your pleasures or in your own gratification in one way or another, you "ask amiss" and need not expect to receive what you asked. This explains why many prayers remain unanswered.

The next hindrance to prayer you find in Is. 59:1,2: "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."...

Sin hinders prayer. Many a woman prays and prays and prays, and gets absolutely no answer to her prayer. Perhaps she is tempted to think that it is not the will of God to answer, or she may think that the days when God answered prayer, if He ever did, are over. So the Israelites seem to have thought that. They thought that the Lord's hand was shortened, that it could not save, and that His ear had become heavy that it could no longer hear.

"Not so," said Isaiah, "God's ear is just as open to hear as ever, His hand just as mighty to save; but there is a hindrance. That hindrance is your own sins. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you that He will not hear."

Any one who finds her prayers ineffective should not conclude that the thing which she asks of God is not according to His will, but should go alone with God with the Psalmist's prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me" (Ps. 139:23,24), and wait before Him until He puts His finger upon the thing that is displeasing in His sight. Then this sin should be confessed and put away.

Sin is an awful thing, and one of the most awful things about it is the way it hinders prayer, the way it severs the connection between us and the source of all grace and power and blessing. Any one who would have power in prayer must be merciless in dealing with her own sins. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."(Ps. 66:18) So long as you hold on to sin or have any controversy with God, you cannot expect Him to heed your prayers. If there is anything that is constantly coming up in your moments of close communion with God, that is the thing that hinders prayer: put it away.

Another hindrance to prayer is found in Ez. 14:3, "Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?"(R.V.) IDOLS IN THE HEART CAUSE GOD TO REFUSE TO LISTEN TO OUR PRAYERS.

What is an idol? An idol is anything that takes the place of God, anything that is the supreme object of your affection. God alone has the right to the supreme place in your hearts. Everything and everyone else must be subordinate to Him.

Many a woman makes an idol of her children. Not that you can love your children too much. The more dearly you love Christ, the more dearly you love your children; but you can put your children in the wrong place, you can put them before God, and their interests before God's interests. When you do this your children are your idols.

One great question for you to decide, if you would have power in prayer is, Is God absolutely first? Is He before husband, before children, before reputation, before business, before your own lives? If not, prevailing prayer is impossible.

God often calls your attention to the fact that you have an idol, by not answering your prayers, and thus leading you to inquire as to why your prayers are not answered, and so you discover the idol, put it away, and God hears your prayers.

A further hindrance to prayer is found in Prov. 21:13, "WHOSO STOPPETH HIS EARS AT THE CRY OF THE POOR, HE ALSO SHALL CRY HIMSELF, BUT SHALL NOT BE HEARD."

There is perhaps no greater hindrance to prayer than stinginess, the lack of liberality toward the poor and toward God's work. It is the one who gives generously to others who receives generously from God. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6:38) The generous woman is the mighty woman of prayer. The stingy woman is the powerless woman of prayer.

One of the most wonderful statements about prevailing prayer (already referred to) 1 John 3:22, "Whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight," is made in direct connection with generosity toward the needy. In the context you are told that it is when you love, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth, when you open your hearts toward the brother/sister in need, it is then and only then you have confidence toward God in prayer.

Another hindrance to prayer is found in Mark 11:25, "And when ye stand praying, FORGIVE, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

An unforgiving spirit is one of the commonest hindrances to prayer. Prayer is answered on the basis that your sins are forgiven; and God cannot deal with you on the basis of forgiveness while you are harboring ill-will against those who have wronged you. Any one who is nursing a grudge against another has closed the ear of God against her own petition.

Yet another hindrance to prayer is found in 1_Peter 3:7, "Ye husbands, in like manner, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered." (R.V.) Here you are plainly told that A WRONG RELATION BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IS A HINDRANCE TO PRAYER.

It is also without question that the prayers of wives are hindered because of their failure to submit to their husbands and failure to honor them before others. If husbands and wives should seek diligently to find the cause of their unanswered prayers, they would often find it in their relations to one another.  Many a woman who is very devoted to the church, and very faithful in attendance upon all services, yet speaks ill of her husband, does not honor him with her words nor submits to his authority and leadership, should not be surprised if her prayers have no power. 

Lastly a hindrance to prayer is found in James 1:5-7, "But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask IN FAITH, NOTHING DOUBTING: for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

Prayers are hindered by unbelief. God demands that you believe His Word absolutely. To question it is to make Him a liar. Many of you do that when you plead His promises, and is it any wonder that your prayers are not answered? How many prayers are hindered by your unbelief! You go to God and ask Him for something that is positively promised in His Word, and then you do not expect to get it. "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."

Prayer is your intimate time with your Lord and Savior. It's a time to enjoy Him and glean from Him. Time to increase your faith, decrease your sin and maintain a healthy relationship. Do you want your prayers answered? Do you want to see the Lord working in your life and the lives of your family? Then have the faith and seek His face.